Etienne Daille splits his boat in two! How to travel with a slalom boat.

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Yann Le Pennec | Co editor: Rosalyn Lawrence | Sportscene - Have you ever experienced the problem of getting your slalom boat onto a plane? Have you ever changed or cancelled an awesome trip because the airfare was too expensive with a boat or the company wouldn't take a boat at all?

Do you know someone who has had to cut their boat to less than 3 metres at the check-in desk?

I can answer yes to all of the above!

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Here is Etienne's solution. After a trip cancellation, he decided it won't happen EVER again! Etienne cut a boat in half, not at the check-in but in the workshop. With a bit of work, he transformed his kayak so that he can travel with less than 2 metres of luggage.

The new design can be bolted back together in less than 15 minutes. It has a strong construction which resisted hard training and racing in Al Aïn and Penrith like any "in one part" kayak built by Winner pro composite.

His boat bag is just a bit longer than a regular bike bag. It went to Sydney via Dubaï very smoothly, with no trouble at the check in and no damage on the plane.

Should it become compulsory after Rio 2016, builders could work on a real solution to travelling by plane with a boat…

Let me know what you think!

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