Surfboard Bag Buyer's Guide

You’ve saved up for your dream board… now it’s finally arrived you can’t wait to take it to your favourite breaks, and you’re already planning on taking it on that Bali surf trip you and your mates have been talking about for the last few months.

Once you have spent your hard-earned money on the perfect board, investing in a great quality surfboard bag is an absolute essential to protect it so you can enjoy it for years to come. The last thing anyone wants is a ding on their fresh stick and given that most dings happening during transit or storage, a decent board bag is the best way to prevent that.

If you’ve ever travelled by air with your surfboard, you may be all too familiar with the risks involved. It often entails paying a hefty charge for the privilege of taking your favourite board on your long awaited surf trip to Bali, only to find out upon landing that you’ve paid hundreds for your board to end up in two pieces – and surprise, surprise - you won’t get any compensation. Not quite the 2 for 1 deal you were hoping for.

We have compiled the most comprehensive range of tried and tested surfboard bags you will find anywhere, keeping you covered whether you ride a 5ft 4 shortboard or a 10ft 6 longboard. Boardshop is a surfer run surf shop, so you can be confident that we actually use what we sell.

If you want to keep your board safe for everyday use and travel and for your board to arrive at any long-haul destinations in one piece, then look no further. We have compiled a board bag guide to help you pick the most suitable bag for your needs and let you know how to pack your board properly to keep it ding free.

Board Bag Guide

Surfboard bags, like surfboards, come in all shapes and sizes, and it can be hard to know which will be most suitable. We hope the following will help you choose the best bag for your board.

What Type of Board Bag do You Need?

Surfboard Sock or Stretch Covers

These woven fabric covers are the most lightweight option at less than 2mm thick. Normally used within a surfboard travel bag, or for safe storage of your quiver in your surfboard rack; their main purpose is to protect your board from light scratches, dust and the sun.

Also great for shoving your board in your car for local surfs as the cover helps avoid you inadvertently waxing up your car seats.

Main Features:

Soft woven fabric with drawstring closure and polyester nose protector.

Main Uses:

These socks are great for protecting your boards whilst they are stored at home in racks or your garage as they prevent scratches from leaning against racks and protect from dust.

Perfect for short trips and local surfs, these covers will help keep your car wax and sand free. When travelling further, socks or stretch covers are great to add a layer of extra padding when inside a day bag for shorter trips or a travel bag for flights.

Click here to shop Surfboard Sock or Stretch Covers.

Surfboard Day Bags

The most popular bag for daily use, these are lightweight but still relatively thick (5-6mm thick); perfect for protecting your board in a car or on a roof rack. These are the most popular choice for most surfers as they will protect a surfboard in all but airport travel conditions.

Main Features:

Usually constructed from a durable polyester with a white or reflective tarp underside. Fixed or detachable shoulder strap, and grab handle.

The white or reflective silver underside is essential on a board bag, reflecting sunlight and heat, thus protecting your surfboard from delamination, and also preventing your wax from melting.

Main Uses:

The ultimate all rounder board bag, these bags are great for road trips as well as storing your surfboard.

The carry handle and straps make the bags easy to carry back and forth from your car whilst the lightweight construction prevents them from being too bulky and cumbersome and from taking up too much space whilst your boards are in storage.

We have our own range of quality day bags, perfect for everyday use, offering the perfect level of protection for everyday use whilst being light enough to carry around with ease.

Click here to shop Surfboard Day Bags

Travel Surfboard Bags

These board bags are the very much same as the day bags just mentioned but with thicker 10mm padding, offering essential extra protection for longer trips there might be more risk of damaging your board.

Main Features:

These bags usually have a durable Polyester construction and super tough, reflective tarpaulin on the underside and reinforcement at the nose for extra protection. Whilst specific features will vary depending on the board bag you go for, most travel bags have inner or outer pocket for accessories, a carry handle, a stowable shoulder strap with padding, fin slot and a full double zip.

Main Uses:

Perfect for longer trips where you might need a bit more protection than a standard day bag but don’t want to lug around a heavy multi surfboard bag (top tip: the wheels on a multi travel bag, whilst great on tarmac or in the airport, don’t work so well on the sand).

Click Here to Shop Travel Surfboard Bags

Multi Surfboard Travel Bags.

These 10mm thick bags fitting multiple boards (usually 2 to 4 boards) offer the most protection and are designed specifically for the rigours of airline travel. We have multi travel board bags available to fit various shape boards from fish or shortboards to longboards. If you are travelling internationally, they are essential to protect your prized quiver.

Main Features:

Multi surfboard bags will have closed sell foam padding and a heat reflective, waterproof material outer. They will often have tough, lightweight wheels in the base for easy transport, a sewn in board divider and extra semi rigid protection at the nose and tail.

The bags usually have a collapsible gusset with Velcro fastening so you can expand the bag to accommodate multiple boards or slim down the bag when travelling with a single board and internal straps to secure your boards safely inside. Some board bags also have separate pockets that are handy for keeping soggy, sandy wetsuits, wax or surf accessories separate from your board.

Main Uses:

A must have for longer breaks, flights or any long-haul surf trips; these bags are a must have when taking your quiver away with you. You can stack multiple boards on top of each other or if you want to take less than the bag’s max board capacity you can take advantage of this extra room to pad out your board bag and offer your board even more protection.

Click Here To Shop Multi Surfboard Travel Bags.

What Size Board Bag Will Fit Your Surfboard?

