Surfing Waves

hey guys!
just needing some advice regarding buying a travel bag for my 8' mini mal. i'm heading to europe for their summer n need a decent sturdy bag. Any suggestions? I'm looking at a CREATURES OF LEISURE 8'0 MULTISLIM TRAVEL BOARDBAG will this be ok??
Cheers, Amanda

Hello rowie12,
That bag should work fine. It is good to get the travel bag a little bigger than your board, so you have some extra room. Then you can add a little extra padding to help protect your board more. It is never good, when traveling to unzip your boardbag only to find surprised damage. Pack your board so they can be really rough with it on the airlines and it will still be okay. have fun in Europe!

Cheers tony g! Great advice cos I was going to buy an 8 foot bag but now ill get one a bit bigger definately don't want to arrive in Spain with a damaged board!

Wrap the board in something before you put it in the bag - bubble wrap (lighter but bulkier) or even felt carpet underlay (heavier but good level of protection) etc.

Keep in mind that it is the edges of the board that will generally be damaged - dropping a board flat probably wont cause too many problems, dropping on the edge will (and people will carry the board with an edge down). And as bags are thrown into the aircraft or cargo truck, its the nose or tail that is going to hit the wall.

Just stuffing the board bag with clothes or towels etc wont protect the edges that well. So it can be worth putting some extra effort there. Some people suggest using foam, like pipe lagging or some of those cheap swimming 'noodles', cut in half and taped to the rails. Even sticky taping some cardboard around the rails will help, or if you are using towels then do double or triple thickness around the rails and tape them in place. Extra protection for the nose and tail.

By the way, try to avoid putting the tape directly onto your board. It wont stick to the wax anyway and might be a pain to get the sticky stuff off where there isnt wax. I've seen people suggest wrapping the board in gladwrap (saran wrap) first, then place things around the rails then tape then on.

Make sure you remove your fins.

Once at your destination try to keep all the bubblewrap or foam etc rather than chuck it out, so you can reuse for the return trip.

Of course, to fit your board and all of the padding you will need a bag bigger than the board. 6inches longer is probably enough; plus you want to make sure the bag is several inches wider than your board - so dont forget the check the width of the bag against your board width.

Hi,

I would get it at least 6' longer than your board. Check the width too so you can pad the rails with pipe insulation you can get at your local hardware store. Protect the nose and tail nicely with lots of bubble wrap and other padding. Also get yourself a tube of solar resin to fix any dings when you arrive at your destination. When you unpack it when you arrive, keep the material you used to pack it for your return leg. Bring tape with you in your baggage to repack or buy some there if you are pretty sure you'll be able to find some.

Good luck!