Hi young fella, I fly within Aus once a year and use a Gun Sails board bag air travel, I can highly recommend them

As for what airlines in your area will allow, only you can work that out as it's changing all the time and you're in a differnt area to most of us anyway, go to their web sites and check their baggage allowence

Cheers Uncle Bob

qantas and virgin blue both state on their websites that they will not transport w'surfers in australia due to the length of the mast....obviously they're stuck in the 1980s and think that masts are 4.5m long and made out of one piece of fibreglass.

no promises but i'd imagine that if you found a bag that was inside their length restrictions (i think for virgin it's 3m) and put all your kit (including a 2 piece mast) in it then claimed it was a surfboard you'd probably go unoticed as a pole boarder

raffaeu said...

I am trying to sort this out, tomorrow I will go at the airport and query some smart guys down there ... Let's see.

Don't talk to the luggage handlers then

I used to travel to Perth a couple times a year and cart my windsurfing gear back and forth from Melb. Usually took 1 board at least 2 sails, 1 boom & mast. What a right royal pain in the bum, and almost always over weight.
My advice is sell all your windsurfing gear, and get a kiteboard set up. You'll never look back.
I can get two kites and two boards into a surfing "coffin" bag designed to carry two surfboards (covers almost any condition) and travel anywhere in Oz under the weight allowance no worries. In fact you get to take a "surfboard" on-board most carriers at no extra cost if you book it in

Some good advice about packing / travelling in this article: www.guycribb.com/userfiles/documents/General%20tips-%20Flying%20with%20kit.pdf

BA has always been a pain in the a.. when it comes to windsurf gear.

I remember flying from Europe to Australia in 1994 with a double board bag. While I was here they changed the flight rules. They suddenly wouldn't transport windsurf equipment to certain European destinations. I ended up having to ship everything by air cargo which cost over $1,000. Never flown with BA since.