Bags by surf companies! (Bags)

Member Name: superbird

Product:	Bags
Date:	02/07/02 (993 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: functional

Disadvantages: can be bad quality

You know the labels; Billabong, RipCurl, O'Neill et al

I like these bags in general because they are handbag-sized, but I still don't feel old enough for conventional handbags. They usually have loads of pockets for mobile phone, wallet etc.

First off I had an Animal mini-rucksack. It's sort of pod-shaped and rounded and I got it in Gilesports for about £15. The usual lotsa pockets and the straps were padded and very comfy. It's still going strong but I got a new bag because the colours are a bit boring (grey and black). There's also a bigger version which is the same design but the size of a normal rucksack.

Then I got a RipcurlGirl shoulderbag from a local skate/surf shop. It's beige ripstop nylon with purple trimmings and has two main section plus about five other pockets and a mobile phone pouch. I used it for taking notebooks, iPaq and everything else to college every day and all my stuff fitted in fine.

The main problem with it is that when it got wet in the rain (and it rains A LOT in Swansea) the dye from the black inside lining seeps through onto the ripstop nylon and turns it a manky patch grey. The second problem was that the phone pouch didn't have any kind of fastening and was on the outside of the bag. This led to my phone being stolen when I was at a busy tradeshow. Fair enough it was my own fault for putting it in there but it's a bit of a design fault with the bag in my opinion.

I also had a RipcurlCurl wallet which again was very fuctional and did everything I wanted but the zip broke on it after two weeks.

After this I won't be buying Ripcurl accessories again as I think it looks nice but is too badly made. I may buy some of their clothes though if I like any of them because I'm not too hard on clothes.

At the moment I'm using a grey and orange Billabong shoulderbag. It's got a main section, a front pocket, places to put money and cards
and a phone pocket on the side fastened with velcro. It's made of strong webbing the same as on expensive rucksacks and is slightly smaller than I would really like but it's very good quality and suits me fine while I am on vacation from college and is well worth the £20 I paid for it. I'd definitely buy Billabong accessories again and I'm going to get some of their clothes when I've got some money.

Summary: