How To Wax Your Surfboard

So you’ve decided to begin what will hopefully become a lifelong relationship with surfing. Excellent news! It is truly a rewarding experience that will push you every time you get out into the water. It’s fun, gets you into great shape, and helps bring you closer to nature.  But there is one main aspect of surfing that when you first head out you mightt not be aware of how to do it, which is pretty much the same thing as wearing a giant neon sign saying “complete novice” on your back.  I’m talking about waxing your surfboard – a very necessary step in the pre-surf ritual; if your board has no wax then you will have zero hope of having any control over your board. And if you’re just starting out, you will want every advantage possible to help you stay on your board, whether under your stomach paddling or under your feet when you finally catch a wave.

It’s a fairly easy process once you get the hang of it, but there are still a few tricks that will make it even easier. Soon enough, waxing your board will be as automatic as tying your shoes.  Not when surfing, silly. That was just an analogy.

Tools Needed

Wax: There are many different types of wax and ultimately it is up to you which one suits you the best. There are, however, different waxes made for different water temperatures, mostly just subjugated to warm and cold. But the better idea you have of what temperature the water is, the better the chosen wax will work in those conditions.

Scraper: This can be any blunt edge, but you dont want it to be too hard (like metal) because it can damage the board.  Every surf shop on the planet will have a plastic scraper you can buy.

Comb: The really fancy scrapers will have two sides – one flat and one serrated with teeth.  You’ll want to get this, which we will talk about later.

Start Waxing!

Now that you have the tools and you are all suited up at the beach (don’t forget to lock your car!), you can get your board all waxed up! It’s fairly easy, really.

Step 1: Scrape off excess wax

If you have an old board or you have been out a few times, you’ll want to use your scraper to take off any wax that is clumping up.  If it’s particularly stubborn, you’ll want to use the comb to break it up a bit.

Step 2: Apply the wax

Take a chunk of wax that can fit well in your hand. Using a smooth motion back and forth, you’ll want to apply pressure with the wax to the board in a consistent way.  You don’t need to go all the way to the tip, just over halfway should be enough for where your foot will be.  I like to do it in a bit of a grid pattern, crisscrossing until you see the wax clump together.

Step 3: Scrape off the big clumps

Sometimes you’ll get gigantic mounds of wax building up as you apply. this can become a huge pain, so you’ll want to scrape off anything extra to make it a nice, even application where the bumps are not so large it affects how you stand when you get up.

And that’s it! Not too hard, but still good to know the proper method so that you don’t look like a complete kook out there.  Hopefully this helps you on your journey as a new surfer and can be able to show the next newbie how its done someday down the line.