My first mesh dive bag split a seam on a charter boat off Key Largo and I finished that day carrying a regulator in one hand and a wet wetsuit over my shoulder. I patched the second bag twice before it gave out last spring. That is when I stopped patching and bought a Bulex 37 inch mesh duffle along with the rest of a rebuilt kit. About 90 dives later it is still the bag that rides in the back of my 4Runner.
Divers argue about bags more than they should. The case for a hard duffel sounds reasonable on paper: it protects the gear, it stacks neatly, it looks serious. Then you come home off a two tank day and open a sealed box full of wet neoprene. Here is why the Bulex mesh duffle stayed and the sealed box never came home with me.
Put the wet gear in something that breathes
The 37 inch Bulex mesh duffle holds a full kit, drains on the deck and folds flat when it is empty.
Amazon Check Today's Price on Amazon →Water leaves instead of pooling under your wetsuit
A hard duffel is built to keep water out, which means the water that comes in on your gear stays in. Two hours after a dive, a wetsuit in a sealed box is sitting in its own puddle, and by morning the whole bag smells like a bait bucket. The Bulex is listed as not water resistant, and that is not a flaw. It is the design. Water runs off the mesh and out through the weave while the bag sits in the rinse tub. Nothing ferments. Nothing grows a smell you cannot rinse out. I learned the cost of the alternative the season I left a suit in a closed tote over a weekend. It took three rinses and a soak in the tub before the smell came out of the seams, and the zipper tape on that tote never lost its funk.
37 inches clears the longest fins in the club
The bag measures 37 inches long, 15 inches wide and 15 inches tall. I wear open heel fins with the Cressi boots and my spare pair runs long. They go in the bottom flat, not folded and not jammed tip first into a corner. If you have ever wrestled a stiff fin into a bag two inches too short, you know why the length was the first thing I checked before buying. I measured the spare pair on the carport floor with a tape before I ordered anything, and they came in just under the bag length with room to spare.
136 liters takes a whole kit, one bag, one trip
The capacity is 136 liters. On a normal charter morning mine holds fins, the Cressi boots, a 3mm wetsuit, mask, the Genwiss light, the XUKER gloves and the Nokta PulseDive wrapped in a towel. That is everything I dive with, carried in one load from the car to the boat. The plastic tote it replaced held about two thirds of that and I made a second trip every time. The second trip is the part nobody budgets for. On a morning when the boat is loading and the deck is wet, a second walk back to the 4Runner costs you the good spot on the bench.
Air moves through polypropylene mesh so gear dries overnight
The material is polypropylene mesh, open enough that you can see through it. Hanging the bag on the clothesline under my carport after a rinse lets air reach every panel of the wetsuit at once instead of just the outside layer. Gear that would take two days to dry inside a closed bag is dry by the next morning. In a Florida summer that difference is the entire argument. A suit that is still damp at the ankle when you pull it on is a cold start to a dive, and it is the kind of thing you notice more at 61 than you did at 47.
It carries 60 pounds, which is more than I will ever load
The listing rates it to 60 pounds. I have never weighed a loaded dive bag, but a soaked 3mm suit, boots, fins, a light and a detector is heavy and the bag does not complain about it. The seams and the strap have held through roughly 90 dives and a lot of wet car rides. A bag rated well above your real load is a bag you stop thinking about.
Two zippered side pockets keep the small parts findable
There are two side zipper pockets plus the main zippered compartment. Mask and a spare strap go in one, batteries and a save-a-dive kit in the other. Small parts that live loose in a big bag end up at the bottom under a wet wetsuit, and you find them by feel at the dock with the boat waiting. Pockets are the reason I am not digging through neoprene anymore.
A nylon shoulder strap and hand handles move it like a duffel
It has a shoulder strap and hand handles, both nylon, so it carries like a duffel and not like a laundry sack. Loaded heavy you want the strap over your shoulder. On a rocking deck you want the handles. Two ways to pick it up sounds like nothing until you are climbing a ladder with one hand full and the boat moving under you. The strap also runs shoulder-length, so a loaded bag hangs at your hip rather than swinging at your knee on the walk down the dock.
It folds flat, which a hard shell never will
Empty, the bag collapses to a flat panel and slides behind the seat of the 4Runner. A hard duffel takes up the same space full or empty. My cargo area already holds tanks, a rinse jug and the detector case, and I do not have room for a rigid box that stays rigid with nothing in it. Soft shell, no wheels, and nothing sticking out to catch on a bench.
Sand and grit fall out instead of grinding into the stitching
I hunt the sand at public swim beaches and around boat ramps, and sand gets into everything. With mesh, most of it is out of the bag before I reach the car. What stays behind rinses out in the tub with the hose. A fabric lined bag holds that grit against the seams and it works away at the thread on every trip, which is exactly how my last two bags died. The first of those two went at the bottom corner, where the wet sand had collected all season and dried into a crust I never got out.
One zipper to fail, not a hinge, a latch and a seal
Thirty three years as a marine electrician taught me that gear fails at the moving parts. A hard duffel has a hinge, two latches and a gasket, and salt water finds all four eventually. This bag has zippers and nylon webbing. When the day comes that a zipper goes, I will know what went wrong and I will not be guessing at a replacement latch that no longer exists.
What I'd Skip
Two things this Bulex bag will not do, and you should hear them before you buy. It is not a dry bag and never will be, so a camera housing or a phone goes inside a hard case or stays home. I also would not check it as airline luggage. Mesh on a baggage conveyor is an open invitation, and a soft shell gives a regulator no protection from a dropped container. Mine rides in the 4Runner and on charter boats, which is the job it was bought for. If you need crush protection, buy a case and put the case in the bag.
The bag is 37 inches long, 15 wide and 15 tall. Fins go in the bottom flat, not folded, not jammed tip first into a corner.
One bag, one trip from the car to the boat
37 inches, 136 liters, mesh that drains and dries. It is the bag I reach for on every charter morning.
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