Any DW foilers have any advice/stories on air travel taking a 7'8"-8'0" typ DW board overseas seems like it would be a nightmare these days but guess akin to big wave surfers taking big wave guns traveling I'd imagine pricey and pain in the ass lugging that size board around airport with other wing gear too boot travelling to S America from N America like to get a board there made be way easier but availability and quality is more accessible here in the states so toying with idea of bringing one down any info be great
Need to research the airlines and also which planes are doing the route your flying. Some airlines just flatout limit at a length, others do it specific to the aircraft as some have larger cargo spaces or larger gapped bulkheads, and others also have non-pressurized aft areas for large items.
Generally the cheaper airlines are tight on baggage. I have had great success with 8' on Virgin and Hawaiian and sometimes Qantas so long as it is not actually a Jetstar flight.
Easy done, Iv travelled Sydney - HNL - OGG - PDX - DPS - AKL with KALAMA barracuda boards from 7'10 to 9ft multiple boards at a time. In a sock then in a creatures double longboard cover. Never had major damage. I fly with the full service airlines when possible. Only once on a flight home from Maui had the tail cracked on a lightly glassed proto. My advice is make the bag light if possible as the handlers are less likely to abuse the bag as it's long and heavy. hope this helps.
Also the hardest part is from the car to check in then it's done till pick up to car. If the bags light makes life easy.
Also the hardest part is from the car to check in then it's done till pick up to car. If the bags light makes life easy.
Select to expand quotepohaku said..
Easy done, Iv travelled Sydney - HNL - OGG - PDX - DPS - AKL with KALAMA barracuda boards from 7'10 to 9ft multiple boards at a time. In a sock then in a creatures double longboard cover. Never had major damage. I fly with the full service airlines when possible. Only once on a flight home from Maui had the tail cracked on a lightly glassed proto. My advice is make the bag light if possible as the handlers are less likely to abuse the bag as it's long and heavy. hope this helps.
100% agree on keeping the board light, make it easy to pick up and carry. If you max out your board bag to 22/32kg it will get dragged and levered up onto things. Fotr the small cost of adding an extra bag, you'll get all your gear there in one piece (generally).
As I'm right in the middle of a trip from the Western US to the Canaries with an 8'3 bag (plus another checked bag and a heavy carry on), my advice would be... don't do it.
There are no direct flights in this case so I'm doing a multi day layover and visiting family. I'll end up w/ two board bag charges totaling about 200 euro (pretty reasonable) and round trip taxi costs of 190 euro (Nobody I know had a car big enough to transport the bag). YMMV... In this case Condor airlines shines and will still transport bags up to 300cm and 30Kg is included, I don't give a crap if they can lift it. Two separate board bags would be ridiculous.
Can't wait for those V2 - V3 parawings to get to market so I can get back to a sub 6' board bag
This popped up on fb memories today.
11 years ago travelling from Perth WA to Coolangatta Qld for the SUP Nationals with a 14' SUP, on Virgin Airlines and I believe it was $23 extra.....
My comment on the post at the time was
"They tried to tell me this was oversize......yep the sign is right then I said"
