painting snowboards DIY

So last night my good friend and falafel consultant Subhan - thats right, of Muslim in America, told me he wanted to paint his snowboard. I also wanted to paint my snowboard, but for a much different reason. Some Muslims opt out of alcoholic indulgences, so the "Smirnoff Ice" edition Nitro, while totally awesome, stands in stark contrast to his particular beliefs. After a few seasons with my trusty Ride Snowboard and with some new bindings in the mail, I was just getting tired of the old look.

We sanded down the boards with some 600 grit emery paper wrapped around some 6" blocks of 2X4 with water for a nice uniform roughed-up base to lay our primer on.

The Smirnoff board is a promotional item made by Nitro Snowboards - a quite reputable brand. He found it on craigslist for $70, but talked the guy down to $50, and on seeing it was a promotional tool for an alcohol brand, pulled the Muslim card and talked it down to $20 - what a deal!

We scrubbed the boards clean with mineral spirits after sanding to get all the dust off. Then we sprayed the primer - a first time experience for our Muslim friend, and he did a great job. The 600 grit is the perfect abrasive for primer adhesion, but in retrospect I would have liked to bring down the higher spots with some 400 or 200.

Next we put the top coat - a flat white. Things got a little rough for our amateur painter during this stage, learning the lesson everyone who uses spray paint can only learn themselves: thin coats mean no drips. Stay tuned for the exciting conclusion of the painting snowboards DIY.