"Seeing the joy and satisfaction on that employee’s face seeing our boards broke in half made me realize how disconnected from our humanity ppl can be."
A quiet terror is currently rippling through the surf community and it is not due 30-foot waves breaking off America’s east coast nor the Palm Springs Surf Club being cranked to 11. No, the current malaise comes to us directly from our skate brothers and sisters and represents a potential future where we surfers will not be allowed to fly with our surfboards.
The catalyst, legendary French skateboarder Bastien Salabanzi taking to social media to declare he had to break his board in half before being allowed to fly, sharing:
I wish to warn my beloved community that we Skateboarders are not Welcome on @vueling flights!! 3 days ago i was forced to break @azulain brand new board and mine as well (didn’t’ have a skate tool on me) in order to get on my plane home. An employee kept telling me that it was for safety reasons but if I pay 60€ ($80) I can bring it onboard. Which means that for that amount my dangerous skateboard would magically transform into the softest pillow. More seriously tho, seeing the joy and satisfaction on that employee’s face seeing our boards broke in half made me realize how disconnected from our humanity ppl can be. Kindness, caring or common sense has been erased in the name of profits. We expect our neighbors to show love and generosity while being treated like another credit card number by multi million dollars companies. This world is truly heading in the wrong direction and I’m a shame to share the same DNA as those ppl. If you plan on flying to Spain avoid @vueling They don’t deserve your money and you deserve better #vueling
Surfers immediately PTSD’d by the line “seeing the joy and satisfaction on that employee’s face seeing our boards broke in half” as they recalled their own experiences at the check-in desk, airline employee giddily adding fee on top of fee on top of fee or approaching the baggage desk, post-flight, with board in tatters only to receive passive-aggressive shrugs.
Might we soon see a world where boards of any make or model are effectively disallowed?
The horror, the horror.