Airline Absolutely Destroys Surfboards: ‘Worst We’ve Ever Seen’

Originally posted on SURFER | By Dashel Pierson | Last updated Oct 16, 2025 2:04 PM ET

I remember flying RyanAir once in my early twenties. If memory serves, I believe it was a flight from Dublin to Amsterdam. Or maybe Paris. Either way, I recall being deathly hungover from my stint in Ireland, and the obnoxious, effervescent yellow coloring inside the cabin only added to the insufferable headache and ominous night-after anxiety.

But hey, the flight was, like, $50 bucks. And that suited my lifestyle at the time.

As surfers, often on the move in search of waves, airplanes are part of the game. But there’s always the conundrum of boardbags – whether its draconian fees associated with lugging your boards to the destination, or ensuring that they make it there safely. As for the latter, one UK surfer just experienced perhaps the worst damage ever seen.

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Willem Beck, a surfer from Wales was on a RyanAir flight from Biarritz to London. However, upon unzipping his boardbag when he arrived, he was greeted with every surfer’s nightmare…but on steroids. The boards weren’t even buckled, as is so often the fate for the average airline surfboard damage. The boards were nearly unrecognizable, flattened, completely and utterly desecrated.

As Beck told our friends over at Wavelength Magazine:

“It got stuck underneath the wheel and was dragged across the tarmac for a while until they realized what they had done. The boards were completely flattened. I also had wetsuits, clothes, fins, dry bags, board socks, you name it. Every single item was either ripped, flattened or covered in tarmac. I’ve submitted a damage report, let’s see what we get back.”

Of course, it’s not the first time we’ve seen surfers experiencing trouble when it comes to airlines. Most recently, longboard legend Joel Tudor was denied when attempting to bring his boards to Hawaii. It wasn’t the first, and it (sadly) won’t be the last.

This article first appeared on SURFER and was syndicated with permission.

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