Everything you need to know about waxing your skimboard

Waxing. I’m sure most of you ladies suddenly started to cringe. Not to worry, waxing a skimboard is far less painful, though it doesn’t make your legs look any better. For you snowboarders or skateboarders, skimboarders use wax a bit differently than you do also. Snowboarders often put wax on the bottom of their boards to help protect it and give it a faster, smoother ride. Skateboarders often apply wax to curbs and rails to help their boards slide better on them. Wax is used on a skimboard for just the opposite reason. It’s to stop your feet from sliding around on the board. Surfboard wax is applied to the top of the skimboard to make it sticky.

There are several different companies that make surfboard wax. Some of the more popular brands are Sticky Bumps, and Mr. Zogs Sex Wax. Surfboard wax generally comes in four types: cold, cool, warm, and tropical. The different types are rated for different water temperature ranges. If wax is used in water that is colder than it’s rating, it will be hard and not as sticky. If wax is used in water that is warmer than it’s rating, it will just melt and come off the board. Each brand has specific temperatures that the wax is rated for and can usually be found right on the package. But to just get an idea, here are some general temperature ranges:
Cold – 58 F and below
Cool – 58 F to 68 F
Warm – 68 F to 78 F
Tropical – 75 F and above

You can obviously purchase surfboard wax at a surf shop, but if you live in a place that’s not near the beach there are some other options. Many other board shops (skateboard, snowboard, etc) will carry surfboard wax. Also sporting goods stores sometimes carry surfboard wax. There are hundreds of places online where you can buy surfboard wax. It will usually run between $1 and $2.
Once you have your wax, you need to apply it to your board. The following steps will help you.

1. Make sure the deck (top) of your board is nice and clean. If you need to remove an old coat of wax, scrape most of it off with a plastic scraper. You should be able to remove the remaining wax by melting it with a hair blower and wiping it off.
2. You’re first going to apply a base coat. For the base coat, regardless of the temperature of the water you’re going to be skimboarding in, use a high temperature wax (tropical). Apply the wax to the top of the board using a circular motion. Once you have covered the board using a circular motion, you’re going to go over it two more times. Once in a straight motion from nose to tail, and once in a straight motion from rail to rail (side to side).
3. After the base coat is applied, choose a wax that is rated for the temperature of water you will be skimboarding in. Apply a layer of this wax using a circular motion. Ideally you will end up with lots of little bumps of wax all over the board.

Well, now you know everything you need to know about waxing your skimboard, what kind of wax to use, where to find it, and how to put it on. So now get out there and skim, skim, skim!