A-frame

Aaberg, Denny

Aaberg, Kemp

Abberton, Koby

Abbruzzi, Sid

Abellira, Reno

Abubo, Megan

academia and surfing

Adler, Tom

advertising and surfing

Aeder, Erik

aerial

Aguerre, Fernando

Aichner, Scott

Aikau, Clyde

Aikau, Eddie

Aipa, Ben

air-drop

airbrush

Airshow

Ala Moana

Alabama

alaia board

Alaska

alcohol and surfing

Alexander, Kala

Allen, Chuck

Alms, Paige

aloha shirt

Alter, Hobie

Alvarez, Pepe

Ancell, Kevin

Andaman Islands

Andersen, Lisa

Anderson, Craig

Anderson, Simon

Andino, Kolohe

Angel, Jose

angle

Angola

Angourie

Antarctica

Apocalypse Now

Arabian Sea

Aragon, Janice

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Archbold, Matt

Arena, Eduardo

Ashton, Juan

Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP)

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August, Robert

Aurness, Rolf

Auster, Ken

Australia

Avalon, Frankie

Azores

backdoor

backside

backside attack, Pipeline

backwash

bail out

Bain, Rob

Baja California

Baker, Bernie

Baker, Grant “Twiggy”

Baker, Tim

Bali

Ball, John “Doc”

Ballard, Bill

Ballard, Rochelle

balsa

Baltic Sea

Banks, Jim

Barbados

Barilotti, Steve

Barland, Michel

Barreda, Sergio “Gordo”

Barry, Michael

Bartholomew, Wayne

Baxter, Jackie

Bay of Bengal

Beach Boys, The

Beacham, Debbie

beachboys

beachbreak

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Beachley, Layne

beavertail

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Bedford-Brown, Stuart

Belgium

Bells Beach

Bendall, Ma and Pa

Bennett, Barry

Benson, Becky

Benson, Blanche

Benson, Linda

Bermuda

Bertlemann, Larry

Paraffin-based compound rubbed on the deck of a surfboard to provide foot traction, used by virtually all surfers worldwide since the 1940s. Surf wax is for the most part sold in three-ounce bars wrapped in thin clear plastic or cardboard and is usually applied before each surf session.

In the first few decades of the 20th century, surfers often coated their boards with a thin layer of sand-infused varnish, which did wonders for traction, but also did damage to knees, chest, feet, inner arms and thighs—sometimes to the bleeding point. In 1935, teenager Alfred Gallant, from Palos Verdes, California, rubbed a small amount of liquid floor wax to his surfboard and liked the results. On the advice of his mother, he then tried paraffin wax (widely used at the time to seal jam jars for storage), and the traction was even better. Paraffin was used by surfers everywhere for more than 25 years.

In 1964, Jack's Surfboards in Huntington Beach began selling a product called Surf Wax, made in Redondo, which was essentially repackaged paraffin. Australia's Ampol Petroleum, sponsors of the 1964 World Surfing Championships, did the same thing. The following year, Surf Wax came out with a color-coded set of waxes: blue wax if the water was colder than 65 degrees, red for between 65 and 72, and purple for over 72.

In 1967, top California surfers Mike Doyle and Rusty Miller introduced Waxmate, which consisted of paraffin softened by motor oil (making it easier to rub onto the board), bayberry scent, and purple dye. Reaction among surfers was at first tepid—a one- pound block of paraffin cost 30 cents, while Waxmate cost 25 cents a bar—but within two years the product was selling well. In 1972, former Doyle-Miller associate John Dahl created the Wax Research company in Encinitas, California, and began producing an orange-tinged wax under the company name. In Carpinteria, meanwhile, U.C. Santa Barbara graduate Rick Herzog (also known as "Mr. Zog") founded the tiny but provocatively named Sex Wax company, pouring his heavily scented product into tuna cans to produce the first round bars of wax.

By the early '80s, both Wax Research and Sex Wax—now competing with more than a dozen surf wax start-ups such as Southern California's Waxx On and Australia's hugely popular Mrs. Palmer's—were each producing more than a million bars of wax a year. The growing popularity of stick-on polyurethane traction pads had waxmakers scrambling in the late '80s and early '90s to improve and diversify their product, resulting in bars that were stickier, as well as specialized for different water temperatures. Wax formulas also became more complicated and were treated as highly confidential trade secrets.

More than 10 million bars of surf wax were produced worldwide in 2010. Paraffin was still the main surf wax ingredient, with small amounts of beeswax added for pliability, along with petroleum-derived products (such as Vaseline) for lubrication, synthetic rubber or petrochemical resin for added stickiness, plastics for temperature control, and chemical-based scenting. The ingredients are mixed and heated to 130 degrees, then poured into a metal mold; industrial molds can produce as many as 2,500 bars of wax at a time.

A "hard" wax adheres best to the surfboard and is often used as a base coat upon which a softer coat of wax is applied. Hard wax is used in warmer water; softer waxes are designed for mild or cold water. Wax comes in a variety of shapes, colors, and scents (Sex Wax is available in strawberry, pineapple, grape, and coconut; the latter has always been the most popular), and, as of 2016, usually sells for two dollars per bar at surf shops as well as many coastal convenience stores.

Most surfers rub wax on their boards using a light, circular motion to build a small-beaded skein of wax bumps. A small percentage of surfers, including most pros, will wax the bottoms of their feet as well as their traction pad. Waxmakers advise surfers to strip the built-up wax from their boards every two weeks; most surfers strip their boards once or twice a year, if at all. Despite the common malady of "wax rash" (skin abrasions caused by too much rubbing against a wax- covered board surface) and an uncountable number of wax-splotched clothes and car interiors, surf wax has over the years become a favorite surfing accoutrement—far more so than the surf leash, for example, or the fin. "We like to have a little moment with our board before we go out," Sex Wax founder Herzog once said, "and waxing our boards gives it to us." Surfers, while generally uncommunicative to surfers they don't know, will universally lend and borrow wax from each other.

Small, hard-plastic "wax combs" have been available since the early 1980s, and are used to make small traction-adding furrows in wax that has already been applied. Wax removal aides include hard-plastic scrapers (often found on the reserve side of a wax comb), and citrus-based solvents, and beach sand.

Organic wax was introduced in Cornwall, England, in 2005, and remains a niche-within-a-niche product. Day-Glo wax premiered a few years later.

Wax is referred to in songs by '60s acts like the Beach Boys and Jan and Dean, and postpunk band Weezer recorded a song in 1994 called "Surf Wax America." Posters and handbills for 1972's blockbuster surf movie 

 featured a Rick Griffin-drawn surfer holding out a glowing purple bar of surf wax. 

, a 1987 promo produced by Quiksilver and starring Tom Carroll and Gary Elkerton, among others, centered around a formula for magical wax that can instantly transport the user to any surf break in the world. 

 interviewed an Oregon collector who had amassed a surf wax collection of about 2,500 bars.

surf wax

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Encyclopedia of Surfing

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