{"id":12316,"date":"2017-03-19T01:00:31","date_gmt":"2017-03-19T08:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/community.nrs.com\/?p=12316"},"modified":"2022-01-05T13:38:16","modified_gmt":"2022-01-05T21:38:16","slug":"nrs-dry-bags-the-legacy-lives-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/community.nrs.com\/duct-tape\/2017\/03\/19\/nrs-dry-bags-the-legacy-lives-on\/","title":{"rendered":"NRS Dry Bags: The Legacy Lives On"},"content":{"rendered":"

The history of boating is in many ways a story of resourcefulness. Early rafters and paddlers, lacking purpose-built gear for their sports, often built their own equipment or adapted items to meet their needs. The first dry bags NRS carried are a perfect example; they were military surplus delousing bags that boaters had discovered did a pretty good job of keeping stuff dry.<\/p>\n

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Longtime NRS customer Mike Beiser has spent a lifetime outside, and much of it sharing the outdoors with others. From a stint with the National Parks Service in the late 1970s, to his 32 years as the University of Idaho’s Outdoor Program Director, he has taught countless people how to roll, how to row, and how to pack for a trip down the river. He was also one of the earliest product testers for NRS and attended product development meetings with our founder, Bill Parks. Bill would provide the pizza and beer, and guys like Mike would deliver the beta. Like a lot of early boaters, Mike’s first dry bag was a delousing bag.<\/p>\n

But as the delousing bag supply began to dry up, NRS founder Bill Parks knew he would have to find another solution. Resourceful boater that he was, he decided to build them himself. He purchased some heavy-duty truck tarp material at a discount, found an outfit in Seattle that could weld it, and in 1977 the original NRS Bill\u2019s Bag\u2014the first purpose-built dry bag for boaters\u2014was born. The Bill\u2019s Bag has remained a bestselling NRS item ever since and has become an iconic piece of river gear around the world.<\/p>\n

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NRS product development has grown significantly more sophisticated since those early days, and yet some things never change. We\u2019re still resourceful, still working to solve problems and build gear that enhances experiences on the water. And we’re still buying pizza and beer for boaters and gear heads to get their input on how to make things better. Our friend Mike is retired now, but like the battered Bill’s Bag he has carried on trips all over the world, he is still going strong\u00a0and still looking forward to the next adventure. For 2017, we\u2019ve updated all of our dry bags for your next adventure with improved construction, hardware and aesthetics.<\/a> We\u2019ve added several new models to our traditional range of outfitter-grade bags, and we\u2019ve made the\u00a0legendary Bill\u2019s Bag better than ever.<\/p>\n