XSories Stuffler 8l Dry Bag
11th May 2015
Xsories are a new brand to me, but I've reviewed a couple of their bits of kit recently and have been impressed by both. The oddly named Stuffler is billed as an 'Extremely Water-Resistant Duffle Bag', but to you and me it's what we would, perhaps erroneously call a dry-bag. After a recent trip to Croatia which involved a lot of kayaking, swimming and deep water soloing with kit in various different makes and models of 'dry' bags the jury was well and truly out on whether the things were really actually fully waterproof. The Stuffler is a variant on an age-old style which is really a glorified cylindrical bag, sealed at the bottom, and with a roll-top closure at the top. However it has a couple of neat little features that set it apart from previous models that i have owned. If you've ever been like me, and puzzled as to which way to roll the roll-top, then this bag has a handy pair of Velcro strips that a) help to hold the thing closed whilst you bring together the two plastic clips, and b) tell you which way to roll, as they only work in one direction! Inside the bag is a small pocket for mobiles or compact cameras. Although the pocket itself is not watertight, it is in the main body of the bag so is, to all intents and purposes, watertight, and provides a secondary layer of protection if you do end up putting, say, damp clothing into the bag. It also stops stuff from getting lost in the larger confines of the bag. On the outside there is a single plastic D-ring which allows you to attach the (included) webbing strap by clipping the other end to one of the closure clips. This means you can carry it slung over a shoulder (hence the word 'duffel' in the description). OK, features aside, how does it perform? It's made of heavy grade PVC Nylon tarpaulin so is very hard wearing and so far, 100& waterproof. It's by no means the lightest bag I've used, but given my comments about our Croatian trip earlier in the review I think that it's worth carrying a few extra grams in order to guarantee protection of your valuables, even if this bag is placed inside another, lighter, bigger one with shoulder straps as I have been using it on swim-runs. It retails at £23.99 which isn't bad considering its quality and feature-set.