Another leap
When we arrived at the airport to catch our flight to New Zealand, we found out that the company we were flying with didn’t accept the length of the surfboards we had brought with us. Even though we had paid for oversized luggage when we booked. Even though we had flown with the same company to Bali with the same boards.
We had planned a whole trip around the length of these boards. Van hire, taxi hire.
But here we were. If we did not live 8 minutes from the airport and have Tony’s son available to come and collect the rejected board bag, we would have had to cancel the flight.
All of this in an age where in ten minutes, even I could have created a popup window on the bookings page to ensure the size of the oversized luggage was entered and if it exceeded the limit, you could not purchase the oversized package.
The enshittiffication of the company Jetstar.
One of the many things I loathe about our current state of business as usual. The big companies – at the executive level – do not care at all. Their ground staff have to live with the fall out of berate customers.
On the positive side, the board bag we did get onto the flight held two boards, both 6’10.
My New Zealand surf trip requires another leap. From 8’ to 6’10. For a non-surfer, this might not sound like much. It is huge.
Yet it was always the intention I held in surfing. To be on a shorter board.
The day has been forced upon me by enshittiffication. It is not so bad, compared to the real suffering enshittiffication brings to so many.
On the ground level, in the water, the learning curve just went up again.
I write these words with the warm sun on my back after a dawn surf, a healthy breakfast in front of me, a solid nine hours of sleep behind me, the sound of cicadas and waves breaking, my bare feet on the ground.
The daring adventure continues and my heart is full.
Photo February 26th 2025, Article written February 26th 2025
