Shane Taylor

December 09, 2020

Mr.Niko

Senior Seminar

How Surf Wax Could Be The End Of Surfing

The surf wax that you choose to use while surfing can be a hard decision

sometimes. There are tons of different brands, shapes, colors, temperature-based

waxes that you have to choose from at about every surf shop that you go to. So I got to

thinking to myself, is surf wax safe for our ocean? After a little bit of research I found out

that many of the top leading brands use harmful paraffin based waxes that are slowly

killing our oceans each stick of wax at a time! What is paraffin? Paraffin is a petroleum

byproduct which emits little amounts of dioxins which is a very toxic chemical. These

ingredients are all factors that can conclude in coral bleaching!

As surfers we need to do everything we can to keep our beautiful oceans healthy

and living! Some ways that we can protect our oceans is by replacing toxic surf wax with

organic wax! There are many different types of ingredients that we can use to replace

the toxic ones with, such as beeswax, soy wax, etc. The organic wax that I am going to

be producing is going to be a blend of beeswax and soy wax with organic Plumeria sap

locally found on Maui. There are even ways that you can make the wax look more fun

by adding natural colors with materials commonly found at home such as black beans
(blue) red cabbage (purple) and avocado skins (pink). One other substitute for toxic wax

is by using traction pads on your surfboard. If you decide to use traction pads on your

board this will totally eliminate the need for wax and it will not cause any harm to the

ocean.

Almost all of the top leading surf waxes contain paraffin. This petroleum based

wax will eventually fall off of your surfboard and end up affecting our delicate ecosystem

and reefs. Paraffin wax is formed when crude oil is separated into its individual

components which starts to look like a grayish black sludge. That substance is then

bleached with 100% strength bleach to get its white color. That bleaching phase then

creates dioxins for example “when you use every day house bleach that is only 10%

bleach”. This means that these products that are used in top leading brand waxes are

horrible for our ocean ecosystems which are killing our delicate marine life and that is

also creating coral bleaching. Coral bleaching is a major issue that almost all of our

oceans are facing right now, with 50% of our coral reefs dead and our world is facing

big issues! If all of our reefs die there would be a domino effect that would harm almost

every ecosystem on the planet! So we need to stop polluting our oceans with chemically

filled waxes and use stuff that is organic and does not affect the ocean! There are even

many tutorials on how to make your own wax at home, so it can be cheaper than buying

a new bar every time you go surf!

As surfers we need to make every effort to lesson our negative impact on the ocean, not

only so we can surf in a happy healthy ocean but so the next generation can enjoy it

nicer than we did! By the research we have collected we can easily say that leading surf
wax is not safe for the ocean. We need to do everything we can to try to get these

companies to stop using harmful ingredients in their waxes, and start using all organic

materials. Materials such as Beeswax and soy wax, as well as non bleaching the wax.

That is why i am trying my hardest to get my community to stop using toxic wax and

start using clean swell surf wax made from all organic materials and local ingredients