Shipping Your Ski

[Skoot1123]

I have seen some chatter on this so I thought I'd start a thread. The discussions has centered around shipping a ski or taking it with you while flying. My two cents are from what I observed/saw when my wife and I went to Acapulco. We have an HO ski bag with wheels on it that we put our two ski's in. It is a soft bag, so we packed our towels and clothes around it as well for extra insurance against dings and whatever else the baggage carrier's decided to do. When we got to Acapulco our ski's came in without any issue. As we arrived there were people that had the hard case's, and they had ski issues. Apparently when the airlines see a hard case they think they can do whatever to the bag/box etc since it is a "hard shell." When the bag is soft, it is more "fragile" so they are a little more careful. That is just what we have experienced. I am sure that there are exceptions and some folks have had problems with both.

 

Other thoughts?

[The_MS]

Luck will run out. Get a herd shell. large items get loaded first and the whole cargo load will rest on top of your soft case.

[Horton]

Airlines suck

[Skoot1123]

@MS and @Horton - although if they continually break your ski you can continually get a new one.......... But I'd rather keep skiing!

[Zman]

One thing I have found helpful with the Sporttube is also using a thin light weight soft case inside the tube. I do this because airport security folks really struggle putting it all back together when they open the tube. With the thin soft cast they don't have vests, handles, tools, etc. falling all over the place when trying to stuff it back together. Just my 2 cents.

Got my soft case from perfski

[The_MS]

It takes a while to find a good ski that works. You dont want to break the good ones. Plus if you are on the way to a big event you are toast. TSA sucks and they dont have a clue. Always stay and watch them if you can.

[Horton]

TSA i understand. Baggage handlers are the issue

[The_MS]

If you fly for cheap airfare you will get cheap service. Guys like Mad11 who fly zillions of miles usually dont have issues. Saving money by flying through 3 cities to get to a destination will increase your chances of having something go wrong. More chances to break your bag, have your plane break or delays on connections. Southwest started this cattle hauling state we are in. School bus in the sky.

[Wish]

I had some friends stop in from Utah several week ends back, here in FL. I watched them take their skies out of a couple Marine Products, straight up, simple, zipped slalom bags. Boots attached. They were modistly paded but seemed well built. The bags had the airline claim tags on them. When I asked if they checked them in that way, they said yep. They did add a home made fin protector to each made outa cardboard. I think there is marret to what @shoot1123 is sayn.

 

My sporttube always comes out with a new scrape here or a bent axle there. I've seen it come out from behind the plack plastic curtain at high vocity and land with a thud on the overesized bag ramp.

 

Heading to MN, I watched 2 TSA agents absolutely struggle to get the tube back together after an inspection. Truly nothing against them and they have a thankless job but you could not have directed a better Three Stuges seen (2 Stuges in this case) . One would push really hard, the other would let go, bag slides on the SS counter and BANG a domino affect of airline stuff falling off shelves. Eventually they let me behind the special security tape line to assist. Wish I had video.

 

If you don't have soft case or don't want to invest in one, buy some pipe insolation and rape all the way around the ski. Should look like the ski has a bumper pad along the edges. It will suspend the ski surfaces and completely protect ski edges inside the SportTube. . It's a 2$ investment at any home improvement store.