Hi guys,
i need some advice for packing my foil on a airplane. I have bought a pro limit wing foil travel bag. Now i am wondering how to pack my foil front wings (slingshot g900) safely in the bag. Maybe some bubble wrap? has anyone a better idea? Thanks a lot, Juergen

I used closed cell foam sold for building insulation. Super light and good for impacts. And quite cheap in 10m rolls about 4mm thick. Double wrapped the foil parts and also wrapped the board.

Also fold some card board in an L shape and run it along your board rails, found this to be one of the best tricks for protecting the rails when travelling with a board.

I've never had an issue with the foil components - but I've had plenty of board dings in transit. I have sandwiched foils between the board and wings in the past and that works ok (make sure to have something between them and the boards).
The tricks that I have dialed in after a lot of travel:

1) Flexi Hex. It's pretty cheap, it's light, and it really protects the board. Highly advise using this. I can usually get a round trip out of it, but it gets trashed (recycled) after that.


2) I'm now packing my foils and wings separately from my board. I used to pack it all together but the bag gets super heavy and large and I find that the handlers are less careful with it when it's huge. The weight also carries more inertia if it gets dropped. Keeping things separately packed is safer.


3) try to minimize your board size and quiver size. It just makes things so much easier. 1 board, 1 mast, 2 foils, 2 wings. I used to travel with a whole shop packed into my bag and it was a nightmare. Just because you have room (or weight) to spare, doesn't mean you need to use it.

What a shame this isn't about how to protect / pack the board... I would have shown this (oops I just did haha)

this is indeed very funny

This is what i did on my surf foil for dockstart practice haha

I also have the Pro Limit wingfoil session bag. It's probably impossible to keep a complete wingfoil setup in this bag within 'economy' weight limits (20-22Kg most airlines) so you may have to pay an overweight charge. It's been cheaper to fly business on shorter flights (like FRA- Canaries) as you get two free 32Kg bags. Nobody charges extra for a piece of "sports equipment" anymore, just weight.

Whatever type of padding you use for the foils, a very useful thing to keep it all together is a roll of thin plastic wrap (for food storage). Wrap wrap wrap around everything, it's cheap and keeps your padding in place. Pack your foils on your deck pad with your wetsuit in between. Wrap the board and everything with the stretchy plastic wrap.

It's an environmental disaster but the whole sport is. Figure the contents of that bag represents at least a barrel of oil, we won't talk about the flight

I wish it was the case that no airlines charge for sports equipment. Jetstar charge $75 for oversize - no problem. Fiji Air charge $65 for oversize plus $240 for more than one bag, so $305 extra per flight if you don't have a board bag big enough to take all your gear.

From North Carolina to Oahu to Melbourne (Torquay to Jervis Bay driving) to Sydney to Oahu to North Carolina. No board dings. Quick pack/unpack (no cumbersome taping). Bottom pad doubles as a hotel room/air bnb exercise/stretch mat. No stock bag protects a board well enough for airline travel imho. That added high density semi-rigid foam perimeter band made all the difference. I glued canvas fabric on the outside of that foam band so it would maintain its shape in the bag while traveling. Looks crude but works great. Wheeless Mystic bag (light!) so I bungee on a quick fold wheel cart to move it around and stuff the cart in another smaller bag at the checkin counter. Under 50 pounds.

Doin it all over again come Dec (minus the Oahu stopover) with a Foil drive+ added to baggage list,....unless I can find a 2nd used board to just store at my daughters place in Melbourne

Select to expand quote

Dspace said..
From North Carolina to Oahu to Melbourne (Torquay to Jervis Bay driving) to Sydney to Oahu to North Carolina. No board dings. Quick pack/unpack (no cumbersome taping). Bottom pad doubles as a hotel room/air bnb exercise/stretch mat. No stock bag protects a board well enough for airline travel imho. That added high density semi-rigid foam perimeter band made all the difference. I glued canvas fabric on the outside of that foam band so it would maintain its shape in the bag while traveling. Looks crude but works great. Wheeless Mystic bag (light!) so I bungee on a quick fold wheel cart to move it around and stuff the cart in another smaller bag at the checkin counter. Under 50 pounds.

Doin it all over again come Dec (minus the Oahu stopover) with a Foil drive+ added to baggage list,....unless I can find a 2nd used board to just store at my daughters place in Melbourne

Hi,

thanks for the detailed instructions. Where did you get the extra wheels shown on the the last foto from? I also own the Mystic bag but find it quite heavy sometimes.

Thanks,
Ralf

Select to expand quote

Hi,

thanks for the detailed instructions. Where did you get the extra wheels shown on the the last foto from? I also own the Mystic bag but find it quite heavy sometimes.

Thanks,
Ralf

Compared to some of the big wheeled bags the Mystic bag itself is pretty light. Any of these board bags become heavy as soon as you start stuffing them with extra items beyond the board. I could have easily fit more into the bag shown but the weight gets too be too much and I vaguely recall JetStar restrictions being pretty tight.

These are just cheapy folding carts off Amazon. Does the job. Model/brands constantly change. I could have made a wider stance detachable wheel base that would have worked better than the Amazon cart, but I was too lazy. Maybe for this next trip.

I actually packed some of my HA front wings along the rails of my board to protect them from side impact. Not sure if this was a good idea or not but they fit nicely and everything made it to Maui and back.

kind of hard to tell what's going on, but here's my packing job on the way back.

www.instagram.com/reel/CotHWgqr0fF

I travel alot with my wingfoil gear. Prolite surfboard bag, just throw it all in and do some padding with clothing etc. You need foil gears with covers though, I have Unifoil and they come with all padded covers so it's prime.

Rent the board, bring your wings and foils.

Select to expand quote

gregwho said..
I wish it was the case that no airlines charge for sports equipment. Jetstar charge $75 for oversize - no problem. Fiji Air charge $65 for oversize plus $240 for more than one bag, so $305 extra per flight if you don't have a board bag big enough to take all your gear.

I just went Fiji Air no problem. Oversize I got for $100 there, 94.50 return, same as extra bag, so $194.50 total for return flight. I was taking the Sky Air Premium board, one sail, one foil, one pump, wetsuit. That was all. They told me extra care was taken with oversize.
So pay in advance for one bag and its cheap.

I use this stuff on the trailing edges of my HA foils more to protect the other stuff in the bag, and some wetsuit material to wrap up

www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005120629990.html