Hi, I’m new to this site, and I’m hoping somebody can help with some history. I need to find out how wax started being used by surfers and the history behind wax. So if anyone can help a landlocked Aussie I’d be stoked
OK, I’m getting really curious. Come on you leviathan historians. Anybody got a good story to tell about the birth of the use of surfboard wax? 15th century? the 60’s? Somewhere in between? Enquiring minds want to know. I found a reference to a game called sexwax hockey, but it doesn’t sound surfing related.
October 03 issue of LONGBOARD mag has an overview of surfwax history.
Don’t think I can get that mag. Can you summarize briefly? Thanks.
sex wax was developed by a guy named nate skinner he comes into my shop in ventura every week talking about his new wax ideas
Thank you, Mr. Zog and Nate Skinner. We owe many thanks.
1930’s - 40’s - Experments with different floor waxes.
1950’s - Paraffin wax widely used.
Mid 60’s - First surf specific wax introduced called SURF WAX.
Fell by the wayside after being sold to Con surfboards.
70’s - Surf Research’s “Waxmate” dominated market.
72ish Rick herzog and N. Skinner intro Sex Wax.
That’s pretty much it without detailing the minor chemical improvements made over the last 30 years.
Wax Trivia:
1998 Emma Stewart pours first bar of edible organic warmwater boardwax (well, maybe the first)
1998 Seagull eats first bar of edible organic warmwater boardwax.
1999 Roy Stewart waxes Eric Burgraaf’s windscreen with organic boardwax (warm water variety)
2002 Emma Stewart and Roy Stewart find a 1920’s book called ‘formulas for profit’ and adapt skiwax recipes to make organic cold water wax using pine resin from plantation Monterey Pine.
thats funny roy
the seagull
i heard of melting candles in the 50 s
is it mainly bees wax or petroleum based.
tired of people lending your wax in the car park
only to return with just a tiny bit left full of rocks, dirt and a pubic Hair ( where did that come from… actually found one in my lam coat immortalized for eva… that al be 400$ thanxs and keep the pube…)
try NEW SLIPWAX
keep it in your glove box for that opportunity when the local wannabe pro surfer
asks to lend your wax
shore maaaate
here ya go
At the risk of talking too much I must tell you about my first commercial wax venture. . .after perfecting the first organic wax (just a sticky low tech kind of stuff) I decided to go around town and flog heaps of it to Dairies, grocery stores, health food shops and even a few surf shops and a music shop. Being the brilliant salesman that I am I sold lots of boxes of the stuff. The catch was that instead of using coconut oil I put Soy oil in assuming that it would make no difference (it was cheaper). Unfortunately the Soy oil made the stuff very slippery . . .it seemed ok putting it on the board but when it got water on it it turned super slippery. My name was mud for ages but I got my beans because I used my new stuff in a longboard comp and in spite of heroic attempts to stay aboard I did a lot of swimming.
Live and learn!
Try this…
Volume 12 NO. 5 Winter 2003 
Detailed Summary
Glass Love Words and Photos from Andrew Kidman, Departure: The Shimmering Exotica of Papua New Guinea By Michael Kew, Couple Jabs By Kimo Hollinger, Color Chips Photos By Rick Pharaoh, My East Coast Ranch Photos and Story by Woody Mills, Sticky Business: Surf Wax from Amoco to Zogs By Ben Marcus, Steve Wilkings’ Seventies Scenarios , A Beautiful Pandemonium: Surf Cartoonist and Psychedelic Avatar Rick Griffin By Steve Barilotti.
Plus… Surf Music Defined; the offshore-honed waves of Corsica; Bank Wright; Dana Brown; Drum Scans (?); Dorian Paskowitz, and…Catherine Deneuve in a “cigarette-paper bikini.’
THIS BACK ISSUE NOT AVAILABLE
Thanks for the info.
Once upon a time in the late sixties I would recycle the parrafin wax on my surfboard when it got too sandy. Scrape it off and remelt it in a saucepan. Maybe add small bits of wax that I found on the shoreline. I made round cakes using ashtrays for molds. I had some previous experience with wax molding, because several years earlier I had a toy set that made little wax soldiers in molds. Sometimes I would basecoat the surfboard by pouring a small amount of wax directly on surfboard, and then quickly smearing it with a paper towel or rag. Don’t try this at home kids on a modern surfboard. For a while I added crayons to my wax for color, but then a friend of mine told me the crayons made the wax more slippery. Looking back I should have asked myself what additive would make the wax more sticky. I guess I didn’t think wax needed improvement, it just needed to be maintained. Surely other people did this, and maybe with better materials, like grandma’s beeswax candles.
Here’s some history on wax in general. Interesting that Romans would demand wax of conquered peoples. Perhaps I should surrender my wax next time I get thumped in the parking lot by an Italian surfer.
http://ezinearticles.com/?Bees-Wax;-History-and-Origin&id=28068