Do You Wax Foam Surfboards
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We’ve all been there before. You just got your first new board and you’re amping to get out there and start ripping. But, then you hear about all these things you need to do first.
Maybe you’ve heard that your board isn’t ready to be ridden until you wax it.
Now that you have a bar of, hopefully the right, wax in hand and your board in front of you, you’re probably wondering what comes next. Fortunately, we can help you out.
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Do You Need Wax On A Foam Surfboard?
The short answer to whether or not you absolutely have to wax a soft top surfboard is probably not. Many foam boards have textured decks to help you stand up. But, if you’re like me, you’ll probably notice that once water gets on the deck of your board, it feels like your feet will slide out at any moment.
So even though you don’t strictly have to wax a soft top surfboard, we definitely recommend that you should. A quick coat of wax on the top of the deck will go a long way towards giving you the traction you need to effectively surf.
Putting wax on your board is the best thing you can do to make sure that you won’t slip off of your board in different water temperatures. Cold water and warm water make the texture change on the deck of a soft top. Putting a layer of wax on your board will help you get a more consistent level of traction in any conditions.
How To Wax A Foam Surfboard
So now that you know why you need to wax your soft top surfboard, you may be wondering how to apply this important wax.
On any surfboard, wax’s purpose is to make the deck surface of the board grippy. So, you want to put wax on the top of your board, not the bottom.
Waxes are made for a specific range of water temperatures. Cold water wax is often softer than warm water wax.
The first step is to make sure you have the right wax for your ocean conditions. Additionally, you may want some sort of base coat or hard, warm water wax to coat your deck with when you apply wax the first time.
Once you have the right type of wax, you’re ready to wax a soft top. There are a few different views on the best way to put wax on a board. But we’ll just cover the best method we’ve found.
Hold the bar of wax at a slight angle against the deck of your board. Don’t hold it completely flat. Then, slightly pressing the wax on the board move the wax around in a circular motion. The circular motion offers the most even application and does a better job of stopping you from just pulling up wax that you put down. It also leaves it more textured for better grip.
The base coat won’t be as extensive as other coats. You just want to make sure there is something on the board with the base coat. Once you have your base coat down, you’ll want to put a top coat on in the same way. The top coat will be the wax that you can actually see and is more grippy.
Just go over all the spots that you either stand or lay down on on your foam board with wax. There should be a clear coat of wax on all of these places when you have finished.
For further help, see our how to wax a surfboard page.
How Much Wax Should I Apply
If you’re asking this question you probably didn’t put enough surf wax on your soft top surfboard. Wax is cheap, so don’t be afraid to cover your board in way more wax than you think you need. It will help you stay on your board in the water when it would otherwise be slick.
You may even want to put wax on your traction pad. This is more optional, but also beneficial. If you do put wax on your traction pad, you don’t need to do circles since the pad is already rough and grippy.
How To Reapply Surf Wax
Putting wax on your board isn't just some sort of one time thing.
Old wax starts to lose some of its stickiness. When that happens, you’ll need to strip off the old wax and reapply a fresh coat.
To do this, you’ll want a wax comb to take the old wax off. Use the flat edge of the wax comb to swipe the old wax off, until you have a fresh deck again.
You may even want to use a tool like a surf pickle to help you.
Once you have a fresh deck, you can reapply fresh wax just like it’s the first time again. The biggest difference is that you probably won’t need to reapply base coat since the remnants of your old wax will help new wax stick.
What Kind of Wax Should I Use
We already mentioned the importance of using basecoat wax and the proper water temperature wax.
But, if you are waxing your foamie surfboard, you should also look into using bodyboard wax. Bodyboard wax is made to be put onto foam boards, here is the best place to buy.
Otherwise, any type of surf wax will work to apply to your soft top bard.
Do not try to use other types of wax as a substitute though. Candle wax, skate wax, and ski wax all make things more slippery so that you can go faster. The purpose of surf wax is traction not speed. So make sure you are using surf wax.
