Since 9/11 carrying paddles in hand luggage has become a bit more
difficult for obvious reasons.

This is going to look like a commercial, sorry if it offends but this is
the best system for flying with paddles!

I've flown to the US 3 times now (with British carriers) and always take
my own paddles. I use Lendal Paddlok splits in 4 pieces and usually get
2 sets in the back of my boat (had to carry 4 sets this time as I had
some new ones for the others!). If you can't or aren't taking a boat a 4
piece paddle should fit into your checked luggage quite easily - it will
be x-rayed to make sure it's nothing dangerous but in the hold it's no
problem!

Many of you are probably wondering what the heck Lendal paddlok splits are?

Lendal are a paddle manufacturer based in Scotland who make IMO a good
range of paddles for both sea and whitewater (although they seem to be
mostly used by sea paddlers over here). Their patented Paddlok system
involves a special arrangement in the button where you can insert an
allen key and tighten and expanding piece in the shaft to make the inner
shaft grip the outer one tightly. I've been using these for 3 years and
have rarely had the shaft slip at all, and then simply tightening a bit
more has sorted it out - they feel exactly the same as paddling with a
one piece paddle. Of course they are a little heavier than an equivalent
one piece, but if you get carbon/nylon or carbon composite blades the
construction is light enough that this doesn't matter. By the way, the
carbon nylon blades are easily the strongest available for the weight,
the straight nylon 12 might be even tougher but are heavier (and cheaper).

As far as blades go, the Kinetic range contains some aggressive
asymmetrics developed from a british race paddle, the mania comes as
symmetric or asymmetric as a general purpose style blade while the newer
mystic and fusion blades are designed for surfing and rodeo. I have
used kinetics as splits for 3 years with manias as my spares (only
needed them once) not only on my US trips but also for a lot of stuff in
Scotland (which is hard on paddles!) and have recently got a set of
superlight mystics (one piece) for my new main paddles.

LENDAL do have a distributor in the US (Scott Lynch I think) and are
apparently growing in popularity - if your local store doesn't have them
ask them to try and find out about them because for flying I really
wouldn't use anything else (even if airlines let you take one piece
paddles they often manage to break them). The only problem is that they
are growing in popularity and the factory gets a bit overwhelmed with
orders from time to time :-)

If you find anything else as good for flying with - spill the beans!

JIM

Mary Malmros wrote:

(doug) writes:


American Airlines provides a list of sports equipment they allow
without additional charges. Kayak paddles is not on the list.


Put it in a padded ski bag and don't offer any information.
I've taken a paddle on American several times.

(I also took four, count 'em, pairs of skis back from Denver last
March in a single bag, hee hee hee)