Patagonia

Stormfront 28L Backpack

Great bag, but didnt work out for my use

Familiarity:

I've used it several times

I?ve had the Patagonia Stormfront/Stormsurge for a year now. Its a pretty cool waterproof/submergible bag, but fell short for my use. I was using it for casual use, hiking, and work as a photographer. The straps are lightly padded and there is no back padding, which makes it easy to fold in half and pack in my luggage without taking too much space. It?s also fairly lightweight, weighing around 1.8 lbs. Despite the lack of heavy padding, it was comfortable to carry around unless I was packing 30lbs of things (I?m about 140 lbs). The bag is spacious and works great for a weekend trip full of clothes and toiletries. It works great if I need to pack groceries and commute on my bicycle. However, it falls short when the bag is not full. Since there are no compression straps and the back of the backpack is soft, things inside tilt or eventually fall to the bottom. There are no compartments, so you would want to get packing organizers. There is no laptop compartment, so my laptop falls/tilts unless its fully packed. The TZIP is thick and requires a good pull to get the bag open/close, but i?m impressed how it can be submerged. The bag doesn't fully open up well once unzipped so its difficult to see/pull out contents. Sometimes it takes a while to get my camera out because the camera strap would get caught on the zippers. I think the Stormfront/Stormsurge 30L would be perfect for water/boating excursion. For hiking/casual use, a roll-down top would probably suffice. For everyday use, I find the bag too big and impractical as there are no compartments. I wish Patagonia would update the design on their Stormfront/Stormsurge line and perhaps offer a 20L backpack and 8L sling bag. Unfortunately, I parted ways with my Stormsurge and went with the Exped Torrent 20L instead.