If you can’t rip it up in the Gorge, you might as well try Maui, like Karin, our rentals manager did in April.

It’s no secret that baggage handlers can be rather unforgiving when it comes to the proper care and feeding of your precious windsurf board. International travel can be an especially trying endeavor, and it’s wise to do everything in your power to give your gear the upper hand in any mistreatment scenario. Sailing a remote location on your own personal gear is an incredible experience that will make all your hard work and preparation worthwhile!

To that end, one of our customers just returned to Denver after a week-long trip to the Mexican Riviera. He devised a particularly clever packing scheme that left both his windsurf board and his board bag virtually unscathed at the conclusion of his journey! Here is his experience, in his own words:

Hello Big Winds!

We just returned from our trip to the Mexican Riveria, where I was able to sail five consecutive days during our seven-day vacation. I wanted to share these pictures of my new Dakine sailboard bag along with the additional 1/2 inch padding that I added from Tharco. These pictures were taken upon our return to Denver. It looks like it was hand carried through baggage handling at Frontier Airlines – not a mark or scuff! Amazing!

I purchased the 4×8 sheet of 1/2 inch foam from Tharco, laid the sailboard onto the sheet and cut the shape with a serrated knife, for insertion into the padded bag. I then doubled the 1/2 inch foam layers with my hot glue gun for added protection on the rails. It worked so well, you can throw the board bag around without causing any damage to the board!

I thought it might be cool for you to point people to Tharco as a source for the additional padding. Their 4×8 sheets of 1/2 inch foam are the way to go.

Even wrapping my Fiberspar boom in cardboard worked nicely. I walked through the airports with this hanging on my shoulder strap… WIDE load, coming through!

Thanks for all your help and a great board bag!

Jordan

Thanks, Jordan!

Big Winds is now stocked with the hottest 2008 gear from Dakine! We carry their full lineup of windsurfing products, from harnesses to travel bags to accessories, and this year it all looks as beautiful as ever. Not only that, we’re offering free shipping on all Dakine orders over $100. Some restrictions apply, but they’re all pretty smart and reasonable!

Our sales staff has years of on-the-water experience with this gear, and if you have any questions we’d be delighted to help you find your best match. We’ve been working closely with Dakine ever since opening our doors way back in 1987, and we continue to beam with pride as we represent this local brand in our shop.

Based right beside us here in beautiful Hood River, Oregon, Dakine’s world headquarters are down the street from Big Winds, and their warehouse for all of North America is less than twenty minutes away.

If you happen to want something from Dakine that isn’t listed, please give us a call and we’ll be happy to special order it for you. If it’s available at Dakine, it’s available from us!

Phew! We figured we’d let ya’ll know that we just finished updating our entire DAKINE product line for the fall/winter 2007-2008 season. Our vast stores of summer gear are beginning to dwindle, and everything is making way for the autumn that is to come. From travel gear to backpacks, girly bags to skate packs, everything from DAKINE has been updated for the latest trends.

And what are those trends, you ask? Well, it appears that plaid is a thing this year, as well as patterns, patterns, patterns. Even the Wall Street Journal has caught on, with a recent article discussing the return of the preppy look. Wonderfully, they cite this video as evidence of the prep resurgence.

What with all these patterns and plaids bouncing around this year, we’ve found that the usual convention of using words to describe product colors turns out to be surprisingly lacking. In addressing this issue we’ve created a handy guide to all of DAKINE’s product colors and patterns to help you sort through the multitude of choices.

Because seriously. Try as we might to deny it, The-Time-That-Shall-Not-Be-Named approaches quickly (it rhymes with “stack the pool”), and those of you who are headed back there in September will want to make sure you’re properly outfitted. DAKINE’s backpacks are well-suited for the task, whether that be hauling your stuff around or making you look so good.

Having just returned from a trip across the country, I feel compelled to share my thoughts on Dakine’s Over Under. This is a spiffy piece of luggage, packed with nice features and a look that helps it stand out from the crowd.

Carry-On Luggage Mode

The key component of the Over Under is a beefy zipper that goes around the circumference of its main compartment. If you keep this guy snug and zipped up, it makes the Over Under small enough to bring on as a piece of carry-on luggage for most major airlines. This bag was designed specifically to the specifications used by airlines to regulate carry-on size.

While the Over Under holds a lot of stuff, you’ll want to make sure you don’t overpack it if you want to bring it on the plane with you. I managed to fit a week’s worth of summer clothes in it and flew on America West without any problems, though a couple of times they did have me “prove” that my Over Under would indeed fit in the sizing box. It did, of course, as Dakine designed it to fit, but had I tried to cram a couple more t-shirts and a few more pairs of board shorts in there, I would have had a tough time making a fair argument.

Making a Speedy Getaway

All told, it was nice to arrive at my destination and immediately catch a ride from the airport, without needing to wait at the baggage claim. I’ve had enough experience with lost or mangled luggage that whenever I check something in, I begin devising backup plans in case it doesn’t appear at my final destination.

The ability to take everything with me on the plane, and to keep it in my sight at all times, is both convenient and comforting. I travel super light so I can’t say with confidence that anyone could pack a week’s vacation into the Over Under in carry-on mode, but I think it would be very convenient for weekend travelers, or as a complement to one of Dakine’s larger “checked” pieces of luggage.

If I was going on a longer trip, I could see myself taking my Over Under and my Dakine Station (the Station makes a great laptop bag, and is small enough that it’s considered a personal item, not a piece of carry-on luggage) on the plane with me, and checking my Dakine Split Roller 120.

Checked Luggage Mode

The Over Under itself is extremely versatile, as it increases in size when you unzip the expansion zipper, allowing 1,000 cubic inches of additional storage space. Coupled with your sudden liberty to stuff it with as much gear as possible (seeing as how you’re checking it now, not trying to bring it on the plane with you), you can really fill this guy up. Since you inevitably accumulate stuff while on vacation, this frees you from the burden of fitting everything (and then some) in your carry-on again. Simply expand the Over Under, stuff it with your newfound treasures, and put it with the rest of the checked luggage.

Other Niceties

The retractable handle on the Over Under has multiple locking points, which gives you some freedom for matching the length of the handle with your height. Like many of Dakine’s larger pieces of luggage, it has a split-level design that zips around the middle, unfolding like a book and allowing you easy access to everything inside. Zippered mesh panels hold all your stuff in place, so there’s no need to worry about your stuff falling out every time you open it.

The outer pockets give you a number of places to stash last-minute items, or keep a jacket or coat close at hand. Finally, reinforced handles on the top and side make it easy to wrangle the Over/Under out of an overhead compartment, off the plane, and into a trunk.

All that, and it looks snazzy while doing it!