in december i will visit Hawaii for a month and i will go surfing. But i don’t know what is the better way, to rent or to buy a Longboard. I come from Germany so when i buy a longboard i will take it to home. Did somebody have any experience in transport a Longboard by airplane? Is it easy or complicate, and which airline transport a longboard. The alternative is to rent a board, but where can i rent a longboard? And which brand or shaper are good in longboards. Questions over questions.
Sorry for my english but the school days are long ago.
we want visiting o’ahu, big island, maui and perhaps kaua’i. On big island we want rent a vw vanagon and on the other island, i don’t know where we stay, that the job of my wife. Did you have any suggestions
I have only rented boards in Honolulu and Haleiwa on Oahu and in Poipu on Kauai. Koa Board Sports was my best experience in Honolulu. The shop in Haleiwa was alright. The shop on Kauai I liked least.
Maybe some of the Sways members who live on the Islands will offer some suggestions…
Buy one and bring it home if you can afford to do it. But if living in Gremany you don’t get the chance to surf very often; then rent one. When you are on Maui, you can rent freom Hawaiian Island Sports. Closest shop to the airport. Across the street from K-Mart. Lots of shops and places to renr a board in Honolulu. Lowel
However, if you prefer to buy a longboard and bring it back home with you, Craigslist has lots of boards listed at very reasonable prices. Find one you like, make a deal with the seller, have it waiting for you for when you land. If you’re flying directly to an outer island, buy your longboard there, every island has it’s own Craiglist section. And Don’t pay for the board until you land, meet with the owner, and check it out.
Find out what airlines you are flying, check their baggage restrictions. You’ll be flying on jumbos if crossing the pond, so shouldn’t be any issue to ship the longboard home outside of price.
Get yourself a good heavily padded longboard travel bag, look on Craigslist for a good used one before buying a new one. Make sure whatever board you buy has fully removeable fins, or the baggage handlers may remove them for you.
A couple shapers that I have really liked their longboards, not noseriders, just good fun longboards, are
Schaper, Jason Kashiwai, and John B. Mar.
To get a good idea of some used prices, another good resource is usedsurfboardshawaii.com, although they don’t seem to have many longboards right now.
Ask yourself, how much are you actually going to surf while you are here. It might be cheaper and easier to just rent one on the days you surf. Although if you have the money and want to bring something back to Germany, I would call ahead to a local shaper, and get one made for yourself. They can take anywhere from 2 weeks to 2 months.
and thats right in Germany are no waves but when i have enough time i go surfing to the french atlanic coast by biarritz. There are a lot of beaches with very good conditions for longboarding. The Idea to order a new board that is shaped for me is cool, so i have a fanstatic souvenir of a hopefully great holiday. And at home in the cold rainy germany, i can say its a board from the native land of surfing.
On Maui alone; Ole, Timpone, Maui Surfboards/Wayno, Charlie Smith, Dave Mel, Louie Fererra and too many others to list here. Check out Hawaiian Island Sports, Neil Pryde and High Tech shops. Lowel
I would rent a board until you get to the last island then if you really want to buy a board, you can. The cost to fly a board from island to island would make it worth renting. It’s not much to rent a board for a day or a week. I think you may be better off not buying a board here, just rent and enjoy. A longboard will cost you close to $1000, you will need a good board bag to get it back to Germany. Get one in France near the beaches you plan to surf, or contact Guilhem Rainfray who posts here as Balsa. He makes really nice boards and is in France.
Please be careful when you come here in December. The surf will be small on the south shores and big on the north shores. If you have not surfed much the north shore can be deadly. Even what we’d consider a small day can be quite a challenge for someone who does not know the power of Hawaiian north shore waves.