Pack up your troubles in your old board bag and fly, fly, fly...

21st Jul 2008 @ 08:41:40 PM

sSs Team Rider, Carl Tomlinson, is a veteran at taking his windsurfing kit on flights and has this excellent advice to offer following some rather unhappy early experiences.

Carl takes up the story:

''Looking after your kit on your trip

Planning your next trip away is always something to look forward to, but I wonder how many of us consider how we can enjoy maximum time on the water by ensuring our gear gets there and back in one piece?

The chances are you get to your destination and you’re ready to rig up, you pull the board out of the bag and ….s**t there’s a ding in the rail or the tail has been smashed. It’s happed to me 3 times. Once in California at Jalama, nearest town 1 hours drive away, nearest repair shop, probably a days drive. My doctor ding bodge up got me a sail but sucked up water which took a week to dry out when I eventually found a place that would repair it properly. Now I take much more care about packing my gear, as they say good judgement comes from experience and experience comes from bad judgement. Here are a few tips to ensure these expensive and time consuming issues can be avoided.

Most airlines will take a double board bag provided its less than 32kg so it’s important to weight to a minimum weight vs maximum breakage protection. I use high density foam channels to protect the rails on top of this my 270 board bag also has 10mm foam sides so any damage will be caused by negligent handling. As my boards are 240cm long that gives me 15cm fresh air either end, which when the bag is zipped up acts a little like an air bag balloon helping to absorb nose and tail impacts. I put my three masts on the base of the bag and on the top of the top board I put the boom, this offers protection from top and bottom impacts. 2 RRD boards, 1 boom, 3 masts, wetty and harness = 32kg dead.

For the sails, I remove the sails from their bags as these weight 300g each, and place them in the bag lined with heavy duty bubble wrap. the fins UJs etc are slipped inside the rolled sails. 4 Ezzy Waves base & UJ, tools, fins = 20kg

Finally, once everything is packed I use cable ties to secure the bag handles together, see pictures, as without them the handles tend to get torn off their anchor points, rendering the bag useless for your next trip.

Hand luggage 8kgs = t shirts, jeans, shorts, camera, slaps, wash bag

Happy travelling, see you on the road……''

Carl is sponsored by Aloha Sailboards in Cheshire.

bottom of board with mast support

top board and boom protection

detail of top board

sails

UJ's etc inside sails

cable ties for handles

all packed and ready to go...