How To Paint Your Snowboard - By: Jim Garza

If you are a typical snowboarder, you want to be a bit unique and stand out on the slopes. One way to do this is with your choice of snowboard apparel. However, another very popular ways to do this is to custom paint your snowboard.

You can do this yourself, if you have the time and patience. Basically, to do a good job, you have to follow four steps - preparing the board, priming the board, painting it, and sealing it.

The first thing that you will need is a spacious and clean area to work in. This area can be either indoors or outdoors. There are advantages and disadvantages to each. If you have an indoor work area, you have to worry about paint fumes. So make sure that the indoor ventilation system is robust enough to evacuate the paint fumes from the area. On the other hand, if your work area is located outdoors, you have to worry about wind blowing your paint off course or wind blowing debris onto your board. So locate an area where the air currents are small or non-existent. This way, it won't interfere with your paint task.

Making sure that the board is clean before you start is critical to your success. So start by wiping the surface dirt and grime from the board to be painted. You can do this with a simple damp cloth. In addition, you want to remove any wax build up. Any good wax remover from your local hardware or grocery store should do the job. Then, you want to scuff the surface of the board with fine sandpaper. This will prepare it to receive the primer coat. And, finally, plug up the binding holes with q-tips to prevent paint or primer from clogging them.

Once the prep work is done, priming is relatively easy. simply spray it on according to the directions on the spray can. Basically, however, you want to avoid over priming the board. So, rather than trying to do everything with one pass, if necessary, do multiple light passes until you have covered the board well. The important thing is to keep the spray can moving so you don't have primer build-up in spots. Then let the primer dry.

Now you are ready to paint. Start by laying down a coat for your background colors. And, as before, use multiple light layers, if necessary instead of one heavy layer. When you are satisfied with the density and colors of the background, then you can use stencils to apply any designs or logos on the board.

The next to last step is to seal the board by clear coating it. This is usually a multi-phase process as you will want to apply three to four coats on the board.

Finally, to give your board that nice glossy finish, get some rubbing compound from your local auto supply shop and give the surface a nice buffing.

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