The Surfer's Guide to Costa Rica - Packing Boards
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How to Pack Your Surfboards
Make preparations in advance for your boards. If you start
early you can find a better deal on a travel bag if you don’t
already have one. Also, it takes time to pack boards
properly. If you wait until the last minute you may be sorry.
Buy the best board bag you can afford. If you buy a good
travel bag and have padded day bags and removable fins
you’re set. If not, buy bubble wrap, tape and foam fin
blocks (they fit around and between your fins and are
available at most surf shops or online at from Just Surf) if
you don’t have removable fins. Before packing your
boards you might want to remove the old wax. It’s hot as
hell down there, so by the time you get to the beach old
wax can melt all over everything. Besides, it’s difficult to
put tropical wax over cold wax when it’s 90 degrees out.
Make preparations in advance for your boards. If you start
early you can find a better deal on a travel bag if you don’t
already have one. Also, it takes time to pack boards
properly. If you wait until the last minute you may be sorry.
Buy the best board bag you can afford. If you buy a good
travel bag and have padded day bags and removable fins
you’re set. If not, buy bubble wrap, tape and foam fin
blocks (they fit around and between your fins and are
available at most surf shops or online at from Just Surf) if
you don’t have removable fins. Before packing your
boards you might want to remove the old wax. It’s hot as
hell down there, so by the time you get to the beach old
wax can melt all over everything. Besides, it’s difficult to
put tropical wax over cold wax when it’s 90 degrees out.
Consider getting a water resistant bag because you are likely to encounter rain. Packed board bags are
they don’t dry quickly in the tropics, so they get stinky.
There are many theories on how to pack surfboards. The goal in packing is to make a padded lump out of
your board even before you put it in the bag. Tape a towel, old wetsuit or a couple of tee shirts around the
nose and tail of your board and make it bulky, or use foam nose and fin blocks. Put the foam blocks on
and tape the bubble wrap over it. Bubble wrap the whole thing. Put the wad into your board bag along with
your leash and foam tubing (for securing your bag to the car roof), and your vest or short john, if you’re
bringing one. It used to be that you would pack everything in your board bag—clothes, towels…everything
that would fit and provide extra protection. But the airlines have weight limits now, and they tend to treat
the heavier, bulkier bags worse than others. So you want maximum protection with minimum weight. Not
too difficult with today’s board bags and some extra supplies, especially bubble wrap. Feel good when
your boards arrive with no dings, as it will happen eventually.
Don’t discard the bubble wrap when you unpack as you’ll need it for the return trip. It will be a pain
dragging it all around, along with the board bag, but it will be worth it.
You may want to consider the hard cases from Santa Monica Surf Cases, with pros and cons. They are
heavy and somewhat cumbersome, especially once you've unpacked your boards. With your boards out
of the case, the case itself takes up much of the trunk of your rental SUV, or half a Costa Rican hotel
room. As expected, the hard cases are strong and you probably won't get any dings. And they can be fast
and easy to pack and unpack your boards as you don’t have to think about padding or anything, just shove
your boards in and go. But they are big and heavy compared to conventional board bags, and
conventional bags have come a long way.
A word on traveling with surfboards.... Virtually all airlines now charge for surfboards as oversized or
“unusual” baggage. Charges range from $25 on Southwest (which doesn’t fly to Costa Rica) to $100 on
Continental, for each board bag with a maximum of two boards. And with the new security measures in
place they always check inside your bags, so lying about the number of boards in your bag no longer
works as well. To add insult to injury, they also give you a warning that should the flight be full, your
boards might not get loaded. That’s where lighter bags come in handy. It’s all at the airline’s discretion.
And it means you should be prepared to stay at or near the airport should your boards get bumped to
make room for Michael Jackson’s cosmetic cases.
Traveling with surfboards sometimes seems like trying to paddle out at a big, consistent, walled-up
beach break: Endless Bummer. Then, all of a sudden, while waiting in line at the ticket counter, that
working stiff from Chicago asks you, “What’s in that bag?” and you realize that, hey, you’re on a surf trip,
and a warm wave of stoke massages you silly.
