When Keith Anderson combined his graphic arts and web design skills with the business savvy of Conway entrepreneurs, and fellow artisans, Stacey Terry and Steve Terry, the three partners found themselves wrapped in the hot business of making things look cool.

Skin My Board (opened in 2010) has already found customers, via its web site, from as far away as Fort Worth, Texas, and as close as the church around the corner. The business shares space with Terry’s Custom Framing, owned by the Terrys, at 1105 Third Ave. in Conway.

The start-up company utilizes the same materials and technology used for “wrapping” or “skinning” commercial airliners, city buses, boats, or upon anywhere else you might stick a tough, adhesive-backed vinyl design. They’ve found a niche in creating hip designs primarily for surfboards, skateboards, snowboards and wakeboards, but joyfully acknowledge that the sky is the limit. “We’ll skin anything if it stands still long enough,” said Anderson. The husband-and-wife Terry team agrees. “We have four kids, and they’re always wanting something different,” said Stacey Terry. “We can even do laptops,” she added. “We did one for a daughter this Christmas.” The company is expanding its ready-made design product base, and will create custom designs as well.

“We are mostly selling pre-made designs,” said Anderson, “but we’re happy to quote custom work too.” The products offer an affordable way to jazz up a dull surfboard, with the average price around $75–a skateboard skin runs around $24. These are semi-permanent skins, meaning they stay in place until you decide to remove or change them. The company ships the products in a roll, and the customers apply the skins themselves. The web site (www.skinmyboard.com) shows a video of Anderson applying a skin and offering detailed installation instruction. The 14-minute video shows the ease and speed of application, even on a less than perfect surfboard.

The designs run from colorful abstracts (including a camouflage skin), to nature motifs, simulated wood grains, and the red-hot faith-based designs. A local Conway pastor has his surfboard skinned with Christian imagery, and Anderson and the Terrys see this market as potentially very large, and untapped. “Lots of [coastal] churches have surf clubs,” said Anderson, “and we’re reaching out to them.”

Skin My Board hopes to significantly expand its market share in 2011, and already has positioned itself as an industry leader and innovator. A surfboard manufacturer is interested in a permeable polyester version of the designs, which go underneath the last coat of resin to become a permanent part of the surfboard. Several surf and skate retailers are showing interest in becoming Skin My Board resellers.

Future designs include Les Paul and Fender Stratocaster guitar skins. A Rock Band guitar skin has already proven popular in tests with young owners of the game, which is now in an estimated 13 million homes worldwide. With the web’s inexpensive and virtually unlimited reach, Skin My Board is positioned to tap markets well beyond our little corner of the Grand Strand, and for these Conway business partners, it seems beauty is only skin deep.