Packing my kites for travel...

[John Barresi]

As most of you know, I do some pretty heavy travel for kiting sometimes and deal with my kite bag(s) in two layers... Figured I'd lay it out somewhere for posterity.
 
Quick list - http://johnbarresi.com/gear/ 
 
One, I have the main travel bag which contains everything including clothes and my normal kite bag:

 

 

http://amzn.to/1VWmXn7

 

Inside that, I have one of these two "normal" kite bags...

 

Breeze Fabrice Works bag

Rev Multi-Kite Bag (official)

 

Everything in the "field kite bag" is arranged so my weakest kites are down the center of the burrito roll and anything in the pockets are arranged to balance pressure and avoid poking fragile areas.

 

Packed in the remaining space (around the field kite bag / inside the airline kite bag) are my clothes and such, using various kinds of modular bags like these...

 

 

http://amzn.to/1Ghs4Hx

 

All of that gets strapped with something like this...

 

 

http://amzn.to/1LdsopA

 

And the zippers get locked with this...

 

 

http://amzn.to/1PlyBDM

 

Then the whole shebang gets checked (airplane cargo).

 

I'm very lucky - during my 23 years of airline travel for kiting (literally hundreds of flights), I've never lost a bag for more than a couple days, and the only [very rare] damage has been to the main outer bag (wear and tear), or to SUL dual line spars (this can be overcome with PVC tubing sheathes for delicate items).

 

Packing this way, I only have to carry one big bag and a couple of small carry on bags.

[SparkieRob]

I finally did something very similar.

I got a Golf Travel Cover with wheels. Inside is my Rev bag with the revs and a Prism bag with the duals and slk's. I throw my field bag in to firm it up. When I fly with it, I'll put clothes and stuff in there too.

1 checked and 1 for carry on.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[mystainedskin]

I have been eyeballing this one at work. Almost bought it for the Colombia trip.Mystic Golf.... tons of space.. tarp like moisture liner and a sort of seperated section in the bottom.

[John Barresi]

Found it...

 

 

http://amzn.to/1VWmKjO

[jaydub200]

No sign of any of the pics that are referred to in the post, John

[John Barresi]

You may have a really aggressive ad blocker, as the images are direct Amazon iframe banners.

I've just added URLs below each one so the images are at least accessible.

[jaydub200]

I might indeed. Amazon links available via Tapatalk on my phone.

[HenriD]

For my last trips I bought a big light 32" suitcase. I could fit more than 10 kites (Rev 1.5, Prism QPros...) in the diagonal of the lower part, and you could fit more Revs by taking the middle spar out and grouping these, since these are the longer parts...

Very happy with this setup, you only have to take care not to be overweight, since it can fit so much stuff...

[mystainedskin]

I am leaning towards the smaller versions.

Crazy Fly has a nice one also and is the lightest on the market from what I understand.

John..... does your Liquid Force have support all the way up in the back or is it soft?

[John Barresi]

Mostly unsupported, with a durable plastic housing around the wheeled area of the bag.

With a rolled up Rev bag inside that, plus whatever else, it's really strong.

Bigger list of my travel stuff - http://johnbarresi.com/gear/

[Exult]

On 10/30/2015 at 10:56 PM, John Barresi said:

Mostly unsupported, with a durable plastic housing around the wheeled area of the bag.

With a rolled up Rev bag inside that, plus whatever else, it's really strong.

To keep your kites and other "normal" checked in luggage in the same bag sounds very practical. However I got two questions about the "Liquid Force Wheelie Wakeboard Bag":

• If one did not pack any long stiff objects inside the wakeboard bag, held it by the handle and rolled it on it's wheels, would it then essentially keep it's shape or would it collapse and fold double?
• When checking in this bag, will it most often go with ordinary checked in luggage or will it need to be checked in as special luggage such as sport equipment, skis, golf clubs...and be fetched separately?

