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Spanish professional longboarder Jon Garmendia was planning on competing in the WSL’s La Union International Pro in the Philippines this week. It was an important qualifying event because two WSL longboard tour wildcards were at stake.
But Garmendia never made it. An airline mishap made him miss out on the chance to get a wildcard, and possibly out the €1,000 he spent on his ticket.
Garmendia, 32, who works as a shaper and surf guide in Spain’s Basque Country, posted a photo to Instagram explaining his Air France dilemma – a strategy that has worked well with other professional surfers. Joel Tudor was able to get Hawaiian Airlines to change its longboard policy thanks to a viral Instagram post.
While Garmendia received sympathy from the longboard community in the comment section, thus far he’s had no luck swaying the policymakers at Air France.
In a phone call with The Inertia, Garmendia said that, as per airline policy, he filled out a form on Air France’s website to get prior approval to travel with his bag containing two 9’7’’ longboards. After not receiving any confirmation from the airline, Garmendia called back and, when he finally got a hold of someone, they informed him that his board bag was acceptable for the Paris to Manila leg of the flight, but not the Bilbao to Paris leg.
“This is a nightmare for all surfers,” said Garmendia. “You have an important contest, but you don’t have your boards with you.”
Air France’s website says it accepts sports equipment with total dimensions up to 300cm – 9.84 feet. However, how ticket agents interpret “total dimensions” always seems to be subjective. (I’ve seen identical board bags accepted and rejected by different ticket agents for the same flight due to how the agents decide to calculate “total dimensions” – if they even bother to measure.)
In this case, Garmendia says the Bilbao flight’s dimension limit was reduced to 280cm due to the smaller plane size. Exasperated, Garmendia pleaded with the agents to find a solution. After all, when he bought the ticket, there was no warning of the decreased bag limits.
“(They should have) given me a solution because I already bought the ticket,” Garmendia said. “Only after they told me that (my board) was not accepted in the reservation. There’s a problem in that system.”
Garmendia says Air France gave him two options: change the flight to Biarritz or Madrid, locations with larger planes that would accommodate the boards. This seemed reasonable to Garmendia, however, they were not willing to reimburse the flight cost. This solution would include a change fee plus the cost of a new flight of €1,200.
“I am a professional longboarder, but I don’t earn money with it,” Garmendia said. “I don’t have sponsors, so I couldn’t buy another flight.”
Garmendia started asking fellow competitors and locals in the Philippines if he could source boards or borrow one. However, given that he weighs 200 pounds and rides bigger boards than most of his peers, he was unable to find an adequate board that would justify traveling halfway around the world.
He decided to pull the plug on the trip. The WSL returned his entry fee. The hotel returned his reservation fee. But Air France has yet to respond to the request for a refund. He’s not confident that he will get that money back.
Garmendia says he’s going to be careful with the airlines he chooses in the future, picking options like Iberia or Emirates, which he knows will take his boards, and also calling ahead to confirm the aircraft size. He also says he’ll avoid the Bilbao airport when traveling with a longboard, advice he received from two-time WSL longboard champion Edouard Delpero.
“It was a difficult decision, as I prepared a lot for this event,” Garmendia wrote on Instagram. “But that’s life; sometimes things don’t go as planned, and that’s okay too.”
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