There is and interesting article in the September/October 2010 issue of Deep Magazine about surf wax. It got me to thinking how things were before surf wax.

First off you didn’t get wax for your surfboard at the local surf shop, you got it at the grocery store. It wasn’t called surf wax it was Paraffin wax. Actually you might have gotten it from your mom or grand mother if they did any canning of fruits and vegetables.

My wife’s grandma used to make jams and jellies…. Good stuff, but when you opened a jar of her jelly for the first time you had to pry and scrape off the wax that sealed the jelly to keep it from spoiling. The wax she used was the same thing we used on our surfboards before surf wax was available.

Paraffin is hard, and it didn’t go on a surfboard easy like the surf wax of today. Waxing your board for the first time was a big undertaking compared to now. It worked best if you got the bar of wax warm and soft. Then if you rubbed it on the board with just the right pressure you could slowly build up a base and get an OK layer of wax down.

If you lived and surfed in warm water and climates paraffin wasn’t to terrible but in colder conditions the stuff would get sum what slick and slippery. Nothing worse than being in the water and having your board get a little slippery, take off on a wave, slip and fall on your first turn. Then if you couldn’t catch your board when you fell you may be in for a swim to the beach. I hated that!

Problem was after retrieving your board rubbing some fresh wax on it wouldn't necessarily make things better. What I would usually do after retrieving my board is grab a hand full of wet sand and rub that into the wax. The sand would get imbedded into the wax and render the wax dirty but not so slippery any more.

There were no wax combs back then either but I did use a hair comb to scratch the stiff hard wax. That helped too but it wasn't to comfortable to lay on, but we mostly knee paddled.

It was nice when surf board specific wax came around. It wasn’t the easiest stuff to get a nice bead of wax on your board with at first. It would kind of spread down in an awkward way without really beading up nicely. You had to work with the stuff and rub with the right touch to get a good clean layer down.

According to the article in Deep it wasn’t until the early nineties that the surf wax guys found a formula that made the wax bead up nicely. Yeah, the wax of today is great. It goes down on your board quickly with a nice sticky bump to it. When it gets dirty you can scrap it off and put down a fresh coat without much effort.

We don’t think about it but the wax of today has helped us all surf better. We can do things on a surfboard now that would not be possible with the old slippery stiff grocery store stuff. So, to the guys that worked up the surf wax formulas… Thank you!

D.R.

Funny I still have a box of the old stuff.

My story post 47

There have been times when life went a direction that for one reason or another kept me out of the water for extended periods of time.

This year, junk surf and cold conditions has kept me out of the water for much of the summer… but that may not count. The time I spent in New England was one. But when spring came and I found a Surfer magazine at the local drug store news stand that was all it took to get me on a plane back to California and the surf. As soon as I got to Ventura it took little time for me to shape myself an 8’2 stringer less Vee bottom at the William Dennis shop, glass it and get in the water.

In the seventies I traveled a lot. Most of the time I wouldn’t be gone more than a week or two. Our route home on a longer two month trip brought us back via Hwy 126. I still remember reaching Santa Paula and feeling the ocean air in the wind coming up the river valley. What a rush, knowing within 20 minutes I’d see the ocean. As well, know that I could go surf.

In ’77 I went on a trip that lasted 4 months. I was gone from the first week in July to the first week in November. I did fly back home a couple times so there was some relief. One return visit was timed perfect for a nice south swell with great conditions. A few days surf fix and off I went again.

When you live close to the ocean it’s hard to be without it. The oceans lure, I don’t understand but it is real. When I haven’t been in the water for awhile and then get back it just feels right. Walking up to the waters edge, jumping on your board, seeing and feeling the water, the vantage point and look into the surf zone. When I get to that spot after being away I just feel better. I feel right.

My wife was born and raised in Ventura. She never lived more than a half mile from the ocean her whole life until we moved to Kauai. So she knows the feeling of living by the beach. The funny thing is… we lived on an island but were a good mile from the ocean.

D.R.

A mile from the ocean but the view from the lanai wasn’t terrible.