Wax v. Pads

[DavidW]

I used to heckle Jack about the knee waxing deal, until I tried it, it works. Good tacky wax on the deck pad, rails and tail. Traction=confidence.

[red]

DW
You can also wax the top of your fins, like Gigs does

[surfhorn]

I've waxed my knees - and my hands - out of sheer necessity. We were surfing in Baja Sur in the early 1970s and ran our of wax at a deserted point many miles from civilization - or any other surfers. With just small crumbs of wax left the only thing I could cover were my knees and my hands.

It worked for a couple days until other surfers pulled into camp.

dan

[DarcyM]

I still remember the first time I went surfing after putting lotion on my legs the night before. Don't laugh, but when you shave your legs it makes the skin super dry. I didn't even think about it when I went into the water, couldn't even tell ... until the first wave and I slid right off the board. There was just enough residual lotion to make the skin super slippery. No amount of wax would help. I'd rub it out in the water the best I could, but it took a good long while to wash it all off!

Now sometimes before going into the water, I rub a little water and sand on my shins, to make sure there isn't any lotion left over there.

[Steeno]

hi Darcy

hehe I've never had that problem, but I guess its the same as lathering up in sunscreen when you surf in boardies and you slip and slide for about an hour.

cheers

[doc]

Actually - a buddy of mine shaves his legs where they contact the board. He says it prevents a number of things, most of which I don't want to know about but which probably include involuntary depilation.

Though he doesn't use lotion, just bar soap and a throwaway razor. Heaven help him if we caught him with lotion.

And then there's the sunscreen - gah. The stuff is halfway between soap and grease.

Just another reason to like cool water and wetsuits, I guess.

[gsurf]

Use deck pad and traction pad on tail. I could only image what my knees would feel like surfing without a pad in the islands sans wetsuit. My knees are still recovering from years of kneepaddling as a kid. The traction pads on the tail give me positive grip with the fins on and prevent fin rib dents in the board.
Don't need wax since forward of the pad where my hands go for duck diving and take-offs I've resine textured in some non-skid on those spots with a 4 inch band from rail to rail.

[Eric Carson]

Pads are for light days and waxing is for bikini's.

[kneelo_44]

Pad vs wax does it really matter as long as we are out there and doing what we do best. I must say though in the early days (very early 70's) my knee's would be killing me in the summer months. Then this bloke introducted me to these paper thin kneepads (80's) and I have been hooked ever since. I have really bad knees from playing rugby, so pads have kept me out there which is a wonderful thing. I now have a set of Parkes which are F@#&*^g great.

John