A surfboard bag can be as simple as a cloth covering to protect the delicate finish of a board, or as complicated and high-tech as the feature-laden, super-reinforced multibag “coffins” pro surfers take their steeds in when they travel. The first kind of surfboard bag we’ve mentioned is often referred to as a “sock”, or a shortboard sock – you’re unlikely to find these surfboard bags much bigger than six and a half feet. The purpose of the sock style of surfboard bag is purely to prevent gouges, scratches and minor cracks occurring as a result of throwing a shortboard in and out of a car, or storing it with other boards stacked on top: a sock-type surfboard bag will not protect its occupant against heavy impact (such as you might find in the cargo hold of a ‘plane) or crushing forces. The shortboard sock surfboard bag will stop the delicate laminate on the deck and underside of the board getting scratched by fins and lateral motion: it also acts as a guard against sun damage.
Next up from the sock style surfboard bag is the “dayrunner”. A dayrunner surfboard bag, as its name implies, is designed for day trips – a surfboard bag, in other words, that you use to protect your board against the vicissitudes of regular daily use. The dayrunner surfboard bag lets you lob your stick in and out of the boots of cars with reasonable impunity: a dayrunner surfboard bag is usually built of toughened canvas with an insulated layer that absorbs most normal shocks.
If the dayrunner surfboard bag doesn’t offer enough protection, you can always opt for a “travel” designated surfboard bag. Any surfboard bag with the word “travel”, or something like “explorer” n the title, is designed to offer insurance against the kind of damage you would expect when a bunch of careless flunkies start hurling your prize around in the belly of a 747 – in actual fact, almost no travel surfboard bag in the world can cope with this kind of treatment, but for normal use they’re ideal. The travel surfboard bag is thickly insulated, it often comes with interior securing points to strap the board in place, and it’s lined with stuff like silver lagging that keeps temperature out. A surfboard bag that keeps an even temperature next to your board stops the wax melting: anyone who’s spent three hours with their head stuffed up an inverted surfboard bag, trying to prise a wax sculpture that used to be a surfboard out of it, will instantly recognise that benefit.
Your choice of surfboard bag, then, is going to be steered according to its intended use. You can get away with a sock style surfboard bag as long as you have a small board that doesn’t get chucked about too much – otherwise, you might want to start thinking a little more protectively.
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