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Flying with a Wakeboard


sabre

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Has anyone flown with a wakeboard? What precautions should I take? I have a padded wakeboard bag but is there anything else? Do I take the bindings off? Pack Towels around the board? My trip is late april so I have some time if I need to buy anything else.

Thanks,

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Has anyone flown with a wakeboard? What precautions should I take? I have a padded wakeboard bag but is there anything else? Do I take the bindings off? Pack Towels around the board? My trip is late april so I have some time if I need to buy anything else.

Thanks,

With the bag charges that the airlines are charging check into shipping via FedEx or UPS, it may save you money and frustration with the airlines. Also yes take off the bindings and package as if shipping. The airlines will probably be harder on your board than a shipper! Right now I would not trust the airlines with much.

REW

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I would definitely pad the bag with extra clothes. Make sure it looks like a snowboard, so you won't get charged the extra fees. Most airlines will allow a snowboard (or a wakeboard that looks like a snowboard) for the same price as a regular bag, if you are only checking one bag.

Another thing I do to make sure I don't get charged the oversize baggage fee is prepay for your checked baggage. You must do this when you check in online. It makes it easier for the agent. They just ask you if it has been paid for, say yes and you're good.

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With the bag charges that the airlines are charging check into shipping via FedEx or UPS, it may save you money and frustration with the airlines. Also yes take off the bindings and package as if shipping. The airlines will probably be harder on your board than a shipper! Right now I would not trust the airlines with much.

REW

Not so sure about that, I used to work for the Brown team. :biggrin: I've seen how they handle....everything, even if it's marked fragile which the customer probably paid extra for. Either way, pad that thing like you expect them to drop it off a 10 story building!!

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Has anyone flown with a wakeboard? What precautions should I take? I have a padded wakeboard bag but is there anything else? Do I take the bindings off? Pack Towels around the board? My trip is late april so I have some time if I need to buy anything else.

Thanks,

Have you seen United Broke My Guitar? search it on You Tube. I'd definitely look at cost to ship UPS if the airlines are going to charge extra. Either way, I'd pick up some foam pipe insulation and tape it around the ends with some blue painters tape before putting it in my bag.

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I have flown with a kiteboard (almost the same as a wakeboard) several times and put it and my kites in a padded Liquid Force "golf" bag. I bought some foam pipe insulation from HD and wrapped the edge of the board with by putting the board in the slot of the foam insulation. It offered great protection.

Check with the airline you are flying with. Look in there checked baggage policy and sporting equip. Alaska for example has a pretty liberal policy, while Continental had a full list of costs including snowboards, wakeboards, kiteboards, surfboards, golf equip etc.. Kiters have been using a "golf" bag for there boards and kites since some airlines don't really charge much for golf equip but do extra charges for sporting equip. On our recent flight to Costa Rica it only cost me $25 to check my "golf" bag.

BTW, I did fly to FL a few years back and shipped my wakeboard via UPS. My wakeboard showed up damaged. It was in a wakeboard specific box and padded well. I ended up filing a claim. They said the longer boxes tend to get caught in there conveyor system. I also ordered a wakesurf board and it showed up via UPS with hole punched through it. My opinion now is I would rather have it go through 2 handlings on a few hour flight vs days on a UPS, etc. truck.

Edited by stewart
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I have flown with my snowboard several times, which i feel would be a very similar case. I would take the bindings off of the board and pad them. But with the snowboard only thing that has been damaged so far is the bag. it would take a lot of pressure to break a board.

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For a padded case - the answers above have been pretty good.

You may want to take a look into a SportTube. It's a hardshell case.

I've traveled with my ski quite a few times in a padded bag without any issues, but it only takes one time to destroy your board.

They airlines can damage anything - even through padded bags with extra padding added. I use a hard case for my golf clubs.

If you stay with the padded bag, You may want to add corrugated cardboard to the outer flat surfaces to help protect against corners/points penetrating & doing damage through the padding.

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For a padded case - the answers above have been pretty good.

You may want to take a look into a SportTube. It's a hardshell case.

I've traveled with my ski quite a few times in a padded bag without any issues, but it only takes one time to destroy your board.

They airlines can damage anything - even through padded bags with extra padding added. I use a hard case for my golf clubs.

If you stay with the padded bag, You may want to add corrugated cardboard to the outer flat surfaces to help protect against corners/points penetrating & doing damage through the padding.

That's what golfers use, or at least something similar. Don't know if they're wide enough for a wakeboard, though.

BTW, LMAO at the video when he unlocks the padlock and the whole u-shaped piece goes flying off screen...twice. Great design.

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pad that thing like you expect them to drop it off a 10 story building!!

Man,

I'm gonna have start telling customers that.

Currently, I tell customers "pack your shipment like it's going to war, 'cause, it is"

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I got a Obrien wakeboard bag for christmas, my board is a ronix but who cares. The kicker is, that it says "Obrien Golf Division" on the side of the bag, and unsuspecting check in attendants will mistake it for a golf bag and they dont charge me oversize fees haha!

Padded it with a blanket and took tracking fins off.

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We flew with a wakeboard and three sets of bindings last year to Florida all in a Liquid Force padded bag. The board didn't have any fins and we had all of the bindings loose. The board came through fine both ways as well as the bindings.

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