Planning a surf holiday? Here is how to pack properly
Surf trip – it is amazing what those two words do to us. It is the moment we work and dream for all year. We choose the destination and already imagine the waves we will surf and what we will eat for breakfast after the session. But on every surf trip, everything comes down to the gear. Our dreams of endless, perfect 1.5–2 meter walls do come true, but a successful trip means being ready for every possible condition. Trip after trip we learn the best formula: arriving with all the gear we paid good money for, packed in a way that is minimal and easy to carry.
The most important item is of course the board bag that carries your boards safely to the destination in one piece. Experienced surfers have probably replaced a bag or two over the years and know what suits them. Here are some useful tips for everyone who has not yet been through packing for a surf trip – on buying your first board bag and packing your boards.
How to choose the right board bag
There are countless bags on the market, from the lightest bag for a short ride to your home break to a large, tough bag for carrying your whole quiver around the world. Board bags fall into 3 main categories:
- Day bags – light bags, usually for 1–2 boards, for short trips. Usually not suitable for flights.
- Compact bags – travel-proof bags with a compact design that follows the outline of the boards, usually for 2–4 boards.
- Coffin bags – wider, bulkier bags (named for their resemblance to a coffin) for 4+ boards. Large bags come with wheels for the airport and the taxi to the hotel.
From our long experience of surf trips around the world, for the average surfer with 2–3 boards, a compact bag gives the best balance between protecting expensive gear and traveling with minimum hassle.
A quality bag is bought maybe once a decade, so we recommend looking ahead to the next trip, when you may take 3+ boards, and buying a bag that holds 3–4 boards. That way you can also come home with an extra board – that bargain you could not say no to.
What to look for when buying a bag
- Internal straps to hold the boards in place – so even your 5’5″ does not dance around inside the bag.
- External compression straps – if you take your 4-board bag on a short trip with only 2 boards, it is important to compress it as much as possible and reduce empty space.
- Dividers – extra protection between boards, preventing rubbing and absorbing pressure if heavy weight is loaded on the bag.
- With or without wheels – we all dream of feeling like pros, rolling a big coffin through the airport. But wheels add weight to a bag we end up carrying on our shoulder most of the time. We recommend wheels only for surfers flying with 5+ boards; up to 4 boards you can carry the bag on your shoulder, so skip the extra weight.
You have a bag – how to pack the boards
Surfers around the world sit on a wide spectrum when it comes to packing boards. At the extremes are the over-packers (two days of packing and a whole roll of bubble wrap per board) and the carefree (nothing but a few towels and boardshorts thrown between the boards). We believe the ideal is usually in the middle: give every board the respect it deserves with correct, efficient packing, without overdoing it.
Before wrapping, remove the fins and leash. If you are flying from summer to a cold-water destination (or the other way round), it is a good chance to strip the old, dirty wax.
Wrap the boards in bubble wrap – two layers is enough (we said do not overdo it). For maximum protection, tape the wrap tight so the boards do not move inside loose wrapping. Fold and tape the loose ends around the nose and tail to protect these sensitive areas and cut excess plastic.
More and more surfers buy rolls of foam to wrap around their rails. Although that is slightly beyond the middle of the spectrum, we fully support it – intact rails are worth it. You can wrap the rails in foam under or over the bubble wrap.
Useful tip
When wrapping, think about how you will get the boards out of the wrap at your destination and reuse the same wrap for the flight home and future trips – there is no need to fill the world with more plastic. We recommend cutting the wrap along the length of the board with scissors to create an opening you can slide the board in and out of on every trip, then closing it with tape.
Once each board is wrapped, stack them in the bag by size, with the biggest at the bottom and the rest on top in descending order. Fill the gaps between noses and tails with leftover bubble wrap, towels or clothes. Because boards are curved, there will be a gap above the top board; a folded towel between nose and tail helps fill it and protects the boards if the bag is put down upside down.
Once all the boards are in, tighten the internal straps around them, close the bag (if you calculated the total volume right and it closes) and compress it with the external straps.
At the airport, when checking in your gear, ask the ground staff for “fragile” stickers and make sure all the bag’s loose straps are removed or tightly secured – you do not want a strap to get caught in the baggage system and tear your new bag.
Packing boards for surf trips can be fun if you do it in an organized, efficient way, and after a trip or two you will know your gear and perfect your system. We hope you found these tips useful – we would love to hear your feedback and tips from your own experience. Write to us.
