Oceansource.net

Oceansource.net guide to flying with windsurfing kit

People are often surprised that it’s possible to take windsurf gear through airports and onto planes, especially given that currently a bottle of water is considered a security risk. But actually it’s not only possible but relatively easy. Wide-bodied passenger jets have a lot of space below the seating area and airlines are more than happy to sell you a place to park your board. This article talks you through the whole travel process including getting where you want to go while taking everything you need, not paying over the odds, and not having it destroyed by the baggage handlers.

All flights can be divided into three categories, charter, scheduled and low cost, and these three categories have very different attitudes towards watersports kit…   

Charter flights
These are the easiest to book and nearly all have a very simple and accommodating policy towards watersports gear. Most charge around 20-40 euros each way to take ‘one windsurfer’ (and about half that for a surfboard or bag of kitesurfing gear). (‘One windsurfer’ usually means you can take one board, one sail, one mast, one boom and other ‘rigging parts’, and this can usually be split into two bags, one for the board and one for the ‘sail’) Charter airlines are often very used to windsurfers and surfers travelling to popular destinations and don’t check inside the bags as long as you pay their basic fee, and the bags don’t look too big.

Some charter companies allow you to pay in advance and some don’t. If they do it’s worth doing, as it saves times at the airport (otherwise you usually have to find the airlines offices to pay, you usually can’t pay at the check-in desk). It also makes it more likely that your kit will travel with you – in the (unlikely) event that the plane’s holds become full, pre-booked on kit will go on first, and those who paid at the airport may find their kit only arrives at their destination a few days later. It’s also often cheaper to pay when you book your ticket rather than at the airport. If possible get something in writing to say that you’ve paid. The importance of this can’t be stressed enough, since most airlines don’t seem to filter all information right down to their check-in staff, you need something on paper to prove you’ve actually paid.

In summary though, charter flights are relatively easy to deal with and relatively cheap to take kit on.

Scheduled Airlines
Scheduled airlines are usually a lot more hassle. There is much less common ground in their attitude regarding kit and you have to take things in an airline by airline approach. Check the Oceansource.net page for the airline you’re thinking of flying with for an explanation of their policy and reviews of people who’ve already flown with them. With scheduled airlines there’s usually more opportunity to pay in advance and once again, make sure you get something in writing to say you’ve done so.

It’s hard to generalise, but very loosely – for short haul flights you might not have to pay as much, but for long haul destinations you should expect to pay considerably more than with charter flights.

Low-cost Airlines
Also known as Budget or No Frills airlines – and they’re taking over the skies at an alarming rate. Ryanair is now the world’s biggest airline in terms of the number of people it flies. Low cost airlines can offer windsurfers an incredible range of destinations at ridiculously low fares, but you need to be sure when you’re booking that you’ve not been suckered into paying over the odds with hidden taxes and charges (we’ve prepared an article on getting the best from low-cost airlines here). Most are still surprisingly tolerant towards windsurfers so you can usually take your kit quite cheaply, but there are signs that this is changing, and you have to be careful. For one, low cost airlines have very strict rules regarding check-in times, baggage allowance and everything else, and they make a significant proportion of their income from penalising people who fail to abide by the letter of their rules, and this is where some windsurfers can get stung. Some low cost airlines charge a flat rate per board (which is good), while others charge the flat rate for the right to take a board – and then allow an extra 10kg of luggage allowance or so, then charging excess luggage rates at anything over this rate (which isn’t so good). Check the airlines list to see the policy of the company you’re thinking of flying with.

A couple more notes on low-cost airlines with kit. Be at the check-in when it opens if at all possible. Go out of your way to be friendly and accommodating – the staff are used to angry customers and won’t go out of their way to help you if you’re one of them. Make sure you don’t leave your gear in the way of other customers. If you’ve got your gear split over two bags be firm and clear that it’s just ‘one windsurfer’ a board in a bag and a sail in a bag. And finally, be very wary of using a low cost airline to connect up with another flight whether or not it’s the same company. While charter and scheduled airlines will take responsibility if you miss a connecting flight because they were late, low cost airlines won’t, even if they operate both flights. At the very least, get a flight that gives you a long time to make that connection, even if it means sitting in an airport for six hours when the whole journey runs smoothly.  

