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Tag: Wet-Dry Bag

  • You knew I was a winner and now ADV has confirmed it!

    A contest winner that is…

    A few days ago I was one of the winners of a drawing sponsored by premium bag maker ADV. Me? I seldom enter and never win contests but I did this time.

    My loot from ADV!

    The package from ADV includes a really nice court towel made from organic cotton, some bamboo wristbands and 12 ADV over grips, six in black which is less tacky but thicker (.75mm) and six in white which is thinner (.60mm) and tackier although not as tacky as the mint green over grips from Toroline which I have decided are actually too tacky for my tastes.

    ADV calls the black Felt Tac and the texture is excellent. I wish it, too, was .6mm but perhaps its thickness is a function of the material. My problem is that I use two over grips rather than a replacement grip on my racket that cries out for a black grip. I know — complicated.

    The white has a very pleasing texture and I am cool with its level of tackiness. Like all thin over grips it requires care while wrapping since any wrapping sloppiness results in puckering.

    Let’s face it — I am beyond picky when it comes to grips. It all started with golf and my relentless search for the perfect grip. By the way, it was Golf Pride 50th Anniversary. For some reason, GP used a proprietary and never-again-used rubber compound for that grip. In the decades before I left golf behind I hoarded dozens and dozens. Yup. Crazy. The ADV Felt Tac is the best feeling over grip I’ve used but I need to figure out a combination that allows me to get the grip size I need.

    The last item is perhaps the most versatile. Ostensibly, it’s an expandable packing cube. But when I look at it I see a hold everything bag for my current tennis bag. I like to pack light when I play and that means using a 3-racket bag. The bag is Ok but is very short on what I call zippered storage. Since I use the bag to carry two rackets it leaves plenty of space for the ADV packing cube whether it’s expanded or not.

    I am hoping that someday ADV will make a bag that falls between its Tennis Bag PRO V3 and its backpack-style bags. I like the idea of the backpack solution until I want to travel with my tennis gear (at least several times a year) and that’s when I need a conventional tennis bag. My wishlist includes a new bag from ADV designed for 4-6 rackets — kind of scaled-down version of the PRO V3.

    But hey, I am not complaining (again). Before I close I want to thank ADV for holding the drawing and the tennis gods for making sure I finally won something other than a tennis match.

    Thanks, ADV (and the tennis gods).

  • The Cancha BBB has landed!

    Ok, the BBB (Big Black Bag) is not really called the Big Black Bag. Man, you guys are sticklers. It’s called the Racquet Bag Pro and it’s on sale right now. I was excited to get the BBB, sorry, the Racquet Bag Pro to see how much progress Cancha has made since they made my bag, the now-discontinued Original Racquet Bag.

    The BBB and my beloved Original Cancha

    But, the problem is I am more of a small-bag kind of guy. Think of me as a tennis bag minimalist. Marie Kondo would approve, I’m sure. The good new is the Man in Black is a big-bag kind of guy, so I’ve seen the new Cancha to him. If I know the MIB, and I do, he’ll put the Racquet Bag Pro through its paces and then some.

    My own observations about the Racquet Bag Pro are that is a much-refined bag compared to my Original. Material quality seems of the same quality and maybe even a bit more substantial. Everything seems well considered. Note how the horizontal carrying strap is angled. That makes the bag naturally easier to carry and lift without the bag feeling unwieldy. It’s and smart and logical feature. Now ask yourself why more companies don’t think of making their bags like this.

    Interesting that even the BBB’s cross-section is larger than the Original’s

    I’ve made it a mission of mine to fully utilize the Cancha’s attachment points. The company refers to them as RF Bonded Hypalon Molle Patches for Add-on Accessories.

    Uh, yeah. Me? I’ve never used or even heard the term Molle Patch until after I purchased my Original Cancha. So, I started to research them. What I found were a lot of companies using the word Molle to describe a variety of very similar products, respective to their function. I have to admit I hoped Molle would be a more general ecosystem rather than one, primarly, suited to other products from the same company.

    In other words, I dig Molle conceptually but have yet to make them quite as useful as I hope to in the future. For a while, I saw my Original Cancha as a do anything-bag if I could utilize its Molle attachment points to add space for shoes and clothes, when needed. At the time, Cancha Wet-Dry Bag was on backorder and I was getting ready to take a trip. I fantasized about modifying a generic shoe bag with Molle but I hit a lot of road blocks. I know. I should just buy the Cancha Wet-Dry bag. But I thought I was so, so clever that I could find an effective work around.

    Anyway, I’m excited to get MIB’s take on the BBB and to see his video review. From where I sit, Cancha has another winner here. Will the other bag companies catch up? I’m not sure they’re even trying. Tt