[Edmond Dragut]

i find golf club hard shell to be perfect for traveling and you may pack in everything what is under 50 inch long. i have this model  http://www.ebay.com/itm/WALTER-HAGEN-GOLF-CLUBS-52-034-HARD-TRAVEL-CASE-W-WHEELS-/311735241890?_trksid=p2047675.l2557&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&nma=true&si=voC2MeQ%2FrR93QRLCSZ9RBStv3%2FA%3D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc

you may use this for your clothes on top of kites and accessories you take on travel like a regular luggage with "Samsonite" proprieties 

[John Barresi]

7 hours ago, Exult said:

To keep your kites and other "normal" checked in luggage in the same bag sounds very practical. However I got two questions about the "Liquid Force Wheelie Wakeboard Bag":

• If one did not pack any long stiff objects inside the wakeboard bag, held it by the handle and rolled it on it's wheels, would it then essentially keep it's shape or would it collapse and fold double?
• When checking in this bag, will it most often go with ordinary checked in luggage or will it need to be checked in as special luggage such as sport equipment, skis, golf clubs...and be fetched separately?

It doesn't have a spine, so you'd need to include a couple of poles or something if you want it to keep its long shape.

Normal checked luggage (within weight limits), they treat it like a golf bag, not special.

[Exult]

If you can dedicate one checked in luggage for your kites (e.g. when travelling with your family) there is the budget solution of using a pipe as an armor for your kite bag. This could also be useful if you let someone else handle your kites and would mind if someone e.g. accidentally hit your kites with a car trunk door.

Onion style packing
Instead of using a PVC pipe as suggested elsewhere here (had problems in finding one with large enough diameter), I used a rather thick walled paper tube for concrete casting. The tube is strong enough to allow me to stand on it (when resting on a flat horisontal surface at least). Two wooden end plugs were manufactured from a thin residual wooden plank. Surplus paint was used for the paintwork. The inner length was chosen so that my Tramontana (LE and spine can't be broken in two) and my Fazer XL (just to avoid splitting the LEs) could go in at full length. The (red) plugs were secured with tape. I like tape intended for sheets of polyethene/polyethylene on construction sites, because it tends to be reusable, doesn't seem to age and have never left any residues for me. To make the tube easier to carry I put it inside a ski bag, which also reduces the tendency to roll off something and get lost.

Room for eight sleeveless kites + accessories
After removing the sleeves of the kites I could fit eight kites + other gear inside the tube without packing the kites too tight. A 2.4m (~8ft) The length of the original tube was 2.4m (~8ft), had an inner diameter of 15cm (6") with a 4mm (0.16") wall thickness. It costed about 13 USD. Tubes with 19cm, 25cm, 30cm and 40cm diameters were also available ( https://www.byggole.se/gjuta-mura--putsa/gjutformar--plintar ).

The over all length including the plugs is 174cm (5.7ft) and the empty weight is 2.7kg (6lbs). - Not something you like like to carry around when doing a full day of touristing. So far the transport tube has been accepted/fitted in taxi cars in Sweden and London and also in my medium sized car, most often by putting it between the two front seats. The size of the ski bag sets the limit on how much non kiting items (like return trip laundry etc) that you can pack outside the tube.

[DonFibonacci]

I'm in the market for a wheeled "outer" bag to contain my kite rollup bag and most if not all of my non-kite stuff.  I'm planning on checking this bag for flights.  KiteLife forum to the rescue!  I found this conversation, but it looks like many of the old Amazon links are now expired.  @John Barresi any chance you can find a "modern" link for your wakeboard bag or something similar?

[DonFibonacci]

I'm guessing it's this: http://www.boardstop.com/product_info.php?products_id=3639

 

Most online stores are out of stock. I'm going to give a wheeled lacrosse bag a try.

[Paul LaMasters]

SKB hard sided golf club case,

it's on nice wheels and with one single golf club in there,... no weight restrictions from the airlines apply either.  If questioned, your reply shall be "contains golf training equipment". The spars and kites included are for alignment, swing training and wind (forecasting it's impact on the golf ball flight path and distance)

it's super tough, you can sit on it, kick it around and drop it, just like baggage handlers do!  Holds a Rev roll-up kite bag or a hard-sider like the Orvis Case, all the sharp implements & line-sets, handles and tools, shave kit and rain gear, boots

I like the double sized for the baby ryvs ,.....

http://www.skbcases.com/sports/sku.php?cat=16&pid=73

[John Barresi]

On 3/11/2020 at 2:45 PM, DonFibonacci said:

I'm in the market for a wheeled "outer" bag to contain my kite rollup bag and most if not all of my non-kite stuff.  I'm planning on checking this bag for flights.  KiteLife forum to the rescue!  I found this conversation, but it looks like many of the old Amazon links are now expired.  @John Barresi any chance you can find a "modern" link for your wakeboard bag or something similar?

