Surf Doctor : How to Wax your Surfboard.

Through out your surfing adventures, this will definitely be a question you'll hear in many a carpark 'you got any wax!?'.

Firstly...surfboard wax is very different to ski or snowboard wax! It's not designed to go on the underneath of your surfboard to make you go faster!

So what is it for? Well, it's function is to add traction where your body and feet will go, on the top of your surfboard, on the deck...not on the bottom.

Surf wax is designed to be tacky, meaning you won't slip off you board...which is quite important if you don't want to get laughed at by your fellow surfers!

So a brief history...back in the early 1900's, the first recorded use of wax was actually straight up candle wax. Then in the 1930's to 1940's, people started using paraffin canning wax, it was fairly hard wax and was actually melted on. It didn't have the best traction and surfers would rub in sand for better traction. In the 1960's someone figured out that adding certain oils to the mix would soften the paraffin and make it easier to apply. It started to form 'wax warts' or bumps, which increased grip. The next step was using a softer wax, with similar properties to beeswax. The first modern style wax was created by using oil and the pliable wax, along with a lower melting paraffin base. In the mid 60's, entrepreneurs Mike Doyle and Rusty Miller added colour and nice smells to make the wax more attractive for selling potential.

Now to the present.....surf waxes now use softener instead of oils, products similar to Vaseline. Beeswax type additives are still used, along with different types of tackifiers like resins, synthetic rubbers and heavy alcohol's which give the traction a surfer needs.

There are different types of wax that are used, which all depend on the water temperature you'll be surfing in. To keep it simple, there's cold wax, cool wax, warm wax and tropical wax. The big difference is the hardness of the wax.

In cooler water, wax tends to get harder and actually becomes slippery. So a softer wax is needed that will stay soft and tacky for the traction a surfer needs.

In warmer waters, if you use cold or cool wax, the wax will soften and melt off, so you'll need a harder wax which can handle the higher temperatures and stay on your board.

So, the cool and cold waxes use a softer mix, used in colder waters.

The warm and tropical wax use a harder mix, used in warmer waters. The wax packaging will give an indication of what temperatures their designed for and if in doubt, ask your friendly local surf shop.

You can also use a base coat, although there is chat that it might be just another way to sell more wax product, you can try and decide for yourself. It's a super hard wax that doesn't have so much tackiness to it. It's used to apply a thin coat to a new board or recently cleaned surfboard, this then makes it easier to apply a stickier wax and create a nice bumpy texture.

To clean your board and wax your board, I'll attach a short and basic video (below) to get you started. In the video and after scraping most of the wax off, I used paint thinner to clean off excess wax. However, now I use a Pickle Wax Remover, which is much more effective and isn't as harsh on the environment.