WTB bag to take my kayak on a plane

[kayakmamma]

Howdy, I may be traveling again and this time want to take my boat . I'm in need of a bag to protect/disguise my 7.5 foot river runner. Thanks!!

[FarPastGone]

Lorraine,

I used the Salamander Roedo Yak Wrap to take my Jefe to Nepal last year. It worked pretty well, I stuffed most my gear in my boat and set my paddle on top of the boat (and then used a camstrap to synch it down against my boat), and put it in the bag. I then took 3 camstraps and synched them down on the outside of the bag to make it undesirable for the people to look in (because I told them it was a wave ski). The only down side to the bag is that it got completely destroyed in transit, so while all my gear made it to the country, I only got one use out of the bag. I can't remember the site but I saw it marked down 20-30% somewhere on the internet for Black Friday. It is normally about $105. Here is a link on CKS:

http://www.coloradokayak.com/Salamander ... gory=18404" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

For my travels this year I am taking one of the felt bags that Liquid Logic boats come in new, placing the boat in that, and then having my mom help me sew it up in some fabric. It is going to be cheap and will hopefully work. Have fun traveling!

- Matt

[kayakmamma]

Thanks for all the great information and the link, Matt!
I'd sure love to go to Nepal- it's awesome that you did.
Thank you, Lorraine

[okieboater]

Another vote for salamander products. I used mine exactly like FarPastGone except used it on top of the truck (s) in between airline flights.

evidently the South America baggage handlers are easier on luggage than Nepal's !

After many years of use, including lots of time on top of the truck, sun finally bleached it out and I tore it jamming in a kayak just a tad to long.

[FarPastGone]

Yeah, I should say that I am not necessarily questioning the integrity of the bag itself, just more commenting that it sucked I only got one use out of it. It really looked like someone took a knife and cut all my camstraps off the bag to get inside it, and just went ahead and cut the bag open too.

- Matt

[737driver]

TSA is notorious for doing things like this. Their policy states that any checked cargo or bag must be readily accessible to inspection. It can be locked if it's the TSA approved lock for which they have a key. Sounds like they wanted to inspect it and just were plain lazy and sliced it open. I see this happen all the time. Working in the airline industry I know first hand what most of the public doesn't know, but I'll tell that for a fact, TSA gets busted on a weekly basis for stealing items from bags. My wife had a some things stolen 3 weeks ago out of her checked bag. About $300 value. She shouldn't have put the stuff in the bag but they shouldn't have stolen it either.