HAVE BOARD; CAN'T TRAVEL: SURFER's Travel Report After British Airways Bans Boards

This fella may be carrying his boards, but he's sure not carrying them on a British Airways aircraft.

If flying with our boards isn’t safe, what else can we do? There is always the option to ship your boards to your destination. Steve Clark of Billabong will ship the teams’ boards, making the travel quite a bit easier. A quick check on dhl.com’s price quote, however, made me realize this might not be a viable option for the everyday traveler. From Southern California to Padang, Indo, booked a week in advance, for a standard sized shortboard coffin, shipping would take three days, and deplete savings by $1,163.43. That’s an entire trip in itself, which brings us to the next option: practicality.

Where do you normally surf? If you aren’t lucky enough to live on the North Shore, or someplace else that pumps like Ronnie Coleman (youtube him), the board you need there might not be something you can use back home. Unless you have a highly specialized or specific board you absolutely need, and love, maybe the best option might be for you to simply buy a new or used board at your destination, and then sell it before you leave. Surfer’s Senior Editor Jake Howard took a trip to Spain recently in which he had to pay over $300 to ship his boards, one of which was broken on the way. A decent used board could be had for that price.

Luckily, not all airlines are so cavalier with our quivers. Howard has flown Singapore Airlines a few times without being charged for a bag and Qantas will lend that same goodwill. Dave Prodan, the Regional Media Manager for ASP North America, sheds some light on something a bunch of the guys on tour have been keen to. Apparently, several major airlines (such as Qantas, American Airline, and LAN) are a part of the One World Alliance, in which, according to Prodan, “you earn miles that can be applied to all the One World airlines. I could fly 20,000 miles on a Qantas trip, but then use those miles on an American trip.” Pretty sweet, but will they show as much care for our boards?

All hope is not yet lost, though. Some airlines are even showing some accountability for themselves, as Prodan discovered in South America, “In June, I traveled to Chile on LAN Chile and got charged $50 for my first board and $100 for each additional ($250 total for me) and everyone was pretty shocked. Recently, we rode LAN Peru and I got charged $50 dollars for two boards, roundtrip, and they said they changed their policy after the Chile debacle - so I thought that was cool.”

The state of affairs for surfers traveling by plane is uncertain at best, and the recent situation with British Airways has prompted the question, “What’s a surfer to do?” With our local spots becoming more crowded, the lure of far away, exotic and empty lineups becomes even more intoxicating. It was hard enough before, discovering whether or not you had enough game to get your board on for free, and if not the huevos to try and show up last minute, as Prodan has seen, and hope to be rushed onto your flight, free of charge. For even when you do find an airline that won’t jack your wallet, how can you make sure they’re not jacking your board? With a major carrier like British Airways completely dropping out of the game, our choices dwindle even more. Perhaps the time has come to cozy up to our boards in the cabin, and grab them a bag of peanuts.

Click here for more info on prices for quivers on various airlines.