The British Surfing Association has set up a petition in opposition to a British Airways ban on surfboards.
As of November 6 the airline will no longer carry items such as surfboards and hang-gliders because of the complexity of handling the large items.
The BSA, which has 10,000 members nationwide is urging all surfers to sign the petition and to join a new members group on the social networking site Facebook to complain directly to BA.
The BSA said the British surfing teams usually travel by BA to their European and international events but will be forced to use other airlines. A large number of the BSA’s members are based on outlying British islands where BA is the only flight carrier and the new ban means they won’t be able to fly with their boards.
BSA national director Karen Walton said: “If everyone who surfs could take five minutes to go online and follow our recommended action steps then we will have real support for the reversal of this absurd decision. Facebook already has in excess of 1,000 members and a lot of our members have been making complaints to BA.
“Our online petition means that people all over the world can add their support to our campaign. We will then be personally delivering the petition to the management at BA in the near future.”