Surfers and airlines have been at war for about as long as surfers have been stuffing boards into oversized travel bags, exploring the world for waves.
The latest casualty? An Ecuadorian surfer’s board, abandoned in a trash can at New York’s JFK Airport.
Ecuadorian surfer Jorge Sangachi was returning home when an unexpected airline change landed him in a predicament. Sangachi had originally purchased his ticket through United Airlines, but his flight was switched to JetBlue—a seemingly minor change that came with one major problem: a different surfboard policy. Watch here and below.
Sangachi wrote: “Sad to leave my board in NYC! If you’re a surfer and you travel with more than one surfboard make sure you don’t travel on JetBlue. DON’T TRAVEL ON JetBlue.”
Explaining the situation, Sangachi added: “I went to do the check-in, and surprise, I could only bring one board per bag.”
There was another wrinkle. Sangachi actually had four boards stuffed into his bag. When an agent asked how many were inside, he admitted to two. The bag apparently wasn’t opened, but he was told one board had to go.
At 2 a.m., with nobody available to retrieve it, Sangachi spent roughly an hour pleading his case.
Related: Surfer Denied Refund After Airline Totally Destroys Boards
“I begged and begged, but it didn’t work,” he said. “It was horrible. We spent an hour arguing, but I still had to leave a board.”
Video shows Sangachi reluctantly stuffing the sacrificial board into an airport trash can.
“Hopefully a surfer [finds my board] and takes it for free,” he said.
It’s another bizarre chapter in the historically complicated relationship between surfers and airlines. Board fees, length restrictions, damaged equipment and inconsistent policies have long made flying with surfboards a gamble.
Sangachi’s incident follows other recent dustups, including Chinese surfer Karlie Huang reportedly having $3,600 worth of boards destroyed by Scoot Airlines and Joel Tudor publicly criticizing Hawaiian Airlines over its longboard policy.
Ultimately, Sangachi made his flight.
Most of his boards did, too.
One, however, became perhaps the strangest piece of airport trash at JFK.
Related: Hawaiian, Alaska Airlines Update Surfboard Policy
Original Post from this site