Hello!

Does anybody know the good (not expensive) company to ship a surfboard to anythere in South East Asia from USA?

Time is not the problem, it could take month but for good price.

Any expirience with the local customs in any of the SE sian countries? One friend of mine said never send anything to Philippines, custom charges you more than the price of the boards or kites.

So, DHL, UPS, USPS, TNT, FedEx, does anybody have any expirience with any of these or other companies?

Any info is appreciated.

rust

May be somebody is going to fly to Sri Lanka or SE Asia and can bring the board for me?
Quite by accident?
I have SOMA bag for two boards, just in case...

DHL is cheapest for that kind of stuff.

Anybody want to test the Airush Converse 6'4" in SE asia or Sri Lanka this summer?

I recently had a surfboard shipped from the United States to Singapore by DHL. It is fast (a few days transit time) but not cheap, you are looking at at least $200 in shipping charges. Air freight might be cheaper.

Your friend is right, don't ship anything into the Philippines or Thailand, the custom fees can be exorbitant. The Filipino custom authority tends to be much more relaxed about stuff coming in through regular airmail though (or perhaps they just don't screen a lot of the regular mail packages) - I've had fairly expensive kitegear come in through postal mail to the Philippines with no custom fees or tariffs being levied, but the problem for you is that the U.S. Postal Service won't accept your surfboard, and anything coming in via DHL will definitely get inspected and charged a huge fee by the Filipino customs. The same is true for the Thai and Sri Lankan customs (I'm speaking out of personal experience here). Also, your stuff could get stuck in customs for weeks in those countries.

Singapore is a completely different story. That place is efficiency defined, founded on the concept of free trade. Singapore Customs will process your package in minutes or at most a couple of hours and the tariff will be reasonable. I think I paid about $50 on a declared value of $1250 for my surfboard (it was a custom Aviso carbon board, which is why it was so pricy to start with, but the point is that the tariff rate is just a few percent and the Singapore Custom will pride itself on processing your stuff quickly).

Anyhow, sure, your cheapest option would probably be to have someone carry your board as personal luggage on a flight. Be careful what airline they fly with, though - some airlines charge quite a lot for surfboards.

Is the item brand new or yours already?

If its ordered online and shipping to Thailand, expect to get hit for massive import duty, expect 30% at least, plus the shipping and it is not going to make it worth it.

If it's yours already and is going to be posted privately via a courier you might avoid the tax. I would avoid TNT as I have always been charged ridiculous handling fees by them.

Where are you going to use it?, probably cheaper to buy one locally.

Dear Saami, many thanks for the detailed answer, I am in Singapore right now actually!