Going along with Boxxa’s question with Golf clubs; anyone travel with Snowboard Gear/Ski Gear?
I’m going to be doing a BUNCH of travel to Salt Lake City for work and would LOVE to take my gear with to hit the slopes.
Southwest charges an extra $50/bag for oversize; but what about protection from damage/etc? What’s your experience with traveling with stuff like this?
take your boots and rent skiis out there unless you do this a lot and have a hard case etc… you should be able to rent better skiis at various shop for a reasonable rate.
http://www.southwest.com/travel_center/sports_equipment.html
No charge for oversized on southwest:)
Snow or water skis are accepted when enclosed in a suitable container. Southwest Airlines provides free plastic bags for ski equipment. These bags are used to prevent the various components of ski equipment from becoming separated. The skis will be conditionally accepted unless they are being transported in a hard, plastic case or standard ski bag. Snow ski equipment consists of one pair each of skis, ski poles, and boots. Water-ski equipment includes one pair of skis and one life preserver or vest. Snowboard equipment includes one snowboard and one pair of boots.
When substituting ski equipment for a free bag, Southwest Airlines allows up to two bags (containing one set of snow skis, ski poles, and ski boots) to count as one item, even if they are packed and tagged separately. (overweight charges may still apply.)
the skiis you can rent are far better then what most of us probably own. And you can rent them for what type of skiing you going to be doing that day or conditions etc
Ive always just tossed my board into my bag with some clothes to protect it. Did this multiple times going back and forth from buf -> jfk without any issues at all.
Take your boots and get the demo rental package, with one rental you can try all different types of skis.:tup:
I have done this a dozen times when going out west.
I’ve got a separate padded ski bag and a boot bag. I wrap my skis and poles together with bubble wrap a few times around, and never had a problem.
Skis get checked, boot bag is my “personal item” and a carry on has all my non-ski clothes. I wear my jacket, and the pants/gloves/helmet/goggles go in a checked bag usually, but you can just jam it all in the ski bag around the other skis/poles if you want.
It’s kind of a pain in the ass, honestly…but I really like my equipment. Plus, some of the rental fees out west were more than half the cost of the lift ticket. With the way I did it, I didn’t get an extra bag fee, and I had all of my stuff…which was nice.
I’m a boarder, so I’d be taking my board, bindings, boots, clothes, etc.
Should I pop the extra $75 for the hard case over the soft case? Or just use the soft case and wrap everything in everything…
And as for renting better equipment… Ain’t going to happen with my Board/Binding setup from what everyone keeps telling me… Supposedly I’ve got like “THE” setup. (Ride CAD bindings, with a Lib-Tech Dark Series board).
just pack your bag well, the beating the board takes on the mountain will be WAY worse than the plane ride.
Padded soft bag with your board wrapped in towels. I also use my snowboard pants and jacket to the wrap the board.
Don’t buy some junk, unpadded bag. You should be spending at least $50 and more like $75-100 on a quality bag. One with wheels is even better.
For a soft bag I was looking at the Burton ones they have at Dicks; they’re ~$100 and have the wheels.
From the sounds of it the soft Burton should work fine.
Are you and Boxxa going on vacation together? Lol
Nope. My work had decided that I’m going to become a regular traveler to our Salt Lake City facility… Thus I get “free” trips to Utah… All I gotta pay is the Lift ticket, hotel, and car for the extra days I’m there (Unless I stay over a weekend for work… :P).
ive taken my board before with a shitty bag on northwest, and didnt have any issues with it… really it would be hard to do damage
x2 for taking your own board, screw dragging skis around though… i used to just bring my boots and get the high end rental so i can demo skis i’ll never be able to afford.
I have one of these if you would like to buy it
hard bag isn’t necessary, soft bag is fine. Just make sure you get a padded bag: you can go off a 60 ft jump and be fine but it can’t fall 6 feet on an edge without damage.
we sell padded bags at urban, one of the reasons we hooked you up is so you would hopefully check us out for future items…
Just pack some clothes in any decent bag and it will be fine. Never had an issue and i’ve flown with skis several times, even took two pairs in one bag last time. Also, with most airlines a ski bag along with a boot bag only count as one piece of baggage. Southwest has plenty of cheap flights to slc and they don’t have extra fees.
Oh I know, but I didn’t see any bags when I was in there…
they’ve got them, just inquire. they can also order anything you want, takes 5-10 business days (usually more towards 5 though). (716) 884-9145