Yeah, that’s not what you want to see when you land. Photo: Willem Beck//Instagram
“Your board bag’s been destroyed,” is quite possibly the most terrifying thing you can hear upon returning from a surf trip. Except that’s exactly what Welsh surfer William Beck was told upon returning from a trip to Biarritz. Though the tragedy first occurred a few months ago, Beck just provided an update on social media that he still has yet to see a dime for the destroyed equipment.
“So I’d just got back from a pretty wicked trip, surfing in Hossegor, flying with RyanAir,” recounted Beck in an interview posted to Instagram. “I was waiting for my boards to come out of the conveyor belt. Both my mates (had) their board bags. I went to the help desk, and two ladies behind the desk said ‘Are you looking for a black Ocean and Earth board bag?’ and I said ‘Yeah.’ One of them was like ‘oh god.’ I was like ‘What’s going on?’ They looked at me dead in the eyes and said, ‘Your board bag’s been destroyed.'”
After 20 more minutes, a pack of RyanAir employees dragged out the demolished corpse of Beck’s bag. Among the casualties were three boards (two of them brand new), wetsuits, dry bags, and even his board socks. “Absolutely nothing, including the board bag, was salvageable,” described Beck.
It turned out that the bag had been run over by the airline’s stair car. To add insult to injury (and also more injury), the car drivers didn’t realize the board was under them, so it ended up being dragged across the tarmac at length.
“They just said ‘Put the claim in and RyanAir will 100 percent pay for it,” continued Beck. “It’s been over a month and a half now, which is about 20 days past their deadline to replace. I’ve heard nothing, absolutely nothing. I’m starting to think now they’re not actually going to pay it”
View this post on Instagram
