FLY CHEAP WITH THE MONDO
Ok, the purpose of this page is save you money if you want to fly with your crashpad. Crashpads are considered "oversize luggage" by many airlines and often incur an extra charge.

A recent Rock and Ice article about traveling with a crashpad suggested that there isn't anything you can do about it.

Poppycock.

A crashpad might appear large and bulky but break it down and it's nothing but foam pads and a cover. The cover and the blue closed cell foam don't take up much space. The grey open cell foam is the space hog. But open cell foam is compressible. You can make it smaller.
The photos are of the MONDO crashpad by Black Diamond. A really big pad. If you can compact the mondo down so that it fits into a piece of checked baggage then you can do it to any pad. The pad unzips and the foam can be pulled out without too much trouble although it's a tight fit. Don't worry, there is a trick to get it back in. Step 1: The blue closed cell foam fits very nicely in a $20 nylon Walmart duffel.
To get the grey open cell foam to fit you are going to have to roll it up tight and use cam straps or bungie cord to hold the foam in a rolled up position.
Then you can fit the 2 open cell foam pieces into the nylon duffle.
On a recent trip to Bishop via Vegas, my friends with standard sized crash pads were charged $50 for their pads - but the mondo in the duffel was accepted as a standard checked bag.
PUTTING THE PAD BACK TOGETHER

To get the foam back in the very tight fitting cover requires you to wet the cover. The material black diamond uses for their cover expands when it's wet.
When the cover is wet, it's casual to fit the foam back into the pad cover. But you'll have to let the pad dry out before you can use it.