Travel on board with popular heads of department serving unusual Russian fare (8)
I believe the answer is:
windsurf
'travel on board' is the definition.
'with popular heads of department serving unusual russian fare' is the wordplay.
'with' becomes 'w' (abbreviation**).
'popular' becomes 'in'.
'heads of' says to take the initial letters.
The first letters of 'department serving unusual russian fare' is 'dsurf'.
'w'+'in'+'dsurf'='WINDSURF'
(Other definitions for windsurf that I've seen before include "Move on water by standing on a board with a sail" , "Ride on a sailboard" , "Use a sailboard" .)