I’m traveling this winter to PR for three months like I do every year. I have now noticed that I have way too many hobbies. Foil, kite, surf, downwind. That being said I’m looking for prone/wing foil board bag suggestions. Looking to pack a 4’4” prone, 4’8” wing, 1 hand wing, 1-2 kites, then some foils all in one bag. Anyone have a small coffin bag that they are a really liking? I’m currently between mystic, Dakine travel wagon, and ride engine wing travel coffin.
Add the Gong wheeled bag to your list. Ive had a bunch of bags over the years and this one is my favorite. Pretty good padding, very well built, holds a ton of gear, decent price. All of your gear should fit. I bought the wide version since it holds AFS foils with the fuse/wing attached. All of the wheeled bags are going to be heavy, and this one seems about the same as the others, but when I have 50+ lbs of gear in there the wheels are a necessity for me. I wheel my kids or an extra bag on top of it in transport too.
I made a few small modifications that made it even better:
- The interior straps are velcro, which is too flimsy. I put buckles on them and they are more solid that way.
- I threaded ratchet straps (like roof rack straps) around the exterior to cinch everything down tightly. There are loops on the exterior so you can thread them through the loops so they don’t move around.
3 Likes
I went down a rabbit hole when I was looking at bags, and looked up the amount of padding each of them had.
- Gong: 10mm
- Ride Engine: 5-10mm (depends on where)
- Dakine: 12mm
- Prolimit: 8mm
- Larry Foiler: 20mm (didn’t like this bag)
- Ocean Earth: 20mm
- Manera: 8mm
- Takoon: 6mm (didn’t like this bag)
1 Like
I bought the 6’6”armored coffin. I won’t look back.
I can get a the following in it.
5’4” wingboard
4’2” prone board
2 masts
4 front wings
1 AFS Silk monoblock
2 wing wings
Travel pump
I have travel twice with it now long distance. I can say enough good about it. I will however be trying to cut some foam to use instead of the air bladders to see if I like it. The airbladder material is thick and heavy. I think I may save 2 lbs with foam.
2 Likes
I’ve traveled a lot with my Dakine Wing Wagon and been extremely happy with it. Great padding and wheels. Plenty of space. Last summer I had an inflatable board, 4’6" short board, two foil sets and two wings in it. I’ve flown roughly 10 times with it and never had any damage to my gear.
Also traveled with a Gong rolling bag and it was pretty good. Just not as high of quality as the Dakine. It was shorter and wider meant for an inflatable board.
Whatever you choose will be heavy and oversized. No real way around that with a big bag and foils…
Pro tip: Alaska Airlines doesn’t charge oversize baggage fees when you purchase the flight with their credit card. I’ve only paid extra for my bag a couple of times when I couldn’t fly Alaska.
Haha I did the same thing when I used the Gong bag. I didn’t trust that zipper!
zipper seems very solid on mine. I just like everything to be packed down tightly with the straps so it doesn’t shift around in the bag.
I too have been doing tons of board bag research. Ideally I’m looking for a slim bag that could fit a small shortboard and prone foil board/gear. Lots of the wing bags are super wide.
I’ve added to your list the sizes available, if they have wheels plus a couple more options in case its useful to others.
I’ve not pulled the trigger yet but leaning towards the manera. Anyone have experience with these?
If I were you I’d go with the Ocean Earth bags. They are well padded, They come in a bunch of sizes (all fairly narrow), and while they might be heavier due to the thick padding, you have more leeway for weight since you aren’t packing wings, pumps etc… The padding on the Manera is pretty thin and those bags are kind of flimsy. You are probably going to need to supplement it with a bunch of foam if you want to really protect your board. Check one of the Manera bags out in person if you haven’t already. Just my $0.02
I’ve used the ion kite bags for a 60l wing board plus wings and foils. The bag fits a narrow wing board fine. I got the 165cm version. The quality of the bag seems good, but I’ve only done one trip. My main gripe is that the bag packed to 23kg was very uncomfortable to haul around. Even when i tried have the weight closer to the wheels, the bag is so long that you get a center of mass pretty high up so it gets heavy to hold from the handle. The handle is also short so the bag keeps bumping into the back of your legs when you walk
When ive done trips to shacks, Ive been able to fit a 5’10 shortboard, 4’6’ prone, mast/wings, small 5’4 kite surfboard, 3 kites/bar/harness.
Into the 6’0 mystic board bag with the wheels. Just dont expect to be under weight haha.
My currently plan is to bring 2 bags
1 for surfboard (3 boards)
1 for foils. (Prone board, small wing board, foils)
So I’m trying to get a shorter foil specific bag so the boards don’t slide around in a bag designed for surfboard length.
Surprised nobody has recommended the Armstrong golf bag yet. It’s well padded , has plenty of room and has wheels too. I can fit 1x board 3x front wings 2x tail wings 1x mast , my extra clothes and still have room for more . This bag can easily fit two boards . Regardless of it saying golf or not this a good bag that I’ve traveled with many times now and never worry about my stuff.
How wide are the boards you’re fitting in the Armstrong golf bag?
My boards are 17-18 wide but I have a friend who fits a 20 wide board in his
1 Like
Thanks I’m leaning towards that bag now. Think it can fit a 4’8’’x20 and a 4’4’’x 18 on top of each other?
Yes , I’ve seen my friend double pack boards in his bag along with foils too. I would just be mindful of the weight.
1 Like
Did you end up going with the armstrong bag? I’m currently looking between the different options for foil boards and gear.
Asked for the armstrong gold for Christmas. Hoping it’s the right choice. Will check back post holidays.