What you need:
- Scissors
- Sharp knife, i.e. a box cutter
- Optional: Sticker for the top of your deck
- Griptape of your choice, Marco usually uses plain black griptape
1. Step: First, think about how you want your griptape to look and whether you want the top of your deck or stickers to shine through.
2. Step: Cut your griptape with the scissors as you like. If you want a fancy cut, you can draw it on first with a pencil, and mirror the design if you draw it on the backside of the grip.
TIP: with your design you can clearly show where nose and tail of your deck are!
Marco Kada
Plan your individual design & cut the griptape accordingly
3. Step: If you want, place stickers on your deck where you cut the grip and want them to shine through
4. Step: Stick the pieced griptape carefully to your deck without creating bubbles. Make sure it overlaps on the sides (unless you are doing a „crooked“ one as Marco does)
Put stickers on your deck & stick the pieced griptape to your deck without creating bubbles
5. Step: Sand the overlapping griptape as usual. For example, us the back of a skateboard tool, a screwdriver, or like Marco the back of your scissors.
6. Step: With a sharp knife (i.e. box cutter – Marco’s tool in Cyprus was not the best for the job ;) ), cut the griptape on your deck’s edge.
Sand the griptape & cut it out with a sharp knife
7. Step: Do not throw away the cut-off pieces. You might need them later, depending on the design you chose.
8. Step: Your personal griptape design is ready. Go out and skate :)
Use the cut-off pieces to fill "holes" & your personal griptape is done
PS: You can of course use the same techniques for Cruiser, Longboards and everything else you put griptape on!
