Time to dust off your cheap wakeboard or wakesurfer and give it a little love and shine with some spray paint. That is before you completely destroy it at the next cable park trip or concrete ledge.   In this tutorial we’ll will show you an effective way to tag your cheap wakeboard. You can apply this technique to  just about anything you want  – wakeboards, surfboards, snowboards, skateboards, or your girlfriend’s tiny dog.

First, the essential tools…

1. spray paint – we recommend you use Montana spray paint.  You can find them for about $9 a can which is about $5 more than you’d be paying for cheap spray paint but I’m willing to spend that cause it dries quicker and lasts longer both in the can and on whatever you spray. It’s also a really consistent spray nozzle that doesn’t clog.

2. x-acto knife – We’ll be using this to cut out our design

3. 1x  manila folder or thick piece of paper – This is what we’ll as our stencil

4. Painter’s tape – Used to keep our design in place while we cut it out of the manila folder.  You can also pick up some M3 Super 77 spray for a couple extra dollars.

5. Your design – This is what we’ll be cutting out.  You can print the design out on computer paper, do it freehand or even place a photo over the top to trace out. Another good option if you have a few extra bucks for printing at larger scale is to use Fedex office.

6. An Old, unused or cheap wakeboard – You get the idea.

Step 1  Prep & Tape Your Design

Get your design after it’s printed and tape it to one side of your manila folder or use the Super 77 spray to do so.  I decided to use Jake Pickle’s icon because he showed me this technique.  Thanks Jake!

Step 2 Cut out Your Design With X-Acto knife

Cut out your design using the x-acto knife.  This part takes a little practice, especially when cutting around corners and arcs.  It helps to use your fingertips to rotate the knife subtly as you cut instead of applying heavy pressure to direct the knife.  You might need to re-cut parts of the design that didn’t get sliced on your first go around.

Step 3 Spray Paint The Design On Your Wakeboard

Now the fun part.  Grab your spray paint, stencil design and tape. Place your stencil on the surface you want to spray, like a wakeboard. We used an spray painted white Oracle wakeboard. Adding a base layer of white before you hit your wakeboard with a spray design is great for making the colors pop. Just make sure you wait until it dries before you add another layer of spray paint.

If you want the outcome clean & precise we recommend taping the stencil securely to your wakeboard.  You’ll get a burned or drippy look if the stencil is loose.  Make your sprays short & lighter than you think for precise edges…and use a sweeping motion.  Staying in one spot make the sprays heavy and those tend to smear and smudge as you remove your stencil. If you want a drippy painted look then hold the spray can in place about 2 inches above the surface for 2-3 seconds as you either start or finish the spray technique described above. For the drip effect make sure you spray inside the design, with the stencil removed, or you’ll end up with a poor stencil design on your wakeboard….Doh!

That’s it! Remove your stencil, grab your shred stick and start wakeboarding.  Your stencil should last for about 20-30 sprays.

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