SealLine Baja Dry Bags (Guest Review)
by Ken "Kirby" Kerr

How Dry is Your Dry Bag?

Dry bags have always been that piece of equipment you use to give you peace of mind. They keep your valuables, food, and dry stuffs well...dry. You always hope you don't need to rely on them, but from little splashes to rain to a full boat dumping, we often do. They are that one piece of equipment you buckle into the boat and forget about. I've often wondered why. How can these things that have a roll up seal keep water out as well as they do? An event this spring at the Mid-West Rodeo showed me just how well they do work...thank goodness!

On the first day of the rodeo, two friends used one of my canoes, and to make a long story short, pinned this canoe into a nasty logjam in a rain-swollen stream. The canoe could not be located in the jam so it had to be abandon for the day. Topping this was that attached to the canoe were all of our wallets and car keys in a SealLine dry bag. Fast forward here to the canoe rescue mission on day two of the rodeo. We found the canoe in a lousy position, stuck in the jam. The canoe was upside down and getting beaten by a good four foot of still raging stream. We proceeded to cut the jam out around the canoe, and after a couple of hours of work, it came free.

Now this is about the dry bag, which was still attached, thoroughly beaten, battered, and surprisingly…very light. Keep in mind that this thing just spent 24 hours submerged in a raging torrent and apparently didn't take on a whole lot of water. When we opened it, it was hard to believe a half-eaten bag of potato chips was still crisp and ready to eat. There was virtually NO water in the bag! The bag itself was a mess with numerous scrapes and scars all over it, which didn't seem to hamper performance at all. Much more than I could have ever hoped for, thank goodness.

SealLine makes a wide variety of bags for a variety of uses. The only drawback that comes to mind for the vinyl bags in general is that they stiffen when cold, but hey, they still work just fine. The one that saved our stuff was a Baja 10 HD. They are constructed of 20-oz vinyl with welded seams and a reinforced bottom. These things are heavy duty! They come in several colors and best of all they're cheap, about $12 for a 10-ltr capacity up to about $30 for a 55-ltr bag. You can find them at most sporting goods stores, many tackle/boat shops, and at a variety of outlets on-line. For me they are a small price for peace of mind while boating.

SealLine dry bags are manufactured by Cascade Designs who make a variety of quality outdoor products.

SealLine Dry Bags