Article about traveling with poles

[rainbowgirl28]

http://www.sacbee.com/content/sports/st ... 3019c.html

Traveling with tools of the trade can put contestants poles apart


Track topic: Separation anxiety


By John Schumacher -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:15 am PDT Sunday, July 11, 2004

Stacy Dragila travels a lot. She's also a pole vaulter, which can make for a pretty frustrating combination.

Imagine strolling up to the airport check-in counter with a long bag containing several poles 14 to 17 feet long. Expect delays, hassles and sometimes worse.

Most airlines won't transport them. Flying on a smaller plane? Forget it. Going overseas? Pray those poles survive language barriers and distant connections.

So if you think you have a good lost-luggage story, the pole vault crowd can probably top it.

"Last summer I lost my poles four times going to Europe," said Dragila, an Auburn native and the 2000 gold medalist at the Sydney Olympics.

"A couple of years before that, it was a breeze. Usually it's Kellie Suttle who loses her poles, poor girl. She has different poles than all of us, so it's hard to help her out."

That happens often, with vaulters loaning each other poles. But jumping on someone else's equipment isn't easy.

"It's like a golf club for a guy," Dragila said. "I take about eight to 10 poles a meet. ... I warm up on different ones. Then as I get back to the fuller run, I get on a little bit different pole.

"You bond with your poles. You know what they're going to do, how they react. ... Some poles might have the same flexes as mine, but it's just your pole. Different. Very different."

Ask vaulters if they've had trouble transporting poles, and their facial expression telegraphs the answer.

"It is a headache," Mary Sauer, the 2002 U.S. Indoor champion, said with a smile. "You just kind of prepare yourself every day for whatever adventure's going to come."

Sauer said she's been lucky the past few years. But she recalled crying at the Rome airport in 2001 after being told her poles weren't going anywhere.

"They said, 'It's not possible,' " Sauer said. "They wanted me to live in the Rome airport.

"It (stinks) because golf clubs, surfboards, they'll take everything. But poles, for some reason they don't want to take them."

Sauer then started laughing about the time someone asked if he could fold her poles in half. Uh, no.

Derek Miles, the Bella Vista High School graduate and 2003 U.S. Indoor champion, grinned as he told the story of going to the Memphis airport with teammate Jeff Hartwig.

"He was not three feet away from me, and we were checking in together," Miles said. "I could hear what they were talking about, and they could hear what we were talking about. Right when the lady said (to Hartwig), 'OK, you're ready to go,' mine said, 'OK, it's $80.' "

Miles said going overseas doubles the trouble.

"Europe's like twice as hard," he said. "A lot of times, they just come up and say, 'We can't put them on the plane,' and we've got to battle that whole hurdle.

"As long as I pay $80 and they get them on the plane, I'm OK with that."

Tye Harvey, who trains with Miles, Hartwig and other vaulters in Jonesboro, Ark., said the pole dilemma makes planning difficult.

"There's only one or maybe two carriers that even takes pole vaulting poles anymore," he said. "They're constantly lost. How can you lose a 16-foot long bag?

"Almost every single flight, there's an issue. 'We can't get your pole to you until three days from now.'

"A lot of times, they'll set them in the cargo bay and a forklift will lift or run right over the bag and break the poles in half," he said. "I've actually heard a story of a guy coming back with his pole bag sawed in half. They sawed it in half, folded it and put it away."

[vaultmom]

I loved this article. We drive most places now unless we have to go overseas. Getting poles to Australia was a pain. They wanted to charge us an import customs charge. We flew into Omaha in 2002 to jump at a Nebraska meet ... The wind in Nebraska was blowing so hard the poles wouldn't stay on top of the van ! We had to put them inside wit the windows rolled down ( in Feb.) Even if you can get your poles to the meet, getting them home is just as tough. At Texas Relays this past season... the boys vault wasn't over early enough to get to the airport in time before the air cargo would close ! And then you are stuck over the weekend. gotta be a better way

[Skyin' Brian]

ive always thought it would be cool to enter a meet without bringing any poles and just hope that someone with similar sized poles would be nice enough to lend you one or two. you could make adjustments like shortening your run, lowering your grip, etc. if they arent the right size exactly

[Scott Go Pre]

I have think that same idea would be fun to do but then again, I do end up doing that atleast once a meet every year do to having a limited amount of poles to choose from.

One of my friends shipped her poles out to a meet across the nation and the airline company decided to cut her poles in half to make room for the other luggage. So she went to the meet without any poles and found some people nice enough to lend a few poles to her and she ended up getting in the top ten.

[rainbowgirl28]

One of our girls went to Australia for a meet a few weeks ago. On the way back, the airline broke all 4 of the poles she had. The airline had better pay for it, they were all club poles

[opalkak]

I've never heard of the airlines paying for broken poles. Has anyone?

[rainbowgirl28]

I've never heard of the airlines paying for broken poles. Has anyone?

We're not sure if it was the airline that broke it. The poles did not arrive with her flight, so the airline had them sent to her house. They could have broken then.

[completemadness]

Couple of quick ones to this.
Firstly on the broken poles, how were you transporting them? The only way to stop them getting broken is to have the poles in individual tubes (cardboard or plastic). This makes the bags very heavy, but the poles are better protected. Of course, now the restrictions for flying internationally are much higher so you almost have to use a roll...

Last week we competed in a meet in Spain. The driver met us at the airport, no roof rack, just a high performance sedan. We strapped the poles to the side of the car like we do with a rental. 20 minutes later we broke our own record for speed carrying the poles this way when the driver hit 190km/h (just over 110 mph). Not recommended for the faint hearted.

:-)

[rainbowgirl28]

I've never heard of the airlines paying for broken poles. Has anyone?

The guy from the airline called me yesterday. He's going do his best to help us out, but there is a limit of liability on the luggage. It was an international flight, and it's per pound, with a maximum weight of 70 pounds. It sounded like the most we'll be able to get was a bit over $600. Better than nothing I guess He said he'd try for more.

I'll let you all know how it works out.

She was transporting the poles in a standard pole bag with a corrugated tube inside.

[completemadness]

Yes, it's the corrugated tubes which cause the problem. When the airlines put them in the hold they fit UNDER the normal luggage holders. These then roll across the top, and if the pole bags are not strapped (QANTAS and BA do this on most European routes) then they come loose during the flight and bang into the holders above and ground below causing breakage.

Least funny experience with poles, watching the plane tug roll backwards over a set of poles which had been unloaded because they would not fit in the hold...

[mcminkz05]

Couple of quick ones to this.
Firstly on the broken poles, how were you transporting them? The only way to stop them getting broken is to have the poles in individual tubes (cardboard or plastic). This makes the bags very heavy, but the poles are better protected. Of course, now the restrictions for flying internationally are much higher so you almost have to use a roll...

Last week we competed in a meet in Spain. The driver met us at the airport, no roof rack, just a high performance sedan. We strapped the poles to the side of the car like we do with a rental. 20 minutes later we broke our own record for speed carrying the poles this way when the driver hit 190km/h (just over 110 mph). Not recommended for the faint hearted.

:-)

Iv hit almost 115 before, with my poles strapped to my car. Probably not the best idea though..

[jmayesvaultmom]

Be careful....at 116 your car turns into a helicopter!!!!