Many of the airliners changed their rules and working more with weight/length. What I found is if you keep you luggage under 158cm and 23 kg your fine with most traditional airline company nevertheless what you carry. Under 20 kg you manage most lowfair airliners as well.
Exception from this is of course all tour operators that always charge extra nevertheless if it's golf or boards in the bag, might be a little bit cheaper with golf though.
Might be good to always read the fine print and print it and take it with you to the checkin counter. Couple of times the person in front of me invented their own rules (yes in Europe), sometimes they have been to my advantage sometimes disadvantage, always good with the fine print.
My experience is that it's still a Jungle to travel with kite gear, but on the other side hopfully you travel to a fantastic spot
