Painting moi Board...

Greetings peeps! This is my first post here

Soooo. I bought myself a nice intermediate board the other day. I live in Japan, so was struggling to explain to the nice, patient shop assistant what I needed and what I wanted to do in Japanese (though I live here, my language ability sucks). He hooked me up with a Rossignal Decoy true-twin, with some funky carbon fibre twisty bits inside.

Now, the picture on the back seemed okay at the time, and the board was about right for the money I was spending. I'm more into function than aesthetic. But. When I got the board home, I realised that the image on the bottom of the deck is suitable for a thirteen year-old skateboarder.... a shame really. It's a good board, and should last me a few years.

I asked if they'd exchange the board (factory waxed and with bindings attached) and they said, "nai."

So, my question: Does anybody have any experience with doing home repaint jobs? If so - could you make some suggestions on how I'd go about doing it.

Will it affect the life-span or performance of the board?

Thanks in advance!

[BurtonAvenger]

Are you talking about painting the base?

Yup, I'm talking about the base.

[BurtonAvenger]

Yeah um yeah I really can't believe thats a serious question. You can do it, infact go for it, but try to slide down the hill and see what happens. The only other option is finding a shop that understands how to do a base tattoo something that is highly risky and I'm not even going to go into detail about how to do it because someone might try it. I really don't see why it matters though you don't see the base until you unstrap and walk back to the car.

[Random Hero]

Just to expand on what BurtonAvenger said. You really can't paint the base because it is not a completely flat surface. Just read some basic how to wax tutorials and you'll see that it is porous(sp?) meaning that it has tiny little holes in it. In order to paint something and make it stick you need to sand it. If you sand the base you will destroy the pores in the base and it will not be able to retain wax, and pretty much ride like shit. Like BurtonAvenger says though who really cares what your base looks like anyways, the only way people are gonna see it is if you spend half your time on your ass, in the lodge and its up against a wall, or some how getting crazy air every 10 seconds.

Thanks for the advice guys,

I'm not that bothered about the base, which is why I didn't give it any real consideration when I bought it (which was probably stupid).

Actively not liking the image is a bit annoying, something like having a tattoo on your back that's really crap. You hardly ever see it, but when you catch sight of it in a mirror, you might regret that you went ahead with it.... I thought it would be fun to make my own art there instead.

I doubt I'll be getting huge air this season, but I shouldn't spend too much time on my arse either. And hey, I like the design on the top!

Yeah. Very true. Though many people say the base graphic isn't important, everybody knows it is to some extent. If you like the way your stuff looks, you're more stoked to use it. If you don't like the way your stuff looks, you feel self conscious and probably are worrying about how gay your gear looks as opposed to shreading the mountain.
I'm sure you'll get over it though, bro. And seeing as you can't return it...you might have to. haha.

[BurtonAvenger]

^ You obviously never saw the Peter Line Division 23 pro model with a Rainbow on the base then.

haha "gay gear" nice.