Air travel with wakesurf boards

This summer we will be flying to a few wakesurf events. I'm concerned about taking the surfboards on the plane. How do others pack their boards for a flight? Will need to transport a Walzer Alpha (53") and Calibrated Bri Chmel Pro model (46"). Both of these boards are relatively thin. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Roy I use a hardcase - but we have PolyU boards. There are board bags that will allow you to pack them away. A good coffin bag with bubble wrap around the boards no doubt will make it. And I have seen skimboards being carried on!

However, NOTHING beats a hardcase for peace of mind. I think that Santa Monica was shut down for a bit as the owner died, but do a search on that - look for a half length hard case. If you don't want to invest in the coffin, I may have something I can loan you.

Roy, you might look for a local company, Cabbage Cases. They build custom cases for us at work. Might be kind of heavy.

The Santa Monica half case is just the ticket but the website says that sales are still suspended. I found a Zap travel bag that is 58.5 inches long and is supposed to hold three skimboards. http://www.skimshop.com/Zap_Travel_Bag_Large-p-16643.html

Do you know anything about these bags. I was thinking about wrapping the boards in bubble wrap and use 1 inch pipe insulation around the edges.

Yep, I've used that very one. Grabbag board bags, if they are around, has one of the best quality products around...but that Zap will work for you quite well if you pack it like you plan. I keep my fins and a wrench or two in our other bags. I don't think you can get three boards with bubble wrap in it, but 2 should be doabale.

I use the smaller sized bubble wrap, because they do pop and the smaller ones seem to leave more bubbles still intact after any impact. I then use some clear packaging tape and tie the boards all together.

For the return flight I bring enough spare bubble wrap and tape to redo any "weak" spots from the trip out.

Be careful flying with your boards there is some price gouging going on with the airlines you could pay $350 more or less depending on the airlines take your fins off wrap them in bubble wrap & say they are wakeboards or ship them ups if possible Sleigh & the Lost crew were ripped off by the airlines to ship boards to fla for a demo http://lostenterprises.com/prod/newsArtical.php?ID=1348

J.L., thanks for the heads up. This is ridiculous. I just flew to Montana and had a ski bag filled with two pairs of skis, two pairs of poles, a snowboard and a few other small items. No extra charge for this bag. It's amazing that they might try to charge me 100s of dollars for a 15 lbs bag that is much smaller and lighter than my ski bag! I think I will call them boogie boards if asked. I'm sure the airlines personnel in Columbus, OH will be clueless as to what the boards are.

Jeff, when you flew out of Ohio last year did the airlines question your boards?

I never feel comfortable not being up front, especially in front of my child, so I just say they are surfboards and pay the fee. Typically it's $100 each way. We lucked out and went first class one leg I think going to Minnesota last year and the boards were free!

I said I had a boogie board instead of a wakeboard in FL. The lady argued with me saying it was way to heavy to be a boogie board and she knew because she was a boogie boarder lol. She tryed to charge me $50 but finally just said heck with it and put the board through free of charge.
i always say something diiferent. Golf clubs gets you no questions asked.

Just remember that they will be tossing the package around. I would go with the hard case. They treat your luggage worse than FedEx and UPS...

If you pack and box your boards under 5ft and no more than 6inches thick you can ship them Fedex ground for a little over $20 -- 3-4 days.

wakesurfers are more resilient than you might think. (edit: unless they're being shipped) I've made over 20 trips with my boards without a single scratch or ding. In fact I can only think of one story of a board being damaged during a flight. (boards not making it there is a different story) All you need is a decent bag. I even have friends that just wrap the rails with pipe insulation and throw it in a sleeping bag.

I'd trust my boards with baggage handlers over UPS any day of the week. UPS is so bad that I've often wondered if they try to damage large packages.

(Message edited by CAskimmer on April 11, 2008)

I also like to fly Alaska Airlines because they don't charge extra for boards (under a certain length) A couple of other airlines now have skimboards written as being exempt from handling charges as well.

go to a surf shop, or a website like wetsand.com and you'll be able to see all kinds of bags that will work.

I don't know that I would go so far to say that I'd trust my boards with baggage handlers anymore than UPS. Had a buddy go to Puerto Rico and had his board stomped on right in the center through his board bag. Could be some crazy local that didn't want them surfing their waves. But from all the trips I've been on I've only had one small ding that needed repairing on the tail. Probably from the baggage handler tossing the bag in the storage area.

I've always paid extra to bring surfboards on a plane. For as long as I can remember, they've charged extra. It's never even occured to me that some people think it should be free... Just remember, no matter how much it looks like price gauging, if the airlines were making that much money from you, they wouldn't keep going out of business. It's a very low profit business to begin with, and we're just lucky they keep doing it.

Regarding packing, I find that the most effective way to avoid dings is by using a towel and a big piece of cardboard. Inside of your travel bag, put the towel next to the board, and the cardboard over that. It'd take a pretty good hit to ding it through that setup.

Another piece of advice. Sports equipment is a theft waiting to happen in the baggage area, especially surfboards. I've caught teenagers walking off with my board bags at least 3 times. Once they even had the nerve to sit and argue with me about who owned the bag. "it's our uncle's bag man, what are you doing?". I recommend that you put put an enormous, unique, and colorful sign on your bag to identify it. That'll make it harder for the little thieves to argue that it was an honest mistake when you go after them... and as a result, it seems to serve as a deterent... but the best advice is to get to the baggage area right away, so you see it coming out.