Packing up
Packing up is a bit of a balancing act these days. You want to make sure you’ve got all the right kit (it’s a nightmare to miss half the good sailing days because you didn’t bring your bigger board) and you need to make sure your kit isn’t damaged when it gets dropped from a Jumbo onto the tarmac, but you’ve got to keep the weight down as well. Before we go into this though, go and take the bung out of the board right now so you don’t forget later (wrapping it in the Velcro of the back footstrap ensures you do actually take it with you though).

Some airlines are clear about the maximum weight of gear you’re allowed to bring – and 24kg is a common figure these days, but others are frustratingly vague. If your airline belongs to the vague camp you should at the very least limit yourself to 32kg as an absolute maximum for any one bag. In the European Union this is the absolute limit the baggage handlers are allowed to lift by law and any bags above this weight don’t get to fly anywhere. (You’ll either have to repack at the airport or leave something behind.)

Once you know how much weight you take, (or in some cases know you don’t know) you need to consider how much your kit weighs:

For airlines that allow you to pay a flat rate to take one set of equipment (and accept that this will typically be transported in one board bag and one quiver bag) this is fine, and you can even get away with considerably more equipment (at least a set of three sails, and maybe a surfboard tucked in there as well). For airlines that allow you to take an extra 10kg of baggage for watersports equipment, you’re obviously going to struggle.

Keeping weight down
There isn’t a lot you can do to save weight, but here are some common tricks to cut it back to the minimum.

• Choose a sensible board and quiver bag. Wheels add considerably to the weight but little to the usefulness, since most airports have trolleys which also have wheels
• Avoid triple boardbags, you’ll never fill them up without going way over 32kg, so you’re taking extra padding you don’t need
• Make sure the board bag isn’t full of sand
• Make sure all your kit is dry
• Don’t take your sail bags. Most modern sails have a strap to keep them rolled up tightly, so you don’t really need the bag
• Likewise, ditch mast bags and pad out your gear with wetsuits
• If a few of you are going, spread out spares and non essentials such as a tool kit and spare extensions between you
• Take off unnecessary carry straps from the bag
• Consider taking the straps off the board if you’re really close to the max weight (carry them in your hand luggage).

If you’re still overweight, take a long hard look at what you’re bringing – do you really need it all? Can you hire a light wind board if the wind isn’t as strong as you’re hoping rather than taking your own? It’s always a difficult decision to know what to take but with a bit of research before you pack you should know the likely conditions and what you can therefore leave at home.

Avoiding damage
A decent board and quiver bag will take most of the knocks and scrapes so your kit doesn’t have to. You can put a bit of extra padding around the rails if you’re worried about it, but a 10mm thick foam bag should be fine for a board out of the Cobra factory (which aren’t known for their durability at the best of times). However, make sure it’s securely strapped into the bag so it can’t move around, and that nothing can hit it in the bag such as a harness hook, deck plate or – if you’ve had to unscrew one side of the footstraps to close the bag – the footstrap screw. It’s always a good idea to wrap the bag with a couple of roofrack straps pulled tight in case the zip fails (and straps always come in handy when you’re abroad and trying to tie your gear to the roof of a hire car with your shoelaces).

And did we mention – don’t forget to take out the pressure bung! (actually we’ve forgotten to do this on several occasions and nothing has happened, but it’s not a risk worth taking.)

