So I had 2 weeks off from school for Christmas, or "winter holidays" for the politically correct. This is the first year that I've owned skis. I went to REI and bought this cheap double ski bag. Went home, put my fiancee's and my skis in, put the poles in, zipped it up... and voila, a ski bag with the skis floating inside, unstrapped, banging on whatever the bag happened to hit. I then packed all my clothes--99.9% of which were for the slopes with only a decent pair of black slacks and a wool sweater for that big family gathering where I would have to look nice and talk politely to nauseously polite cousins whose names I would forget but would pretend to remember--around the skis in order to provide some cushion. With all my clothes in the ski bag now, the suitcase only carried the two pairs of boots. Ha, nice, I said to myself, very satifised.
Six hours of seven-dollar-for-a-miniscule-turkey-sandwich flight on the soon to be bankrupt Song airline later, I arrived at San Francisco, already dreaming of skidding my way--being a beginner, I wouldn't call that carving-- down the powder trails at Lake Tahoe. Half an hour later, the oversized-luggage door opened and my ski bag was cruelly thrown out on the hard, cold floor of the baggage return area. I couldn't recognize it at first because it no longer had that nice cylindrical shape that I said goodbye to at Logan. Instead, all the clothes had magically gathered around on end of the bag, swelling that end, while, at the other end, the ski tips are protruding out in various directions, unprotected. Luckily, I found out that the skis and bindings were still intact.
So I clearly didn't know how to pack two pairs of skis in a cheap, unpadded ski bag. Any tip from you guys besides purchasing a hard case?
Six hours of seven-dollar-for-a-miniscule-turkey-sandwich flight on the soon to be bankrupt Song airline later, I arrived at San Francisco, already dreaming of skidding my way--being a beginner, I wouldn't call that carving-- down the powder trails at Lake Tahoe. Half an hour later, the oversized-luggage door opened and my ski bag was cruelly thrown out on the hard, cold floor of the baggage return area. I couldn't recognize it at first because it no longer had that nice cylindrical shape that I said goodbye to at Logan. Instead, all the clothes had magically gathered around on end of the bag, swelling that end, while, at the other end, the ski tips are protruding out in various directions, unprotected. Luckily, I found out that the skis and bindings were still intact.
So I clearly didn't know how to pack two pairs of skis in a cheap, unpadded ski bag. Any tip from you guys besides purchasing a hard case?