Category: how to

backyard stones course lawn

How To: Build A Backyard Stones Course

You don’t always need to come out to a public course if you wish to play or practice the game of Stones. Some of the best courses are made in backyards. Whether you have a two acre wooded lot, a small city lawn, or somewhere in between, the principles of building a course are the same.  If you follow a few key steps and have some imagination, you will be able to hone your skills at home.

Let’s first address what you’ll need:

  1. Stones—Self-explanatory. It would be difficult to play without them.
  1. Rake—Whether you’re working with grass, dirt, woods, beach, or any combination of the above, you’ll need to clean up the area.
  1. Borders—Every stretch will need to have borders. What you decide to make them out of is entirely up to you. Most borders are made with natural materials: logs, branches, trees, or rocks, but if you don’t have any of these available, be creative. People have used water, marking paint, dug trenches, or simply raked the leaves to the side and used them to indicate the boundary. No matter what material you choose, it’s imperative to make sure you can identify if a stone is in or out.

We have our items ready, so now let’s go build a course. An official Stones course has five stretches and one x-hole. This doesn’t mean your home course has to be the same. If you’re pressed for space, it would be better to make two or three well-designed stretches than to squeeze in five that were poorly-planned. One backyard Stones course in Mount Airy has three stretches—you just play stretches one, two, and three first, and then play three and two backwards. The key is to be creative and use what the land gives you.

Planning your course layout is typically the most difficult step. Walk your entire area and pick out certain features that you would like to include. The things you’re looking for are elevation changes, clusters or lines of trees, tree roots, fallen trees, natural depressions, flower beds, rocks, or anything that would make an interesting field of play. If your area is lacking interest, don’t be afraid to make your own. A simple rock wall or a cluster of branches can lead to interesting areas, even on the flattest surfaces.

Once you have your Points of Interest or (POI) identified, you can began laying out your course. Pick which POIs will be landings and work backwards. Remember, what makes a good Stones course is diversity. To achieve diversity, use length and width and POIs to make sure each stretch differs from the next. Add your borders and you are ready to go.

The last step is the most fun. Play your backyard Stones course. No layout is perfect right away. Try different things, and if you find it’s too difficult to establish a stone in some areas or if stretches are always played the same way, don’t be afraid to change it up. You’ll be surprised how changing the location of a border, or adding a log, will change how a course is played.

Good luck, and feel free to contact us with questions about building your Stones course. We’ll be glad to help!

custom stones iceman top gun

Tagging: How To Customize Your Stones Set

Currently, stones can be purchased in sets that come in black, white, red, or blue. However, with a couple cans of spray paint and a little creativity, the sky’s the limit as far as what you can do with the appearance of your stones.

It all began in 2013, when Sean Smiley, an Irish-American, painted shamrocks on the side of his balls. They weren’t pretty, but this primitive paint job started a bit of a trend, and later paint jobs became much more technical and of increasingly better quality. In 2014, while headed to Toronto, Ontario, for the yearly Canada Open, Ryan Kinka felt so obliged as to spray paint his stones like the American flag. With one set of four painted with the red and white stripes and the other set blue with white stars, his team was prepared to represent the US while north of the border. The next year, when Philadelphians and co-founders of Stones, Chris Kinka and John Janick headed to New York to face off against the other founders of the game, they entered as the enemy, and only stones painted as Death Stars would do. Now, Stones veteran, Tommy “Iceman” Pendergast, has his set painted like the helmet of his Top Gun namesake and others are experimenting with skulls, and playing dice.

It’s relatively easy to do. Once a set of stones is weathered from a season or so of use, lightly sand them down and fill all large nicks with bumper repair. Then, choose your colors of spray paint. (We have found that Rust-Oleum Ultra Cover Paint and Primer works the best.)  After selecting the base coat color, spray the stones with three coats, allowing adequate drying time between coats. Next, tape off the stones in whatever design you choose and spray them with three coats of your second color choice. Repeat this step for however many colors you choose. Once satisfied with the appearance of your stones, remove tape and apply 4-5 coats of high gloss Rust-Oleum clear coat to complete the project.

As Stones spreads throughout Philadelphia, we are excited to see what ball tagging ideas surface. We envision designs that represent different neighborhoods, different streets, city landmarks, Philly Sports teams… who knows? The stones are in your court. Legal graffiti. Spray away.