10 Tips to Travel and Traveling with a Slalom Boat

Clean and Dry

• Always travel with clean and dry paddling kit. If you turn up in NZ or Australia with wet or dirty gear you may as well allow for an extra 30-60mins of cleaning and washing.

Eating and Drinking

• Pack your own food prior to the flight. More so for long haul flights as airline food is not as good as your own. Make sure your keep up your fluid intake, as aeroplane air conditioning will dehydrate you. Avoid alcohol as this will promote dehydration.

When you arrive…

• When you arrive at your destination, expose yourself to as much sun light as possible to decrease jet lag symptoms.

Time Zones

• Try changing your eating habits and sleeping times to the time zone you are travelling to. This will help you reduce some of the symptoms of jet lag.

Pre Approval

• If possible have pre approval for your kayak on your flight. There is nothing worse than having to beg to get your kayak on the same flight as you. Or even worse pay a ridiculous amount in freight charges!

Packing

• Pack as much as possible in your bag not your kayak. Kayaks get dragged if they are heavy (Not the best when your kayaks are carbon fibre and fragile). Also avoid taking on liquids or make sure they are under 100mls and they are in a sealed plastic container.

Walk and keep active

• For long haul flights it’s very important to stretch your legs to help prevent the pooling of blood in your legs or deep vein thrombosis. Skins have ‘travel skins that help promote blood return and help prevent blood pooling. If you have a stop over have a stretch or the area at the back of the plane has more room for stretching.

Know you location address

• When going through immigration, it’s always wise to have your hotel address and phone number available.

Wear comfortable clothing

• Dress in clothing that is comfortable to wear for sitting. Try avoiding jeans and other tight constrictive clothing as they may look good but are not practical. Always pack a warm jersey as the airline changes the temperature of the cabin. Its very important not to wear tight or uncomfortable shoes as your feet will expand when flying.

Be prepared

• Check out the weather of your destination. Will you need more short sleeve paddling tops or will you need more long sleeves? Also assess how many days are you there for. I was on a trip recently when someone took more than 10 tee shirts for a 6 week trip. To me this is far too many! Make sure your ipod and if you are taking a laptop are charged. This will give you some entertainment on flight.

My Gear List for Australia (14 Days)

This is my gear list that I normally follow, you may have different ideas but this is just a guide for some people. Its always wise to name your clothes as your clothes can go missing when team washing gets done.

Travel Bag

• Training Diary
• NZ Jacket
• Laptop + Charger
• Sunnies
• Phone + Charger
• Passport/Tickets/Information of where we are travelling to
• Food
• Change of clothes
• Ear plugs
• Travel skins
• Jandals
• Empty drink bottle

Gear Bag

• Sleeping Bag + Linner
• Running Shoes
• Running shorts
• Dress Shirt
• Towel
• Tee Shirts x 2
• Spare NZ T Shirt
• Singlet
• Dress Pants
• Shorts x2
• Socks x1
• Underwear x3
• Toiletries (toothbrush, deodorant, shaving stuff, plasters and anti-septic, sun block)

(Remember you have a spare set of clothes in your day bag + what you are wearing)

Paddling Kit (fits inside my gear bag)

• Short Sleeve Combo
• Long Sleeve Combo
• Paddling Shorts
• Proly Pro x1
• Spray Deck
• Skins x2
• Skins Recovery

Boat Bag

• Boat
• Tie  Downs (that can be easily reached)
• BV
• Repair Kit – Tape, Kneed It
• Helmet

Paddle Bag

• 2 Paddles