ABOVE Jesse Loomis (right) and Zach Egge (left) discuss a shape on the Speed of Sawdust Tour in Portland, OR. Photo: Toby Grubb.
Building custom snowboards is a little easier today than it was in the infancy of the sport. As YouTube becomes ever more saturated with information it’s increasingly simple to find a tutorial or insight into how others are doing it. If you’re inspired to start making snowboards in your own garage, we’re here to give you a kick in the butt! After all, if Sean Martin hadn’t started experimenting with DIY snowboard making, we wouldn’t have Donek Snowboards today.
In fact, we even asked Sean to provide a few tips on getting started and here’s what he said:
“There are a lot more resources today when making your own board. There are multiple YouTube videos explaining the process as well as hobby ski and snowboard builders web sites. If you have the time, space and patience, you can easily begin making your own. Keep in mind though that your first board or two or three is unlikely to come out the way you want. Building your own board is rarely a money saving endeavor.”
How to get started making your own snowboards
If you’re interested in getting started with DIY snowboard making, you’ll be well off recruiting a friend with a little woodworking knowledge. We suggest bribery with a 6-pack of beer for labor and tools if you don’t have the skills yourself. Sit down and watch this excellent tutorial on how to make your own snowboard. While these guys have a few more tools than the average joe, you’ll still be able to glean valuable information about the overall process from a knowledgeable manufacturer such as Whitelines.
For an inside look at how boards are built and what each of these categories of materials are, check out this great thorough write up at Mechanics of Sport.
1. Choosing Your Core Type
There are tons of options for wood snowboard cores, so let’s run through a few of them.
Bamboo – great strength, rigidity, and flex
Poplar – good for “pop”
Maple – absorbs impact, high energy, holds mounting screws well
Many snowboards are built with wood cores, but not all. Among those with wood cores, any combination or arrangement of wood types and thickness is possible, depending on desired end result. Get more information on snowboard core types here.
Other materials used for snowboard cores include:
Carbon Fiber
Kevlar
Aluminum
2. Choosing a Top Sheet
Top sheets are absolutely not necessary for a simple homemade snowboard. Of course, you can always get creative and make your top sheet out of just about anything you can think of. Flatten out old PBR cans and cast them into the resin when you make the board – get crafty and let your imagination run. If you’re making a gorgeous wood board, though, we would consider letting that beautiful finished wood shine through.
3. Choosing a Base
There are a few different types of snowboard base materials but for your first board attempt we are going to try to convince you to keep it cheap. Save money and go with the most inexpensive material you can find.
Start by looking here at snowboardmaterials.com to get started purchasing the goodies for your project. Give them a call if you need advice on getting started.
4. Edges
For a powder board, you probably don’t even need edges on your first board. Of course, if you want to be able to bit into hard pack or groomers, you’ll definitely want metal edges.
Leaving edges off of your board may dramatically reduce the overall life of the board as well. Delamination is a serious issue that will quickly destroy your board. Luckily you can find premade ski and snowboard edges, again on snowboardmaterials.com.
5. Making Your Own Snowboard Press
You’re going to need a way to bond all the layers of your board together once you’re ready to laminate. Since buying a snowboard press will set you back a neat $6,000 – we’re going to assume you’d rather do it the cheaper way. That’s why you’ll want to build your own snowboard press. There are tons of ways to do it but we’re going to arm you with a few cheap and easy ways to do it.
The 2x4 press is a simple and cheap way to make your snowboard press. Don’t have the tools to cut such a wide piece of wood into the profile of your board? Try cutting each 2x4 individually and then sanding them to remove any inconsistencies.
Of course, if you’re more engineering minded and have access to the resources, you can try a homemade screw press. These simple machines are more than capable of generating the forces needed to laminate a board.
6. Finishing the Board
Of course, there are several steps and details we’ve omitted from this process. You’ll want to make sure you plug in the appropriate number of binding inserts which you can find here. Reference other snowboards to make a template for the layout of your binding inserts.
Try laying a piece of printer paper over the binding inserts of your favorite board. Use a pencil or crayon to lightly color over the holes. When you’re done, you should have a perfect template for the layout of your own binding inserts.
You’re also going to want to sand and polish the resin on your board and top sheet. This will be one of the last steps after you’ve finished all the rest of the board. The last thing you want to do is spent 10 hours sanding and polishing and then scratch the board when you’re trying to go back and fix an earlier step!
Conclusion
While we’re not professional snowboard makers, or even hobbyists, we’re pretty certain that with some attention to detail and a little more research, you can be! There are tons of great DIY snowboard articles we’ve linked out to but in case you missed them, let me list them out for you:
If you’re interested in building your own snowboard, let us be the driving force that encourages you to get after it. Great turns on a powder day never come to you – you’ll have to put in the effort to go find the best lines. Just remember that building your own snowboard will likely be more expensive and significantly more time consuming than purchasing a board from the pros.
Take my word for it – DIY hobbies (especially the ones involving power tools) tend to become burdens on the wallet quickly. Make sure your partner is ready to sacrifice the garage to the gods of DIY snowboard making before you get started!
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