NRS HydroLock Kayak Stow Float Bag

Best way to carry my shoes and stuff in my creek boat for long days out and over nights. Very versatile.

I have owned these bags for a couple years on self-support kayak trips and they are great. I like the lightweight material; it is way easier to slide in the boat than some other options out there which makes it easier to pack. If you are hard on gear and don’t keep the sand and grit out of your boat, the disadvantages of a lightweight bag will become apparent. I find them plenty durable but you need to treat them with care. The ziplock-style closure, that can be folded over, keeps my down bag and clothes dependably dry. It’s also great for packing a big lunch for day trips with the kids or stowing by dry clothes for the take out. I like having a single chamber that you can further inflate with air after you stow it in your boat.

Could be sturdier material.

I have one of these and one of the Watershed futa float. So far I've seen one get a small hole after two uses and I have had one get a giant rip in it after a year of owning it. There was no thought process in the design. The buckets are barley secured in there and the fabric is paper thin. If you have this in your cart delete it and pay the extra money for a futa float.

I paddle whitewater and recently started paddling sea kayaks and this is the perfect product.

Quick tip for people new to whitewater camp paddling, suck all the air out to put the bag in the boat and then re-inflate once it is in place in your stern to put the float back into the float bag.

For sea kayaking, this is the perfect shape to maximize the bow and stern areas. I know many people don’t bother stuffing their tents in dry sacks but I don’t want to sleep in a wet tent and I think the salt gets itchy so I use these, one for tent and tarp shelter and one for my sleeping bag and it’s perfect. I will say that when I sea kayak, I attached the buckles together like a traditional dry bag rather than on the sides of the bag. I pulled a little to hard (yanked it really) trying to get it out of my sea kayak hatch and it ripped one of the side buckles off. It did not change the integrity of the bag so that’s a huge plus for me. Also, that was definitely my fault. My coach definitely said I should probably not yank on my gear out of the hatch like that in general... I’m just really used to the tuff sacks and whitewater rafting so the more lightweight non-pvc dry bags are new to me. Love them though. I couldn’t get the tuff sacks into the hatch because the material doesn’t slide and maneuver the way the light weight fabric does so the trade of is absolutely worth it to me.

It is a very good idea and it works very well. I use 2 bags in the back of my Jackson Antix, which notoriously has little storage.

I keep my spare winter gear, a first aid kit and some dry clothes in the bags. They seem to hold air for longer than standard kayak float bags. The material is high quality.

My second bag was bought from CKS. I found that it had problems holding air. CKS was out of stock and could not replace it, so they refunded my money and found it for me at NRS at a discount. Now I have 2 perfect bags and good feelings toward NRS and Colorado Kayak Supply.

Product is huge, holds heaps of gear. Pirchased this from a store as I needed additional flotation for my rec kayak without sacrificing storage space (no bulkhead in my yak). Seals well and seam very durable. The storage and air chamber are one in the same. Love NRS products!

So I already have two of NRS standard stow/float bags but needed something a little larger. I thought this one would function similarly. I saw the pictures of this model and thought that the zip closure (like a zip-lock plastic bag) was used to seal the storage portion to provide a water tight seal. In this bag the storage and the air chamber are one and the same, which means that the zipper must provide an air-tight seal. That in a nutshell is the problem with this bag. I paddle a skin on frame kayak and rely on the flotation bags. Getting a perfect air-tight seal everytime is not something I can trust with this bag. I think I'll be trading this in for a set of their standard stow/float bags instead.