Shipping a surf board questions

General Discussion
1

Hi,

This is my first post, although I’ve been tuning in daily at this exellent site for the past year or so.

I need to send a 9ft. longboard I built from Washington State to San Diego.for an Xmas gift

the box is 120"X25"X15"H total weight 30-35lbs

.According to the Greyhound frieght website, 80 something inches long is the limit on length they accept

Fed ex frieght wants a mind boggling $550 to ship it economy!!

I was hoping some of you at Swaylocks know of a cheaper way

Air frieght? Other frieght carriers?

What do the pros do?

Any help much appreciated.

Eric

 

2

Try Reddaway. They are regional shippers. I’ve had good luck with them - about a $100 to ship from Cal to Oregon. Damn fast too. (Price doesn’t include boxing.)

kc

3

Sent a sold board from Oregon to San Francisco for $45 aboard an Amtrak passenger train.

Wrapped it in heavy duty bubble foam, arrived the day aftert drop off at the station intact and ding free.

Just requires driving to the train station on both ends.  

 

4

Monlight Glassing uses Southwest freight, and they charged me $150 to ship 2 boards from CA to Fort Worth, TX.

5

Fiberglass supply (in burlington, Wa) ships to me (Shelton, Wa) with oak harbor freightlines.  They seem pretty reasonable.

 

6

Amtrak is the cheapest for a single longboard as long as both parties are willing to drive to the closest station that takes packages. not all do. 

7

Amtrak is cheap,but they have a 7ft size limit.

I talked to Fiberglass Supply yesterday and I’m going with them…

I just bring the board in.

They pack it up, send it,and insure it for $1000.00

It will cost me about 233.00

Thanks for all the helpfull posts guys!

8

You either talked to someone who didnt know, or you didnt mention “Surfboard rate”

I just shipped 3 boxes of Longboards to the East Coast yesterday on Amtrak.

No problems.

9

Well, now that you mention it,My call went to some main call center and the guy seemed pretty clueless,pre-occupied, and indifferent.

He quoted me $68.00 and when I asked him if there were size limitations, he went and asked someone, came back and said 7ft    .End of discussion.

I would hate to make a 5 hour round trip to the train station only to be turned away.

Although I have a more expensive plan B in case it didn,t pan out.

I’ll try calling again and mention the surfboard rate.

It’s a good way for boards to travel because they only get handled twice

I sure am glad I posted this question here…

Were your boards insured Aqua glassing?

10

OK, On Amtrack a 9ft long board can only go as far as L.A.

between there and San Diego the limit is 7 ft. due to different unloading equiptment further south.

11

yea, the board I shipped was a 7’8, box was a bit over 8’.

5 hours from the nearest station, however, factor in round trip gas and your time, why not use a freighter…

12

I send boards through a local shop near my house.  They are constantly getting boards in from all over the world, so they have plenty of free gently used boxes and packing supplies.  I paid 45$ to get the last one from NC to Arizona. Maybe ask around and try that route?