Trip to Hawaii in a week.

I always bring a board. I'd wait til the day before and look at the forecast and decide... Pretty sure it will be easy to find a good board if you don't want to bring it though

 

Good question.

$ 300 RT to bring your sticks, yes? Plus the wild card aspect-expense & added joy of airline possibly damaging your board(s).

How long are you in-country? Anything less than 6 surfing days, rent. Esp HAW where boards are available. If it is more days than that in-country then it's a consideration to bring your own very-well-shielded board.

Of course, if you've got the excess coinage, then the debate is moot & you bring your honey stick(s).

 

I live in Hawaii on maui...

Depends when ur coming. We just had a huge south swell, doh for a week, but that's very rare in the summer.. generally summer here is for Longboard and paddle surfing, but there's a shortboardable swell every week or two, but probably only shortboardable for a day or two...


I'd say leave ur board, and if a swell comes u can find an ok short board to rent here for $25 a day.

Also check www.surfnewsnetwork.com they are local surf forecast and very accurate., Like swellinfo is for the east coast.

Aloha

 

I would say leave it- but check the forecast a day before- if its going to be big the whole time... then I would bring my own... so your comfortable on your own board..

 

Bring it, I went to PR twice in the last 6-7 months, once without and once with and I definitely had a lot more fun with my board then I did with a rental. Having that comfort level is good if you are surfing anything big.

 

For only 10 days I would rent. I visited Oahu two years ago around April and stayed for 13 days. I found this tiny shop in Ala Moana and the dude let me pay a flat fee of around 200 dollars to come in a use any board I wanted for 13 days. So if one day it was small I could go grab a longboard, and a few days later the swell picked up so I grabeed a shortboard. Can't remember the name of the shop but if you cant find that one, im sure there are other shops around that will do the same for you. Airlines charge way too much and I always hear about damage to the board. Not worth it.

You don't want to only surf all day anyways. Go check out diamond head, dole pineapple plantation, honauma bay, and koko head. Those were my favorites. Have a blast over there man, you will never want to come back to the mainland!

 

If you were flying any other airline besides United, I would say bring your board but their charges are way too steep. If it is just per boardbag, then maybe you can split the charges with a friend. Did that to PR with a friend and saved mucho $$$

 

why would you bring boards to hawaii during the summer flat spell??you do know its the winter season that all the haoles flock there.you picked the wrong time to go,but if your going on vacation i say your in the right place.dont bring boards because there will be no surf.even if u do find some little 2footers in waikiki there are plenty rental shops in the area.its just not worth it to bring boards unless u got the money.its actually cheaper to buy boards once your there

 

i must say u guys on here are mean!!!nobody gave me any tips for my mexi vacation,but i still went and scored with a lot of pros.if u want a surf trip dont go to hawaii right now,go to mexico or costa,guatemala,panama,uraguay,columbia,brazil,peru.anywhere in s america right now is prime season.right now theres a hurricane off the coast of central mexico.even california would be a good pick.the season for hawaii is over until next november.save your money til then and youll be glad you did.trust me,im a legit kookstar

 

like they said check the forecast, but otherwise there are craploads of places in oahu, particularly honolulu to rent boards.

 

Obviously you have never surfed a good south swell in Oahu or Kauai. It can be awesome. I surfed overhead Rockpiles in August and it was great...Public's will scare the **** out of you on a big day too...also Poipu, and the southwest spots in Kaui. Ala Mo Bowls can be awesome too but very competitive and tough to get waves. And boards aren't very cheap on Oahu either. In fact they are more or less the same as mainland prices, for new and used.
To the original poster:
Bring your shortboard- at most you'll be paying $200 round trip, hopefully cheaper.
Rent a longboard if it's small.
Take a drive to the north shore too, you never know you might get a surprise North swell even in summer and surf with 1/100th of the people compared to winter. When you pull up to Lani's and it's overhead with half a dozen people out in August you'll thank me.

 

flew with united ...outrageous fees and I spend a hour making my board damage proof, but of course united still managed to ding it, back and forth. I was just happy the nose wasn't destroyed. so imo id rent and as the other guys called it already check the bouys all that good stuff. for me I love my boards and I am the only one that's going to destroy them ..don't fly united!!!

 

I flew a couple boards. I sorta liked having my own personal sticks with me. $300 is rough to part with though. I feel like its worth it if you can get more than one out there. otherwise, you can probably pick up a used one off the rack for $300 and sell it back at the end of the trip. Of course, everyone has this in mind now when they go to HI and CR and the shops are on to it.

 

PS -- I did ding one board during the trip but I don't think it was from United. I think it was from the Haleiwa reef but can't guarantee it. I remember sitting in the lineup and feeling my rail and there was a big gash in it. as for packaging a board, I just used bubble wrap and a ocean/earth coffin case and that seemed to work fine. have fun.

 

Use pipe insulation from Home Depot on the rails along with the bubblewrap.