The Perfect Surfbag

It was May of 2018—the end of the spring semester. I had applied for every outdoor industry internship and heard back from none. Where to go, what to do? With two pesos to rub together and a knapsack of surf wax, I decided it was time to pack my bags and head to a surf destination. 

To pack surfboards, or to rent? Who knows what kind of options would be available down at lower latitudes—or at what price. My trusty stick would accompany me. I headed down to the local surf shop and picked a surf bag off the rack that looked about the right size.

"So how do you actually protect your boards?" I asked, having never flown with surfboards before. The surf bag was about the thickness of a burlap sack.

Bubble wrap and pool noodles, the sales associate said.

But where the f*ck do you buy bubble wrap and pool noodles, especially when you have final essays to write and a dorm room to pack and a storage unit to move into and plane tickets to buy and a life to get together? Who has time for that?

As it turns out, bubble wrap and pool noodles can be found at your nearest Home Depot or Lowes. You're also gonna need mailing tape, and a razor blade or scissors. You must cut a slit in the pool noodles, shape them to the rails of your board, and wrap them in mailing tape approximately two hundred times. You must then wrap the board in fifteen layers of bubble wrap, secure the edges with even more tape, and then place towels around weak points of the board to prevent buckling.