Surfboard Waxing Tips

"BRIAN FIELDS: Hey how's it going, I'm Brian Fields here at the Aussie Island in Wilmington North Carolina. We're here on behalf of Expert Village. I'm here to talk to you about picking out a surfboard and what you can do to help take care of it in the meantime. Okay now we're going to talk about wax and traction. One common mistake a lot of people see is they see a nice clean board and they don't realize you have to cover this thing with wax. If you don't cover it with wax, you're not going to stick to your board. The type of wax you're going to use is--depending on the season or depending on where you're surfing at. We have cold water wax, warm water wax, tropical. The wax is made to hold up to the temperature conditions of the water so if it's--if you're in a colder area or somewhere where the water itself is cold, all year you're going to need cold water wax. If you're in the middle of summer here on the East Coast you're going to need tropical or warm water wax or else the wax are going to come right off your board. This is Ms Palmers this is Sticky Bumps, it's two different types of wax. It's nothing but wax. You simply coat it onto your board and it's going to allow your feet to stick. With the shortboard, one fix to wax is what we call traction pads. Different brands--the different brands usually are made slightly different so it comes to just what type of stick you like, which one feels better to you but traction pad typically is going to go at the bottom of your shortboard. Also, it usually gives you a little step right there to plant your foot a little more securely. Most people who ride a shortboard actually--almost all of them will start with a traction pad and then put the wax on where your front foot's going to be. So that's that."