By the way, when you arrive in the Juan Santamaria Airport in San José, look for the oversize baggage
(Equipaje Especial) sign. That’s where your surfboard bag will appear. (Juan Santamaria is a well-
organized airport, with polite and helpful officials and assistance easy to locate. That’s on the arrival end.
When it’s time to leave it can be a horror it’s so crowded and disorganized.)
Locking it all up
Most travelers like to lock their bags. With the security screening put in place after 9/11 all locks were off—
either you took them off or the security people cut them off, unless you have TSA-certified locks. These are
locks approved for security screening, as they can open them, but supposedly, thieves can’t. Who knows?
But at least it makes it so one can’t just open your bag at will, which is more protection from thievery than
none. Find TSA locks at eBags.com.
Click here to get The Surfer's Guide to Costa Rica & SW Nicaragua on iTunes.
they don’t dry quickly in the tropics, so they get stinky.
There are many theories on how to pack surfboards. The goal in packing is to make a padded lump out of
your board even before you put it in the bag. Tape a towel, old wetsuit or a couple of tee shirts around the
nose and tail of your board and make it bulky, or use foam nose and fin blocks. Put the foam blocks on
and tape the bubble wrap over it. Bubble wrap the whole thing. Put the wad into your board bag along with
your leash and foam tubing (for securing your bag to the car roof), and your vest or short john, if you’re
bringing one. It used to be that you would pack everything in your board bag—clothes, towels…everything
that would fit and provide extra protection. But the airlines have weight limits now, and they tend to treat
the heavier, bulkier bags worse than others. So you want maximum protection with minimum weight. Not
too difficult with today’s board bags and some extra supplies, especially bubble wrap. Feel good when
your boards arrive with no dings, as it will happen eventually.
Don’t discard the bubble wrap when you unpack as you’ll need it for the return trip. It will be a pain
dragging it all around, along with the board bag, but it will be worth it.
You may want to consider the hard cases from Santa Monica Surf Cases, with pros and cons. They are
heavy and somewhat cumbersome, especially once you've unpacked your boards. With your boards out
of the case, the case itself takes up much of the trunk of your rental SUV, or half a Costa Rican hotel
room. As expected, the hard cases are strong and you probably won't get any dings. And they can be fast
and easy to pack and unpack your boards as you don’t have to think about padding or anything, just shove
your boards in and go. But they are big and heavy compared to conventional board bags, and
conventional bags have come a long way.
A word on traveling with surfboards.... Virtually all airlines now charge for surfboards as oversized or
“unusual” baggage. Charges range from $25 on Southwest (which doesn’t fly to Costa Rica) to $100 on
Continental, for each board bag with a maximum of two boards. And with the new security measures in
place they always check inside your bags, so lying about the number of boards in your bag no longer
works as well. To add insult to injury, they also give you a warning that should the flight be full, your
boards might not get loaded. That’s where lighter bags come in handy. It’s all at the airline’s discretion.
And it means you should be prepared to stay at or near the airport should your boards get bumped to
make room for Michael Jackson’s cosmetic cases.
Traveling with surfboards sometimes seems like trying to paddle out at a big, consistent, walled-up
beach break: Endless Bummer. Then, all of a sudden, while waiting in line at the ticket counter, that
working stiff from Chicago asks you, “What’s in that bag?” and you realize that, hey, you’re on a surf trip,
and a warm wave of stoke massages you silly.
By the way, when you arrive in the Juan Santamaria Airport in San José, look for the oversize baggage
(Equipaje Especial) sign. That’s where your surfboard bag will appear. (Juan Santamaria is a well-
organized airport, with polite and helpful officials and assistance easy to locate. That’s on the arrival end.
When it’s time to leave it can be a horror it’s so crowded and disorganized.)
Locking it all up
Most travelers like to lock their bags. With the security screening put in place after 9/11 all locks were off—
either you took them off or the security people cut them off, unless you have TSA-certified locks. These are
locks approved for security screening, as they can open them, but supposedly, thieves can’t. Who knows?
But at least it makes it so one can’t just open your bag at will, which is more protection from thievery than
none. Find TSA locks at eBags.com.
Click here to get The Surfer's Guide to Costa Rica & SW Nicaragua on iTunes.
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