![\"Zye-Norris\"](\"http:\/\/www.carvemag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Zye-Norris.jpg\")
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Your book The Longboard Travel Guide<\/i> is just out. It\u2019s the first dedicated guidebook to cover the subject, so the longboard community should be pretty stoked.<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n Yeah, I hope so. Longer boards are obviously harder to travel with, but riding them opens up so many interesting breaks around the planet, all sorts of thrilling points and peelers. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The book includes some interesting off-the-beaten-track destinations like Gabon, Western Sahara, Canada and Angola. Why were you keen to include countries like those?<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s a fact of life that lineups around the world are becoming more crowded, so I think it\u2019s important to open peoples\u2019 eyes to new surf zones where they can be assured of high quality waves and minimal crowds. Only the most adventurous surfers make it to places that are a challenge to get to, therefore they remain uncrowded. Many of these places already have a small number of low-key tourism facilities available, such as eco-lodges, and they benefit tremendously when there\u2019s an increase in adventure tourism. If you accept that the journey is part of the adventure, then I think many of the countries in the book will stoke your fires.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n More and more surf travel companies seem happy to cater for longboarders these days. That\u2019s got to be good news for loggers.<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n For sure. Surfing embraces such a wide range of abilities and approaches that any savvy surf travel company will cater for every level and every board type. But I think there\u2019s still a gap in the market for specialist surf travel operators to provide exciting quivers of boards to use on location, so that the client doesn\u2019t have to travel with a massive coffin bag of boards. Wouldn\u2019t it be good to arrive at your destination and be able to borrow a small quiver for the duration of the trip (say a specific noserider, a performance longboard and a fish)? Obviously the premium might be higher, but what a great way to free-up the stress of travelling with boards, and enjoy the chance to sample new designs in new waves. Surf travel operators could easily collaborate with local shapers to achieve this.<\/span><\/p>\n Do you prefer searching remote coasts by road or by boat?\u00a0<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n By road, if it\u2019s possible. For me, one of the biggest rewards of surf travel is meeting people, experiencing the landscape and learning about the local culture.<\/span><\/p>\n Getting through airports with a 9’0″ is a mission. How do you do it?<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s never easy! Lately, I\u2019ve noticed that Gatwick and a couple of the Heathrow terminals have introduced a 2.5 metre (8\u20192\u201d) limit for oversized baggage. This is because oversized baggage is placed in trays which go down chutes (for automated sorting) before being loaded onto the relevant plane. If the attendant working at the oversized baggage check-in refuses to take your longboard, it\u2019s at the discretion of the duty manager to have a member of staff take the board by hand…and they might refuse to take it altogether. So, the options are either to travel with a board no longer than 8\u20192\u201d at suspect airports\/terminals, or choose airports\/terminals with a track record of accepting full longboards (9\u20190\u201d plus). I know from experience that Heathrow Terminal 3 (the home of Virgin, who are great for\u00a0longboards)\u00a0is at ground level and it doesn\u2019t have a size limitation for surfboards as they get transported to the loading area without using chutes. Also, smaller international airports like Bristol (where you can connect to bigger hubs such as Amsterdam) currently have a good track record with 9\u20190\u201d plus boards. It\u2019s always wise to talk to the airline before you book and gather as much information as possible from fellow travellers.<\/span><\/p>\n When you’re planning a long-haul trip, do you choose somewhere consistent and book flights in advance, or wait for a good chart and go at the drop of a hat?<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n Well, our SurfExplore team doesn\u2019t have the resources to go jetting off at the drop of a hat, so we hone in on an area and choose a month which is likely to give us good swell and good light for shooting. For example, July and August are the best months for surf in West Africa but it tends to rain heavily, so the early season (May and June) is a better bet if you\u2019re shooting. Similarly, areas in the South China Sea that work during the northeast monsoon \u2013 Southern China, Malaysia and Vietnam \u2013 tend to have a pervasive gloom after Christmas which is awful to photograph, so it\u2019s often best to go early in the season, say November. If you want to publish material or produce films, good planning certainly makes a difference. If you\u2019re only freesurfing, of course, it\u2019s just a matter of choosing the peak swell season.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n![\"Philippines\"](\"http:\/\/www.carvemag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Philippines.jpg\")
<\/p>\nSam on the road in the Philippines.\u00a0<\/span>JOHN CALLAHAN \/ SURFEXPLORE<\/span><\/h6>\n
![\"Western-Sahara\"](\"http:\/\/www.carvemag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Western-Sahara.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"longboard](\"http:\/\/www.carvemag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/longboard-travel-guide-cover-single.jpg\")
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