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April 30, 2001 Newport surfer John Pickle had visions of Pavones dancing in his head when he showed up at LAX last holiday season. He and his friend, Dane Muller, had it all figured out: they'd enter a six-month exchange program at a Costa Rican university, assemble new quivers and major in perfect left pointbreaks for the duration. As long as he kept up his grades, how could his plan fail? But when he and Muller lugged their suitcases and board coffins to the check-in counter on that late December evening and tried to put on the holiday cheer, they got Scrooged. "Are those surfboards?" the tight-lipped, steely-eyed attendant asked. "Yeah, but..." "Do you realize," she continued, "that surfboards are not allowed on our flight to San Jose?" "But, we'll be happy to pay the excess baggage..." "No excess baggage, no exceptions. Have a nice flight." After a lengthy hassle that almost made them miss the final boarding call, Pickle and Muller were forced to do the unthinkable: they left their surfboards behind. Three weeks and $500 each in shipping and customs fees later, their boards arrived at the University and saved them from what could have been a half-year sentence in surfing purgatory. As Pickle complained to his mother while he was still boardless, "There's a girl here from Idaho -- and even she has a surfboard." Fortunately, Pickle and Muller had plenty of time to solve their quiver problems. But as more and more airlines decide to instate severe excess baggage restrictions during peak travel hours, your chances of getting skunked on your next two-week surf trip may be highest inside the airport. "We've seen it happen a few times," says Henry Morales of Wavehunters, a Santa Barbara-based surf tour operation. "Guys will show up at the airport and have no idea that they can't bring surfboards, which means their trip is basically ruined. These embargoes tend to be most common for the Latin American countries." The airlines, of course, aren't placing these restrictions to prevent you from discovering their favorite Peruvian pointbreak. Instead, they're looking for ways to put a cap on a common practice for passengers traveling to Latin America: bearing big, bulky gifts like TVs, sinks and refrigerators. "During the holiday season," says Erica Roy, spokeswoman for Continental, "you have a lot of passengers traveling from the United States back to their families in Latin America, and they're bringing a lot of heavy stuff with them. The weight adds up, and for economical and safety reasons, we have to limit this weight when passenger traffic is at its peak. And heavy baggage is heavy baggage -- we can't give preference to one group over another." Apparently, passenger traffic peaks year-round on Continental flights to Lima, Peru. Effective 2001 and lasting indefinitely, your surfboards are no longer welcome. Continental also bans boards on flights to Puerto Vallarta (from June 4 to August 31 and November 30 to January 15), San Salvador (from June 4 to August 31 and November 30 to January 15) and Panama (from June 4 to August 31 and November 30 to January 15). United is another notorious group of excess baggage Nazis and, as mentioned above, their embargo on Los Angeles flights to Costa Rica (from May 30 to August 15 and November 1 to January 13) has spoiled more than one surfer's hopes of finding Pura Vida. Still, this doesn't mean that your lifelong dreams of surfing Chicama, La Libertad and Witches Rock will never be realized -- there are plenty of other airlines that will find space for your surfboards. LACSA is known to be extremely accommodating for Costa Rica-bound surfers while American is a safe bet for Lima. Keep in mind, though, that the airlines are always changing their policies: a free ride today could easily be an all-points embargo tomorrow. The key is to beat the steely-eyed lady at the ticket counter before she beats you. Instead of getting yourself into a "pickle," check the excess baggage policies of an airline before you lay down your credit card for your next surf trip. That way, there's only one thing you'll be leaving behind at the airport: your boundaries. --Evan Slater  |
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