Hi all,

This is my first post in seabreeze.com and I must say it is the best kitesurfing forum I've been on! Weather alerts etc etc very cool!

Not sure if you all are aware but from my last trip to the Uk from Brisbane the prices of transporting your gear are pretty nuts. I travelled with Quantas - not sure if it's the same for all airlines but they DON'T accept the free golf bag trick anymore - a lot of airlines over here will give you a big discount on any sporting gear - usually 50% off the not so bad overweight baggage allowance.

Not here though - they were going to charge me $48!!!! a kilogram to get my kite bag here which weighs a bit over 18 kilograms - that added up to OVER $800!! It may sound a lot 18 kilograms but that was only one 12m kite, board, harness and pump. They must make a bomb out of overweight baggage - the only reason I had over 20 kilos in my normal travel bags was I had to take a lot of my wife's stuff. It's annoying to think that only a few months ago they allowed you to take 40 Kg before thinking about cabin luggage.

I ended up handing my gear back to my parents highly disapointed and got it sent by airmail which was crazily overpriced at over $600 - and that was the cheapest company we could find - some wanted to charge over a thousand.

So - if you're going to buy one of those golf marked travel bags for kitesurf gear you see for sale that are advertised TAKE ADVANTAGE OF FREE GOLF TRAVEL ALLOWANCE - NOT!! just check with your airline to see if they do the free golf bag thing as I think it's a thing of the past -from now on I'll be packing jocks only so I can travel with my kit.

Here's a link to the Quantas baggage allowance site.
www.qantas.com/au/en.html

Cheers - had a blast kiting at Shorncliffe, Inskip Point and camping/kiting at Lake Cootharaborough while I was home - great spots for the beginner!!

Cheers
Glennno

if your flying anywhere air new zealand goes they allow an extra 10kg
of sporting equipement

If you are thinking of sending kites via air mail, try vacuum packing them. I did it to get my gear on the plane from uk to here. It is hard to imagine just how small a 12 metre kite can become. I put an 18m2 in one vac bag and an 8 and 12 in the same bag together.