Bus to terminal
If at all possible get someone to drop you off at the airport, or arrive with a friend so that someone can drop the kit off at the departure gate with one person, while the other goes to park the car or van. If that’s not an option and you arrive on your own it’s not so easy. Windsurf kit does fit onto the buses from airport parking stops to the terminal, but some drivers will tell you it doesn’t, or that they’re not allowed to take it for insurance reasons. If this happens you’ve got little option but to argue, beg, and plead with the drivers until they let you on. If it’s very busy they might refuse point blank – but they realise ultimately that if they don’t take you you’re going to miss your flight and cause their company something of a headache. When the bus arrives you should let the other passengers get on, and then quickly get it on and out of the way to demonstrate how you’re not going to cause a problem. Usually some of the other passengers will help, if only because they’re late for their own flight and don’t want to waste time arguing. It’s a rather stressful way to start your holiday but do-able.

Airport trolleys
They differ around the world. At most UK airports they are capable of travelling forwards and sideways, therefore the best way to carry your kit is to put two side by side, one to support the nose of the board and one to support the tail. The quiver bag goes on top, and it’s very easy for one driver to then push the whole lot into the airport. It’s easy to negotiate small spaces and tight corners and you don’t present much of an obstacle even in a crowd.

However if the trolley doesn’t go sideways it’s more difficult (and typically, most trolleys worldwide are the non-sideways variety). You can still use two trolleys,  the front one facing backwards and the back one facing forwards, and support your kit between them – but this arrangement requires two drivers as it has little or no steering.

If you’re on your own you can always just use one trolley and put your kit sideways on it, but getting through doors is very difficult, and you take up the entire space of any narrow corridors you have to pass through. Once you’re into the airport building proper you can usually rely on highly polished floors, which allow you to drag your kit without harming it at all, and this is often the easiest way.

In some countries you’ll find guys waiting at the airport to help people with their luggage, whether they want help or not and often for a sizeable tip. They often do well as people haven’t yet worked out the local currency and end up tipping much more than they realise. Some people try at all costs to avoid these guys, particularly since they’re unlikely to care too much how they treat your board, but if you’re arriving on your own they might save you a frustrating hour carrying your kit from the final few hundred yards to your pre-arranged pick up or hire car parking.

Check-in staff
Pick your queue carefully, a young, inexperienced-looking agent might not realise you need to pay for kit, but then again they might panic and call a supervisor. It’s something of a lottery. Whichever you pick, smile sweetly, be helpful, funny, polite and understanding. And good luck.

Damage
Once you pick up your board at the other end, check it right away for any obvious damage (it’s not practical to strip all the packing away and inspect it for hairline cracks, but it should be obvious if it’s been snapped in half, or had a hole speared in it by a fork lift truck). If it is damaged, the Warsaw Convention guarantees you compensation, whether or not you’ve signed a waiver – although it will be more difficult to argue your case if you have signed one. Take photos of the damage and report it to the airline before you leave the airport. It doesn’t matter if you don’t get the issue totally cleared up, but make sure you get something in writing to say the board was damaged in transit, then you can sort it out later. If it’s just your boardbag that is damaged you won’t have any luck claiming though. Airlines consider that the job of your luggage is to protect the contents, thus making damage to the bag or other luggage acceptable, to them at least.

If the board doesn’t turn up at all, because it was put on a later flight, it’s the airline’s responsibility to deliver it to your hotel (if you’ve arrived at your destination without it) or your home (if you’ve come back and your board is still there). Again sort this out before you leave the airport.

Finally, there are some signs of the EU 32kg limit being reduced to 24kg in the near future. BA have already made 24kg the maximum weight of any one bag, and this has serious consequences for the travelling windsurfer. We contacted several airlines to ask if they had any plans to follow BA in this matter, and all said they had NO plans to do so in the near future, but that this wasn’t a guarantee that this policy wouldn’t change. If it happens we’ll let you know and try to work out where this leaves us all.

And last of all, please do consider offsetting your carbon from every flight you make. It might not save the world and it won’t help your carve gybes or top turns, but it will result in a few more trees being planted, which can’t be a bad thing. www.climatecare.org is a very good website for this.

Have a good trip!

If you have any general travel tips or hints for flying with windsurfing gear please tell us here. If you have tips for a specific airline please post on the page for that airline. Thanks.

Last updated: September 21, 2007

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