To grip such a unique handmade longboard, we needed something more than just the average solid grip tape job on the top side of the deck. We decided to cut out a small design that would let the natural maple veneer show through the grip itself. Sticking with the 'dancer' theme, we found a silhouette image of a ball room dancer in a top hat for our design.

We cut a length of grip tape at 20" long to apply our image to. This will end up in the middle of the deck and is a nice short piece to work with.

After taping our image to the back (paper) side of the grip tape, we start cutting out the areas we want the wood to show through.

**Remember to mirror (or flip) your image before printing if you want it to align a certain way on the grip. Because you are cutting your image from the back side of the grip, any image will show up in the reverse once it has been applied to the deck. This is especially important if you have any text you want to cut out.