Last time I looked, it was like $130 through UPS I think Fastnel was cheaper. Didn't use either as bringing it one-way on the plane was cheaper. I forgot what airline. I'm bored at work and just went to the UPS website. Cross country ground is $180 https://wwwapps.ups.com/ctc
Make sure you DOUBLE wrap it with bubble wrap. And LARGE bubbles, not the small sheet. If you can use make some sort of "end caps" for the tip and tail using foam of some sort.
I've twice had good experiences having boards shipped to me by Greyhound. You still need to make sure the board's packed up right, but going through them might be able to save you some dough if you don't mind going into the station to pick it up. CA-NC ran about $80 if I remember right.
Use a board bag--a good one i.e. thick heavy duty. Luggage handlers are brutal on boards. Never forget--they are union, so they cannot be fired, hence they do not care one bit what happens to your board.
I have learned that when the board length gets 6' and over the price doubles. 130" length and girth used to be the cutoff for excess size for Fedex and UPS, that might have changed. And shipping to a legitimate business address is a lot cheaper. The address has to show up as a commercial property not residential. When the package reaches the destination have the recipient inspect the board immediately because if it is damaged (easily 33% of the time in my experience no matter how well it is packed) you have to make the claim right then and there. If you wait they may reject the claim. Styrofoam the nose and tail an inch or 2. Keep it light as possible. Surf shops usually keep boxes and packing around because so many are shipped from asia nowadays. Good luck.
Used to do that all the time. That and a bunch of scrap foam cutoffs strategically taped to the nose, tail, rails, deck and bottom.
bubble wrap and all the packing tape necessary is a pita. When Quiet Flight ships, they simply sandwich the board between 2 sheets of cardboard and staple the sides together. The tip and tail are reinforced with cardboard and the whole thing is shoved in a box...no bubble wrap at all. Granted, this doesn't pad the deck and bottom as well as BW, but, most importantly, the rails, tip and tail are perfect and it's an exponentially faster, easier and environmentally friendly packing job. They've shipped me several boards this way and none of them arrived dinged.
I was told the same thing when I shipped a 5'7" (with glass fins) to Florida UPS not too long ago. Got an oversized used box from a local shop, cut it down and refolded it to be just under 6 feet, folded additional cardboard flaps around the nose and tail, secured the fin cluster with EPS chunks and cardboard shields, packed out with carpet padding scraps, and UPS charged me about $100 to ship it. The buyer told me it arrived without a scratch.
