Surfboard Wax

It’s ironic that in most extreme sports wax is used to make things more slippery, yet in surfing wax is used for grip. Skateboarders wax the bottom of their boards and curbs/poles to make grinding smoother, and snowboarders use wax on the underside of their snowboards to move over the snow with greater ease. Surfboard wax on the other hand is made of a different composition and its more ‘tacky’ to the touch.

The reason surfers need to wax their boards is that a smooth fibreglass shell and lots of water don’t make for the most grippy of surfaces. Throw fine grains of sand into the equation and you’ve got a recipe for one slippy session in the surf.

What surf wax does is provide a high-friction surface to the board that cannot be penetrated or broken down by the sea water. And, if any sand gets on the board it sticks to the wax and often provides even greater traction against the soles of the feet. Of course, not all sea water is the same around the world and so it is necessary to use specific waxes for cold water, cool water and warm water etc.

Getting wax off a surfboard is normally a lot harder than putting it on. Most choose to scrape it off, but some try melting the wax with a hair dryer. You can now by chemicals to do the hard work for you thankfully