Actually, surfboards rarely use pigment. They are generally (probably 90% of them) coated with clear polyester and fiberglass. Graphics are airbrushed directly onto the foam (very nice to work with, Geoff) immediately after shaping, before any sealing coating is applied. I'll have to stroll through a surf shop with this in mind sometime, and take a survey of how many are coated with pigmented resins (I'd guess it's less than 2%). Old boards are usually somewhat brown with age (they start out white), but I always thought that was due to water seeping into the foam through dings. It wasn't until I started reading this BBS that I realized that it might be caused by UV exposure. Actually, I still think it's water damage because the browning tends to start out local to a ding, and spread out over time.

> With surfboards you get some colored pigment mixed into the resin to give
> it its color. This serves the same purpose as paint--it is opaque and
> blocks UV penetration. If you mixed an opaque pigment into your epoxy it
> would probably age about the same as a surfboard. Paul Jacobson