padang is a pretty backward place, not much chance of hiring sups there and even if you could i reckon you would end up buying it after you ran it up the reef at some wedging point break in the ments, the reef is pretty sharp there!!!
a solution to your problem.....buy an 8'10 or smaller!!

Just jog up to Darwin and paddle to Timor with a few island crossings in the middle, you'll get to the Mentawais eventually. Watch out for pirates though, I hear one of them got dropped in on by a SUP at Bingin and they're not happy!

hamish Imrie said...

Hi

Anyone managed to fly with a SUP?

I am hoping to get from NZ up to the Mentawis for a boat trip in June but travel agents are saying anything over 2.5 meters will not get on board the plane, even if you are willing to pay excess baggage!

I have traveled with 9 foots surfboards no problem but I would hate to turn up and get my boards bumped? My Sup's are 10'5" and 9'8"

Anyone know about hiring boards out of Padang?

Thanks
Moosh.

G'day hamish
take out extra insurance when traveling with surfboard costing you more than $500 each incase they get damaged in flight use caution when flying with Air New Zealand + British Airways yes I took Air New Zealand to court in 2008 sued them for $2,500 for damaging my board I should have taken a photo of the foot print on my board cover I could have & would have sued them for a cool Million

hamish Imrie said...

Mmmm not sure I could go that short, as I am 100 KG and 6'3". Starboard makes a 33 wide short board but I'm not sure about anything over 30 wide!
I see Singapore air take Canoes, might try them and tell them its a canoe not a SUP... [}:)]

There's a fella who posts on here who goes by the name 'surfsup' he's 96kgs and says he has got down to an 8'4". On his blog he also reviews the Naish 8'10" so I wouldn't write off the smaller boards.

Just got back from a boat trip in Mentawai.......took my JL 9'9" on Air Asia all the way. No problems, got hit the usual surfboard fee of $30 each time changed flights but happy with that!
They technically had a limit of 3m for surfboards but they didn't ever measure the board.
I would take the short one only to reduce the risk. You get 15kg free on sport equip then pay for each extra kg above that if they enforce it so keep weight of all your boards down to a min. but length 9'8" will be fine.

Traveled Garuda with a 10ft5inch without a problem the check in staff didnt look twice.

Been thinking of similar myself and its looks like a pain from NZ

Got me thinking about ULI especially now they have the Gerry Lopez designed board