We all know that a good surfboard wax is almost as important as a decent wave, helping with paddling out, providing grip and traction for your feet and ultimately making it possible to perform those all important 360°s! But there are a gazillion different types on the market so where should you start? The problem is that sadly the majority of waxes are oil-based and extremely damaging to the environment.
Therefore, we’ve come up with our own cheaper and less-polluting surf-wax recipe to help keep our seas and oceans clean. This isn’t quite as quick as buying a pot online but it’s heaps more fun and definitely made us more conscious about the products we used.
Ingredients:
💧beeswax
💧coconut oil
💧tree resin
This recipe will make a wonderful non-polluting cold-water wax. We opted for a cold-water wax as generally in the UK we’re surfing in temperatures below 15°C so be careful to store it carefully as it WILL melt when hot!
Preparation:
The beeswax will act as the paraffin base. It’s easy to source from any organic/herbal shop as is coconut oil. The tree resin is a little trickier but not impossible if you look online. We decided to go really eco and tap our own tree by collecting the resin ourselves from the bark of a pine in the garden. Tree resins are the sticky, dried sap of trees and genuinely not difficult to find and the bonus about pine resins is that they have an awesome piney/lemony smell. We noticed that tree saps flow abundantly in the spring and dry up a bit by autumn so April to June is your best bet for collection.
Let’s do it:
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3 parts beeswax
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1 part coconut oil
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1 part tree resin
Place all the ingredients in a bowl. Preheat a pan of water and place the bowl with the ingredients into the water. Stir, stir and keep stirring until all melted into a gooey liquid. Take it off the heat and pour into tins. Ideally leave the wax to dry overnight (at least 5-6 hours). It’s ready to use when hard. 100% eco-friendly wax!
Finally - how to remove the wax?
When you feel yourself losing traction with the board then it’s time to remove the wax. This is easier than you might think. What we do is literally cover the board with sand and leave for a few minutes. The sand interacts with molecules in the wax, loosening it from the board. Simply wipe the sand off the board and you’ll get a top-notch clean.
Final Tip: Apply the wax in circles as it helps form a strong foundation to keep you steady in the water.
What are you waiting for? Let’s go catch some waves!