How to Choose a Dry Bag Setup for Multi-Day SUP Camping

We came up noticeably short on dry bags the night before launching our five-day paddleboard circumnavigation of Lake Tahoe, a last-minute gap in our gear plan that could have been avoided with better advance thought. My best friend Michael Whalen and I figured it out, but the scramble taught me a lot about what actually matters when choosing a dry bag setup for a multi-day water trip.

Why Dry Bag Capacity Matters More Than You'd Think

Everything you carry on a multi-day paddleboard trip needs to stay dry across five days of splash, spray, and potential swimming, which means dry bag capacity isn't a minor detail, it's foundational to whether your gear actually survives the trip in usable condition. Coming up short on capacity the night before departure, the way we did, forces rushed decisions about what gets proper protection and what gets improvised coverage, exactly the wrong time to be making those calls.

How Much Capacity You Actually Need

Plan for more total capacity than your gear list suggests you need on paper. Camping equipment, food, extra clothing, camera gear, and personal items all add up faster than expected, and having genuine slack in your dry bag capacity means you're not compressing gear into containers that are technically waterproof but practically overstuffed and harder to seal reliably. We learned this lesson the hard way, scrambling to consolidate gear into insufficient capacity rather than starting with a setup that had real margin built in.

How to Organize Multiple Bags Rather Than One Large One

Rather than relying on a single large dry bag for everything, splitting gear across several smaller, purpose-specific bags gives you more flexibility in how you distribute weight across your board and reduces the risk of a single failure point compromising everything you're carrying. We organized our own setup with camping gear in one bag, food and cooking supplies in another, and camera equipment in its own dedicated waterproof case mounted separately for quick access.

What Materials and Closure Systems Actually Held Up

Roll-top closures with multiple secure buckle points proved more reliable across five days of real use than simpler closure systems, particularly once bags had been opened and resealed repeatedly at each camp and resupply stop. Look for genuinely durable material rather than the lightest possible option, since a multi-day trip puts more cumulative wear on gear than a single day outing, and a bag that fails on day four is a much bigger problem than one that would have failed on a shorter trip.

How to Secure Bags to the Board Itself

Beyond choosing the right bags, how you actually attach them to your board matters just as much. We used deck straps and bungee systems to secure our dry bags at multiple points, since relying on a single strap point isn't enough once you're paddling through anything rougher than flat water. Test your full securing system with real weight before departure, not for the first time once you're already on the water and discovering a bag has shifted or come loose.

What I'd Change About Our Own Setup

I'd sort and pack our dry bags at least two full days before departure rather than the night before, giving enough time to identify capacity gaps and source additional bags if needed rather than discovering the shortfall with no realistic time to fix it properly. I'd also test our full loaded setup, including how the bags actually sat and stayed secured on the water, before the morning of departure rather than assuming everything would work as intended based on how it looked sitting on dry land.

What We Actually Learned From Running Short

The specific lesson from our own dry bag shortage wasn't really about dry bags themselves, it was about the danger of assembling critical gear the night before departure rather than days in advance. Any gap in your plan, whether it's dry bags, fuel, or something else entirely, is far easier to solve with several days of runway than with a single evening and mounting time pressure. Build your final gear check for several days before launch specifically so problems like ours have room to be solved calmly.

What a Backup Plan for Dry Bag Failure Actually Looks Like

Beyond choosing quality bags upfront, consider what you'd do if a bag failed or leaked partway through a multi-day trip with no easy way to replace it. We carried a small amount of extra plastic sheeting and cordage specifically as an improvised backup, something that thankfully never became necessary but that would have given us options if a primary bag had failed on day three with two more days of exposure still ahead.

What We'd Recommend for First-Time Multi-Day Paddlers Specifically

If this is your first multi-day SUP trip, err on the side of more capacity and more redundancy than feels strictly necessary. You don't yet have the calibrated sense of what you'll actually need that comes from prior multi-day experience, and the cost of slightly excess capacity is far lower than the cost of a gap discovered mid-trip with no easy way to correct it, a lesson we learned the hard way the night before our own departure.

What This Taught Me About Pre-Trip Planning Generally

The dry bag shortage was one of several small planning gaps that surfaced together on the night before departure, alongside the power bank mounting problem and the fuel canister situation. None of these individually would have derailed the trip, but their combined weight, all surfacing at once under time pressure, taught me to spread out final gear preparation across several days rather than compressing it into a single evening before any future multi-day expedition.

The Bottom Line on Dry Bags

Buy more capacity than you think you need, split your gear across multiple bags rather than one, and finish your gear check several full days before departure rather than the night before you actually launch.

Why This Small Gear Detail Mattered More Than It Seemed To

Looking back at everything that went into planning this trip, the dry bag situation was a relatively minor logistical detail in the grand scheme of a five-day, seventy-two-mile expedition. But minor details compound under time pressure, and the stress of solving it the night before departure took energy away from other final preparations that deserved equal attention. Getting the small things right early frees up mental space for the bigger decisions still ahead of you.

Before You Close This Tab

What dry bag capacity and configuration actually works for a week's worth of gear on your own paddleboard, based on what you typically carry?

Have you tested your full dry bag and securing system with real weight before committing to a multi-day trip?

Would splitting your gear across multiple purpose-specific bags work better for your own setup than relying on one large bag?

How much extra capacity would you build in beyond what your gear list suggests you need on paper?

Dalton Johnson is a photographer, filmmaker, and brand storyteller based in South Lake Tahoe, California. Over the past decade he has worked with brands including Patagonia, GoPro, Arc'teryx, Four Seasons, Nike, Rivian, and Ford Bronco across all seven continents. He is the creator of the Follow The Journey distribution framework, which has produced over one million organic views per 30-day cycle without paid media. His work includes two published books, an award-winning documentary that aired on PBS, and more than fifty commercial spots directed. He runs Stories by Dalton on Substack, read by more than 34,000 subscribers.