Has anyone had any experience with this?

According to the baggage rules, large items "including surfboards" can be checked in, if they are under 190 cm in length. This is for an inter-asia flight; I believe the long-haul Aussie-to-Asia rules allow for 277 cm items (bigger plane).

190 cm is slightly less than the length of a disassembled 430cm 2-piece mast, so I'm curious as to how flexible and understanding the Jetstar people tend to be in these matters...

stay away from jetstar they hate watersports its $20 a kg go air asia

Honolulu to Sydney on Jetstar = $0
Two boards, one mast :)

I got the impression the boards were put on the top of the containers in the planes, as we watched our boards get lovingly placed (I mean stuffed into) the plane......

Make sure you have a very sturdy board bag!

on my trip last week that would have cost me $1200 on jet star one way

I just want to clarify how the cargo/bag hold works for the a330 and a320.

The a330 has what is called a aft bulk hold. This area is divided into 3 zones by a net restraint system. This is the area were most surfboards, malibu, windsurfers ext. are carried. In other words not in the containers. So, if you see your gear on top of a container its not going to be stuffed into a container and placed with the general mix of bags and freight (a330). The a320 does not have this set up hence the dimension for sporting equipment are restricted as they do need to fit into a container. Jetstar opted for the container system for the a320 as this allowed for quicker turnarounds. Some airlines like Qantas, Virgin Blue and Tiger have planes that don't use containers and thus are able to fit larger sporting equipment. So, if you are traveling domestic in Australia with long sporting equipment use a company like Qantas, Virgin Blue or Tiger. However, internationally, Jetstar does not have a problem fitting long boards in their aft bulk area.

mango

Thanks mango, thanks everybody else, yep it's the a320 not the a330, I checked. So it looks like Air Asia for me...