By Pierre Bastien
Last summer, I traveled down to Charlottesville to play in the 2018 World Masters, which were being held for the first time in the United States. The University of Virginia hosted 600 players from around the world at the McArthur Squash Center and Boar’s Head Inn.
I had a major packing challenge on my hands. The first problem was the tournament lasted a full week, and there were dinners and other social events to attend, so I needed a variety of clothes, plus lots of squash gear to get me through the week.
The second problem was I needed to fit all my stuff into a single squash bag. My plan was to take the train down and bring my bike along for exploring Charlottesville during the week (fun fact: you can buy a bike ticket on many Amtrak trains). Since I was going to be riding my bike from the station, I needed everything to fit in one backpack-style bag that I could ride with.
I bought the biggest one I could find—a 12-racquetTecnifibre bag—and then thought really carefully about what I was going to cram in there. Here is the list of everything I packed into that bag. Hopefully this will help anyone who’s traveling to a squash tournament—even the 2020 World Masters next summer in Poland.
- Squash stuff: two racquets, sneakers, goggles, balls, grips and water bottle
- Clothes: six sets of squash kit, warm-up top; fancier clothes for dinner (blazer, dress shirt, pants, belt, nicer shoes and socks), shorts, polo shirt, t-shirts, underwear, socks, pajamas, sunglasses, baseball cap and flip flops
- Extras: toiletry bag (travel-size everything), book, laptop, folder for papers, notebook and pen and camera
Additional recommendations:
- Check whether you’ll have access to laundry machines; think about washing some clothes in your hotel room sink and air drying.
- Get some packing cubes: lightweight zippered containers that help you keep your things organized
- Most anything you forget, you can probably buy at your destination. This was central Virginia in August, so I didn’t bring many warm clothes, but the air conditioning was so cold in my room (I stayed at the UVA dorms) that I couldn’t sleep at night. Solution: giant wool sweater from the thrift shop.
