Kite Landboard Air-travel bag advice

Quote: Originally posted by Cerebite

I have used a hard sided golf travel bag with great success in the past for transporting stunt kites. Mine is three sections with lockable pins [remember to use TSA locks] that expands from c. 4 ft to c. 8 ft in length and a diameter of about 6 maybe 8 inches. Hard to say if your deck [or compete board] would fit.

I think it would be a matter of if you have to temporarily remove the wheels and/or trucks.

If you opt for a soft case, I would consider foam wrapping the axles with either pipe insulation or a slit pool noodle segments (cut to side)

Other likely hard case candidates for kites and landboard are a SporTube 3 ($$) and the large SKB ($$$) or Plano ($) golf cases (dolllar signs denote relative cost).

ATB,
Sam

Quote: Originally posted by Cheddarhead

Last month I flew to Texas with kites along. My biggest hurdle was staying under the 50lb weight limit. We flew with United. They charged $150 for anything over 50lbs. Crazy.

At some point, it's just going to be cheaper to buy your gear bag a seat on a budget carrier. When that happens, we'll be holding a contest to see who can best make their bag look like a favored child or pet.

ATB,
Sam

Quote: Originally posted by Cheddarhead

Last month I flew to Texas with kites along. My biggest hurdle was staying under the 50lb weight limit. We flew with United. They charged $150 for anything over 50lbs. Crazy.

Single skin. Just sayin..... :evil:

Quote: Originally posted by jeffnyc

Cheddarhead - what case did you use? I'm debating whether to bring my gear with me to Orlando in a couple weeks (work, but I'll be there about a week - Cocoa beach is fairly close by). My big problem is my board is fairly large (150x50) so it limits my options. June is not the greatest for kites, so it would suck to drag all that stuff down there and get skunked. Lots of thunderstorms in the afternoon. My top choice right now I think is this: https://greenhatkiteboarding.com/bags/litewave-golf-bag, but I hate spending all that $. Of course that's about 1 day of rental, so maybe worth it if I can get away a couple days... 48k - the biggest differences between the bag options seems to be padding, whether you want to try to pass it off as a golf bag to get it past some airline baggage fees, size, and wheels/no wheels. Most folks that opted for no wheels truly regretted it and wished they had spent the extra $ (for DP/water equipment). ATB makes things a lot easier - you don't really need all that much padding (board is fairly indestructible), and your FB kites are pretty small - ditching the bags and tossing them in compression sacks or vacuum bags will make them smaller. I would just look for a large, inexpensive duffel bag that's big enough to hold your board. You won't be over any length limits, so just watch out for weight. Buy a skate tool if you don't have one, super convenient. The scrub bag (https://www.powerkiteshop.com/accessories/scrubboardbag.htm) will probably do the trick (favorable review on this page), and looks like you don't even need to take off the wheels. I'd guess you could vacuum pack a couple kites (https://www.powerkiteshop.com/mystic_kite_vacuum_bags.htm) and put them and your pads/helmet in the space under the wheels and you're set.

I'm not going to be much help I'm afraid. I packed 3 inflatable kites, 2 bars, harness and a couple other tid bits into a large suitcase. My giant board (160x44) I had a friend drive it down there for me. We met in the same place. I flew, he drove. After the trip he mailed the board back to me. I wanted to get a "golf bag" same as you, but anything over 150cm is almost impossible to fly with unless you want to pay the piper. I would've used a smaller board and went the golf bag route but I'm just learning and needed my big board. Traveling with gear just gets harder and harder all the time.

Quote: Originally posted by Windstruck

Quote: Originally posted by Cheddarhead   Last month I flew to Texas with kites along. My biggest hurdle was staying under the 50lb weight limit. We flew with United. They charged $150 for anything over 50lbs. Crazy. Single skin. Just sayin..... :evil:

Kitesurfing + single skin just doesn't cut it for this newbie If it were a trip to the mountains, hell yeah, foils would be the ticket