Best Surfboard Bag / Wave Tribe Board Bags

surfboard bag

Finding the perfect surfboard bag can be a daunting task. You can easily spend hours on the internet looking for the right one… and I know this from firsthand experience.

Before we took off on our round-the-world surf trip I was in serious research mode with protecting our precious cargo top of mind. We have a total of four boards in our RTW surf trip quiver and definitely want to keep it that way!

surfboard bag / surfboard quiver

The thought of arriving at a destination only to find our surfboards dinged up, punctured, and un-rideable was horrifying. So we wanted to make sure we got board bags that wouldn’t let us down.

In my book, the ideal board bag has lots of padding, is very durable, and comes with actual non-corrosive zippers. The zippers on my old surfboard bag eventually corroded and locked up which was not cool.

After an embarrassing amount of time researching, I found Wave Tribe board bags which met all my criteria.

surfboard bag

I especially liked that Wave Tribe surfboard bags have way more padding than others on the market. Most of the bags I was looking at only had about 10mm of foam throughout, which doesn’t feel like much protection for a surfboard.

Wave Tribe’s bags have 15mm of foam, with an additional 13mm insert in the nose and tail for added protection. That’s 50% more padding in most areas and 180% more padding in the nose and tail regions which tend to be the most vulnerable. That sounded good to me!

surfboard bag

For the zippers, Wave Tribe takes their zippers very seriously, which hit home with me because of the bad experience with my old surfboard bag. Wave Tribe founder Derek Dodds is an avid surf traveler and spoke to my pain. He said,

After decades of using shitty bags with broken zippers and barely any padding, I decided I wanted to create a bag with the best zippers available in the world, and the most padding. That’s what I did.

surfboard bag

The more I learned about Wave Tribe board bags, the more I liked them. Their bags are made of hemp which is quite unique in a market of plastic-made products. Hemp is not only incredibly durable, but it’s also sustainable and eco-friendly. Protect the planet and our surfboards? Count us in!

We’ve been traveling with our Wave Tribe bags for about four months now (see the full year update at the end of this post). And they’re holding strong, to say the least. We haven’t had a single ding to any of our surfboards and the bags are still in excellent condition.

girl with surfboard on oceanview balcony

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surfboard bag

The extra foam has definitely protected our boards when being crammed into small cars, tossed around by airline staff, and strapped way too tightly to the roofs of paranoid taxi drivers.

We’ve also traveled through a few torrential downpours and discovered that these surfboard bags dry really fast and somehow continue to stay lightweight, which is very nice in tropical climates where nothing ever seems to dry. Hooray for hemp!

surfboard bag

So if you’re in the market for a surfboard bag, Wave Tribe bags are a solid option. You will rest assured knowing your boards have plenty of padding and you can feel good about preserving the planet.

(October 2017) After 375 days of surf travel, I’m happy to report that we never had a single ding on any of our surfboards while traveling with Wave Tribe board bags.

These board bags passed the ultimate test of over 20 flights during a yearlong round-the-world surf trip with flying colors!

You can purchase a Wave Tribe board bag here. I’d recommend getting a bag that is 4 to 6 inches longer than your board as we found our bags ran a little bit small.

Enough about surfboard bags, it’s time to book your next trip and go score some waves!

Check out our surf destination guides to help you plan a surf trip. And a breakdown of surfboard bag fees by airline so you have an idea about what it will cost to take your precious cargo with you.

See ya’ out there!

Cheers, Eric

* Our board bags were provided courtesy of and in partnership with Wave Tribe, all opinions are our own.

Leave a Comment

5 thoughts on “Best Surfboard Bag / Wave Tribe Board Bags”

  1. Hi there, just wondering what board bag style you used?
    I am thinking of buying the 7’6” mini Simmons. If you used this style:
    I have 2 boards and one of the is a 7’6” mini mal that is 23inches wide with a wide nose.
    Would that fit that mini Simmons bag?

    Reply
    • Hi Matt, sorry for the slow response! Hope you got it all figured out. I’d probably suggest going up a size as we found our bags ran a little bit small. We had the regular shortboard shape bags in 6’7″ and 7’6″.

      Reply
  2. Great site. Can you provide more detail on your “packing technique” any additional padding of just “as is”?
    I left message to them concerning the right size for my board. You may have giving me the answer to my question already. My longest board is 7 ft and was worry than 7ft6 was a bit too long
    And now, a year + later are you still happy with your bags?

    Reply
    • Thanks, Pascal. As for my packing technique, I typically use any wetsuit tops or spring suits and either wrap them around the nose of the surfboards or roll them up and stuff them in any extra space around the nose of the boards. I lay my towels and full suits on the deck of my top board for a little extra padding as well. Really anything that is soft I either wrap around the nose or roll and stuff in extra space in the bag with a focus on protecting the nose, deck, and rails if space provides. If your longest board is 7ft, I think a 7’6″ bag would be pretty ideal since as I mentioned they seem to run a little bit small in our experience. You might have a few inches to spare, but better a little too big than too tight. You can use the extra little bit of space for rubber, towels, etc. All in all, we’re still super stoked on the bags! They’ve had a lot of wear an tear as expected but are still in perfectly functional shape and we won’t be getting new bags for our upcoming trips.

      Reply