Alas, my bag (42" long and wheeled) is from an era when shorter wakeboards were popular - now the equivalent bags are usually upwards of 50" which leaves a floppy portion if you're packing a normal quad bag.

On 3/11/2020 at 6:22 PM, DonFibonacci said:

I'm guessing it's this: http://www.boardstop.com/product_info.php?products_id=3639

Most online stores are out of stock. I'm going to give a wheeled lacrosse bag a try.

Looks very similar, but I didn't see any measurements?

[DonFibonacci]

19 hours ago, John Barresi said:

Looks very similar, but I didn't see any measurements?

This one's a wakeskate rather than a wakeboard bag, so it might be shorter because of that.  All the wakeboard bags seem to be 50" or so. But yeah, I couldn't find measurements either, so I went with a 42" lacrosse bag.  I'll report back on how that works out.

[riffclown]

Was going to also suggest looking at Drum Hardware Travel bags. 

https://www.musiciansfriend.com/accessories/humes-berg-galaxy-companion-tilt-n-pull-bag?rNtt=drum gig bags&index=1

 

https://www.musiciansfriend.com/accessories/protec-hardware-bag-with-wheels?rNtt=drum gig bags&index=4

 

even Microphone stand bags or Speaker Stand bags will do the trick pretty well (No wheels)

https://www.amazon.com/Stage-MSB6500-Microphone-Stand-Carry/dp/B0010GKX0K

 

I modified Two 50" Gator Dual Compartment Speaker Stand bags down to 8" x 8" x 39" to become my primary kite bags. Again no wheels but they hold a lot of kites and pack well for my purposes.

https://www.amazon.com/Gator-Interior-Microphone-Lighting-GPA-SPKSTDBG-50/dp/B001IM5KFY

 

If I was going to be flying with my kites, I'd use this hard case though.

 

[DonFibonacci]

My lacrosse bag arrived last night.  Good news first - my OSKUSA quad rollup bag fits perfectly in terms of length (it's 40" long).  Bad news - I could probably fit six of them.  The bag is massive.  I looked at the dimensions online, but seeing it in person, it's just enormous.  I could bring my kites and my kids on a trip, all in the bag!  Ok, that's an exaggeration, but a few years ago, totally would have worked.

I may try @riffclown's suggestion of the drum hardware bags next.

(Side note - it's too bad it's so oversized, because it's made of almost the exact same material as the rollup bag.  They look like matched luggage)

[frob]

Easy solution: bring more kites. 

[DonFibonacci]

I think I've found a solution I like: https://amzn.to/2JVSjIN

It's a baseball/softball bag, 41 inches long.  Looks pretty sturdy, and just long enough to fit my rollup bag.  I pack pretty light, so I think I can get a week's worth of clothes in there too.  I did have to cut out an internal divider to access the full length. I don't think it'll stand up on its own, it leans a bit and when loaded, it'll probably tip over.

    

Overall, I think I'm happy with it.  Seems strong and well-made, nice tough skid plate at the bottom and enough of a spine that it won't flop over when not completely full.

All I'm missing now is somewhere to take it. 😢

[John Barresi]

I'm most curious to see what the whole thing looks like with the equivalent of two grey Rev rollup bags see by side, and what it does to the other compartments... Some of the external pockets and such look like they "fill out" the interior pretty significantly, just wondering how that space shifting plays out.

Looks pretty cool, and the fence hooks are dope!

[DonFibonacci]

On 4/1/2020 at 11:18 AM, John Barresi said:

I'm most curious to see what the whole thing looks like with the equivalent of two grey Rev rollup bags

With two rollup bags, you're right it might be a little tough to get clothes in there too - but at least at this point, that's not an issue for me personally.  I was going for a bag with as little extra bulk as possible.

As long as I'm locked down, I'll take some time to actually "pack" for a week-long trip and see how that turns out.  What the heck, it's something somewhat kite-related to do.  Where should I go on this imaginary trip? 

I'll also include a "simulated" extra rollup of kites... or you can ship me one of yours to test with 😉. 

Fence hooks... ah yeah...  I didn't even notice them in the online description, but yesterday was like "I wonder what this zipper is for?"  zzzzzipp... FENCE HOOKS!!!