What size board bag will fit my surfboard is a common question here at Boardshop. Once you’ve decided what type of bag you need, you need to choose the right size. Almost as important as getting the right wetsuit fit for your body, your board bag needs to fit well in order for it to offer maximum protection.

Whether you have a longboard or tiny hybrid, your board bag needs to fit properly to protect your board. To get the right fit a board must easily slide into a bag, preferably with fins on, with minimal movement up, down, or sideways. If the bag is so tight that you can hardly get the board inside, then it is too small.

Most board bag manufacturers have designed their bags so that they are sized for the board they will hold E.g. An 6ft 4 Ocean & Earth bag will fit a 6ft 4 surfboard with fins. If your surfboard is in between bag sizes e.g. you have a 6ft 1 surfboard and can only find a 6ft or 6ft 3 surfboard bag that is suitable for your board you should buy the 6ft 6 bag if you want to fit your board and fins.

What Shape Board Bag Will Fit Your Surfboard?

Just as important as the size of the bag is the shape. When choosing your board bag, it is important to ensure your bag will actually fit your board – note key words that relate to the shape like shortboard, funboard, hybrid, fish, super wide, longboard etc.

It is important to ensure the shape of the board bag corresponds to that of your board, in particular the nose shape, width, and length. If you have a wide board with a rounded nose, then it is unlikely it is going to fit in that fish board bag with the pointed nose. You can check the bag’s shape, max width, depth, and length on all our product listings.

How Should You Pack Your Surfboard When Travelling?

There tend to be two different approaches to packing your surfboard, either pack it to the max or leave it bare.

When travelling people often pack their board bags with towels, wetsuits or clothes in order to pad out the bag and add a bit of extra padding in case of any knocks during transit.

The reasoning behind leaving the board bare vs. packing the board bag out is that sometimes extra items inside your board bag can bunch up and push up against the side of the board which can cause pressure marks or dings.

We recommend padding the board out with a board sock or stretch cover for extra protection and if you do opt to pad the bag out, to stick to soft items that you can fix into place. E.g. towels wrapped around the board – you could secure these around the board with a piece of duct tape to avoid it bunching up and creating pressure marks. Avoid packing sharp items such as fins in with your board and pack these in your hand or hold luggage instead.

Regardless of whether you are on a short or long trip; choose which way up you're going to keep your board in the surfboard bag and stand by it. This will avoid getting wax on the underside of your board (and looking like a total kook) and make it easier to remove from your board bag.

But if you want to be extra safe, this is the ultimate bulletproof step by step packing system:)

Surfboard Bag Packing Step by Step Guide

1. Remove or Protect Your Fins

No one wants to rock up at their favourite secret surf spot to unpack their board and find their fins are damaged. The easiest way to prevent this is to simply remove the fins and pack these separate from your board to prevent them dinging your board in transit.

If your board has glassed-on fins, then you can add extra protection using a cheap piece of foam. Simply find a piece of foam big enough to cover the fin and cut out a hole to fit your fin inside, then slot this over during transit. There are specialist foam fin blocks available online if you don’t fancy a DIY job.

2. Protect Your Rails

The rails are one of the most vulnerable areas of the board during transit. You can easily protect the rails of you boards from dings using foam tubing and securing this around the rails with some tape. If you don’t have access to foam tubing, you can also protect the rails using bubble wrap and cardboard.

3. Protect Your Board

By far the simplest solution – simply wrap your board in bubble wrap and secure with some tape. The bigger the bubbles the better. Eco friendly, recyclable bubble wrap is a good option for the more environmentally conscious surfers out there.

Alternatively, protect your board with a board sock or stretch cover. You can also wrap towels around the board if you want, although we advise securing these to avoid the bunching up in the bag during transit – you can do this with a bit of duct tape.

If you are wrapping multiple boards for a multi travel bag, wrap each board separately if you can. If you can’t wrap them separately then you can lay a towel or a layer of bubble wrap in between each board.

4. Insert the Board in Your Board Bag

Single Board:

Put the board into the bag - remember which side you have decided to go for to avoid a dodgy underside wax job. Ready to go! You can always put a sticker on the side of the bag you will have the top of the board with the wax facing so that you remember.

Multiple Boards:

When packing multiple boards, make sure that you pack the boards in the same direction (noses all pointing the same way) with the longest, heaviest board at the bottom and the shortest, lightest board at the top.

You want to avoid any large spaces between boards at the noses and tails so pad these out with soft clothing or bubble wrap to avoid them knocking against each other.

Most multi travel bags will have an internal strap to hold the boards for you to secure them and minimise movement within the bag. If you have these in your bag, then strap your boards securely being careful not to overtighten and put too much pressure on the board.

Strap boards inside the bag so they stay together. Most board bags have internal straps to secure your boards, but you can use some adjustable nylon straps if your bag doesn’t have them.

5) Label Your Board Bag

The only thing worse than a damaged board is a missing one. Make sure you don’t lose your luggage by securing a luggage tag on the outside of the bag with your name, address, phone number and email on it. You can also add this inside the bag for extra back up!

We also recommend attaching a fragile strap, tag or sticker somewhere on the outside of your board bag.

6) Last but not least – say a prayer to the surf gods and hope your gets to its destination safely!

We hope this helps you decide what board bag to purchase and that you manage to pack your board up safely for your next surf trip.

If you have left it late to buy a board bag for a trip, we offer FREE next day delivery in the UK and free express delivery throughout Europe.

Still stuck on which board bag to choose? We are always happy to offer advice, simply pop us an email at [email protected] or give us a call on 01243 674250.