flying with your board

[RideHigh]

i am putting my board on an airplane again and i don't want to come home with a huge gash in my rail because some loser stuffed my board in between walls of luggage. i have looked everywhere online and in surf shops and i cannot find a HARD case for my board anywhere. all i see are bags with insufficient padding.

does anyone know where to get a strong board case? it seems that SMSC (santa monica surfing company) is no more and they were the only ones who made and shipped them. i am very reluctant to put my board in a bag again and give it to some airline employee who has no idea how precious this cargo is. any suggestions would be great - i would really like to bring a board or two of my own on this trip.

[Krankor]

Buy some of those Foam noodles that kids use in pools cut a section out of them length wise and tape it to your rails/nose/tail. Worked well for my brother and I when we went to Nicaragua, only dings we came back with were self inflicted.

[chuck white]

As krankor mentioned, you can buy the noodle water toys or go to a hardware store such as Lowe's, Home Depot, etc & check out foam pipe insulation that's used on PVC, Copper, Iron pipes etc. The pipe insulation is a lower density than the Noodle foam, has more of a foam rubber feel.

Here is a website link below that has both products, but you can get either most anywhere.
http://www.tundrafoam.com/tundra/pipe_index.html

Water Toys @ left of page is the Noodle Krankor mentioned.

[skimask]

I think Hot Wax in Wilmington, NC rents hard cases.