Welcome back to another edition of Sandboarding Nation! This time we will look at how to spray a sandboard.
There are 2 problems with my method which probably won't relate to an actual sandboard itself; Firstly: my board is made of hardened plastic so it is a different material, application will vary differently and a different kind of spray paint may be required depending on the surface your aerosol paint supports; Secondly: I remember putting a poll ages ago asking which colour my board should be and the majority answer was 'Flourescent Yellow' but the only colours in stock that were Fluorescent were Green, Pink and Blue, So I had to go for the closest colour on the spectrum. Green.
First step: You are presented with your board, and 2 other simple materials (Three depending on the material of the board). The two main things you need are masking tape and an aerosol spray paint can with the colour of your choice.
You can apply tape and spray the front of your board too and you can also use an array of colours, but just be careful that you let the paint dry first to avoid colour mixing whilst it's wet, ALWAYS apply tape if you're hoping to do stripes and if you want to paint the front of your board (which I didn't this time) watch your footing so that you don't manage to scratch the paint off.
Step 2: Apply the masking tape onto the back of the board making sure it covers the areas you do NOT want covered in paint. The masking tape I used was 25 millimetres thick and the roll was 25 metres long, the price for 1 roll was 80 pence and throughout the entire project I used probably only about 8 metres worth of board; I purchased 2 rolls because I underestimated how much I would need but now I know, the small width of the tape ensured I had to overlap existing tape marks so you may see I've done it twice, where actually I have extended the width.
Time for a bit of maths:
8 metres in a 25 metre roll of tape.
8 divided by 25 is 0.32
0.32 multiplied by 100 is 32%
32% of 80 pence is 25.6 (26 rounded)
So the cost of the tape for my board cost me 26 pence (£1.06 if you count the other tape I never used) which is fantastically cheap!
Double tape your board if necessary but don't do it too little as you don't want paint to leak through (which is very unlikely)
Also don't do it too much as you might make the tape residue stay (to remove it may involve scratching)
Step 3: This should be the fun part! Just spray your board; for mine it took me 2 ordinary 200ml cans which swallowed £3.49 each out of my wallet (£6.98 for 2 cans) and gave it a nice finish. My board is 104 centimetres in length and 24 centimetres by width and that roughly used 400ml of paint (notice I'm not using cubic measurements which might be unhelpful to some but please forgive me as I didn't get cubic measurements back in school).
If you got it to this far in the post, I want to give you a warning to not try and do what I did and tear off the tape too early as it left some paint bleed and some paint even came off the board itself! Give it a good 30 minutes or hour to wait for the paint to dry. I couldn't wait to take the masking tape off to show the patterns in the paint, so DON'T DO THE MISTAKE I DID and be too eager, people!
That is how you paint a Sandboard yourself without a professional or trader and in your own home! The paint would cost roughly £7 and the tape no less than a pound so it is a cheap project and a good investment of your style & reputation!
Quick note on last post!
Before I conclude, I want to thank the real Doctor Dune from Sand Master Park for commenting on last week's post and giving me more information and knowledge about their place! Not many people know this but those guys are also home of the largest maker of sandboards on the planet, so I'm privileged for them to even comment on my blog so that's a small step!
Join me for the next blog post scheduled for the 19th AUGUST where I'll be telling you about my holiday, whilst I'm on holiday!
