Waterproof bags?

H

Hotrod

Joined
Mar 19, 2003
Messages
978
Hey!

I've been doing some pondering about the waterproof bags used by kayak riders (piloters? Drivers?) and the uses one might have for such a thing... Mainly as a bug out bag, or better yet an abandon ship bag. Can anyone recomend a decent brand?

Having clothes that stay dry, matches that will light and a various host of other things that could stay dry (books...) would be advantagious in most any emergency. :cool:

Thanks :D
 
How about a vacuum sealer? I picked one up at a garage sale for $10 recently. It sucks all the air out and makes a compact package, then seals it all up. A little slit on one of the edges makes an easy tear-open package.

I'm trying to work out some decent menus to seal up (tear open, add boiling water and eat), emergency gear (the 'less used' items of the first-aid kit), matches, and lots of other fun stuff.
 
Hotrod said:
Hey!

I've been doing some pondering about the waterproof bags used by kayak riders (piloters? Drivers?) and the uses one might have for such a thing... Mainly as a bug out bag, or better yet an abandon ship bag. Can anyone recomend a decent brand?

Having clothes that stay dry, matches that will light and a various host of other things that could stay dry (books...) would be advantagious in most any emergency. :cool:

Thanks :D
Click to expand...

I think that would be "paddler". Applies to rafts, canoes, kayaks....etc

Anyway, the bags work great! www.nrsweb.com That is the wal-mart of the paddling world. Another great feature/use of drybags is they are dust proof!
 
I CAN NOT SAY enuff great things about dry bags and could also include some 25 degree canoe incidents where a dry bag saved my life for real.They work great,keep everything dry even when sub merged for periods of time(as long as closed properly).One brand and only I will use and have used for over 10 years is "seal line".Heavy welded seams,thick pvc rubber.I have one bag in particular I have carried for 10 years and is still a great bag.Buy 1 and you'll end up with 3 more in different sizes.
 
t may be the naturally cheap nature of the underpaid warriors we call Marines, but we always use garbage bags for waterproofing. We use it for everything from our seabags when we travel to our Alice Packs for swim qual (a properly packed alice pack with garbage bags will float very well). They're not resilient, but they're cheap and make a good lining.
 
Marines improvising? Say it isn't so! :D

I've got to say, the water safety I learned in the Corps has helped me out the rest of my life. Some of the best training I got was never ending courses all around Lejeune, plus the constant deployment on the stinking prisons called Navy ships.

Another good trick is to have empty water bladders like Camelbaks or equivalent. You can inflate them like a lifevest. I also grabbed as many flotation bags from satchel charges as I could and stuffed them in pockets. They make good pillows as well.
 
I used to paddle quite a bit, both whitewater and touring, and I have accumulated a whole mess o' dry bags over the years. Many shapes and sizes. They are VERY useful, as has been stated already by many. I think I have mostly Sealine (there's a hyphen in there somewhere) but I'm pretty sure I have some other brands as well.

Generally, they are made of PVC/vinyl and are often re-infroced with woven fibers to reduce punctures and tearing. A good way to protect them further from rough or pointy things is to stow and carry them in a cordura-type duffel bag.

For some reason, there are always a lot of rocks wherever I happen to be whitewater paddling. :rolleyes: Rough rocks are generally not friendly to any water-tight material, so if I ditch and lose some gear, I want it protected from both the water AND the rocks. Sleeping in a soggy bag is the pits, man.

I always kept everything in my Alice in appropriately-sized zip-locs, tall kitchen waste, or lawn-sized Hefty bags. Always carried a few extra of each, too. (A split-open trash bag made a great water-proof barrier for the overhead cover of your fighting position, and a field jacket in a garbage bag made a heckuva pillow.) But, with all the rough-and-tumble that a ruck gets, the bags would often get punctured or torn, and even the zip-locs would pop open. Heavy rains (infantry weather!) would find any chink in your plastic-wrap armor and exploit it. Soggy socks are almost as much of a drag as a soggy sleeping bag.

So, I recommend getting yourself a few dry bags, a few different sizes, and then get something tough and abrasion-resistant to put them in. It will be a little heavier, but you can't find better protection for your gear in anything but a Pelican case.
 
seal line, summit to sea. depending on how you store your dry bags (raft or kayak), you have either the hard pvc type baja bag option, or, the softer (but less durable) pillow shape waterproof coated bags.

for carrying your mobile phone, there's this brand (I forget the name) that uses two rotating screws to "pinch" the two hardplastic re-inforced lips of the bag close. You can still use your phone "through" the see through bag. very good stuff - I need to get one of those but haven't the funds right now.

I prefer having two smaller baja bags, than one big one because of packing and unpacking...
 
I will for sure be looking into the hard case versions. (I'd like to have a deck mounted abandon ship bag for the boat)

One quick question... does anyone know if they make hypalon (same stuff they use on coast guard inflatable boats) to make the fabric bags? PVC/Vinyl doesnt stand up the tests of time as a boat... so it makes me wonder about a bags ability to do so! :cool:

Thanks again

:D
 
A slightly bulkier, but more resilient solution might be a pelican case (pelican.com). They are waterproof, float, and can be run over by a vehicle. They are a little pricey, but would work good in the back of a boat or the back of a vehicle, especially for sensitive electronics (like laptops, cell phones, and required medical gear).
 
Dry Bags come in many materials rubber sealed nylon Pvc and such if you are going to get one be sure to get a wide gate or outh bag anyone who has used lined stuff sacks or dry bag enough can tell you it is very difficult to get gear nto them if the mouth id narrow. the item you are stuffing in will act as a cork and since the are water prof and the surfaces aren't exactlysmooth they will cause a jam up as you push the item in air will get trappend on the bottom of the bag not allowing tyou to push the item down. In the end it takes alot of time to pack alot of energy and is frustrating as hell. Thats why I always curse the designer that makes a perfectly good item then puts it in a narrow bag.
 
I keep my tools and first aid kit in a pelican case, its really tough & big enough to hold all of my gear
 
Check out Ortlieb drybags and the rest of their range, they are well made and I've found them to be very durable.
Iain
 
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