How To Stick Decals To Your Kayak

Fri, May 18, 2012

Sunday, 09 October 2011 10:00

How To Stick Decals To Your Kayak

Written by Bill Howard

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Photograph by Mark Watanabe

One thing many kayak fishermen have in common is the desire to customize their fishing kayaks. An easy way to add your own personal flair is by adding stickers or decals to your kayak. Many of today’s Roto-Molded kayaks have a textured surface making it hard to get the decals to stick for more than a few trips. Bill Howard shows us how to get stickers to stick to his Malibu kayak’s textured surface.

Since it was way too windy to fish today, I broke out the decals and sand paper.

What you’ll need:

Your decals
150 or finer grit sand paper
Denatured Alcohol
Head Gun
Clean Rag

Step 1 - Mark the area you want to apply the decals on.

kayak sticker mark your location

Step 2 - Using 150 or finer grit sand paper, sand down the area until it is smooth.

kayak sticker tools

kayak sticker sanding

Step 3 - Once the area is smooth, clean it with denatured alcohol.

kayak sticker denatured alcohol

Step 4 - Heat the area with a heat gun, I used my daughters hair dryer. Once it’s hot, heat the decal and apply. Apply some heat while you smooth the decal out as well.

kayak sticker heat gun

That’s it, not much to it really.

kayak sticker finished product

About the Author: Bill Howard is a Pro Staff Member at Yakangler.com, as well as Malibu Kayaks. He is also on the Columbia Sportswear Pro Team. Bill is an avid photographer and writer, contributing to numerous websites and publications in the Tampa Bay area. In 2008 he completed a 17 day, 129 mile trip around Tampa Bay raising nearly $4000 dollars for the American Heart Association. He is also a board member for the Tampa Bay Chapter of Hero's on the Water.

Read 2312 times Last modified on Sunday, 09 October 2011 12:09

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Bill Howard

About the Author: Bill has lived and fished the South shore of Tampa Bay since 1972. An aspiring photographer and writer, he has had several of his pictures published in several local fishing publications and was selected to write for an Australian Kayak Fishing Journal called “Blade”. He is on the Pro Staff for Fins Braid, Columbia Sports Wear and Slayer Inc.

As a member of the Malibu Kayaks Pro Team, Bill is active in the local and state tournament scene. He has won numerous Catch, Photo and Release tournaments as well as several online tournaments. He has also helped organize demonstration days and seminars covering such topics as safety as well as fishing the flats.

In 2008 he completed a 129 mile, 17 day trip around Tampa Bay. The event called “Paddle Around the Bay” raised nearly $4000 dollars for the American Heart Association. He also volunteered his time and served on the Hillsborough County Sea Grass Task Force. Charged with developing plans to protect the fragile sea grass in Tampa Bay, the committee made recommendations directly to the county commissioners that when put into place will greatly improve the health of the sea grass in the bay.

Bill serves as Vice President of the Tampa Bay chapter of Hero’s on the Water. This group is tasked with taking injured and recovering veterans out fishing in kayaks. Paddle. Fish. Heal is their motto.