News and Events
No wax, no glory
Carlsbad company keeps surfers on board
By Edward Graham | Special to Today's Local News
Sunday, April 2, 2006
You can have a brand-new $600 surfboard, but without a $1.50 bar of surf wax, all you're going to do is fall off.
Carlsbad company Wax Research, the maker of Sticky Bumps surf wax, controls about 65 percent of the annual $9 million in revenue generated internationally by the surf wax industry.
The company, which started making surf wax in 1972 in Del Mar, now has a wide variety of products including sweatshirts, snowboard wax, surfboard bags and surfboard leashes.
The company derives the majority of its revenue from its line of surf products, especially from sales of Sticky Bumps in the domestic and international surf wax markets.
"I like the smell and the way it feels under my feet," said Will Carless, a transplant from England who has been surfing for seven years. "I also like the way the wax bars are designed because you can break them in half, which makes for easier application."
The company is co-owned by founder John Dahl, who runs the business with his wife and longtime business partner, Cris Dahl.
"John Dahl founded the company in 1967 due to his love of the surf lifestyle, and therefore wanted to work in the surf industry," the Dahls wrote in an e-mail response to a reporter's question.
The name Sticky Bumps describes how the wax appears once applied to a surfboard's deck. An unwaxed surfboard, when it's wet, has all the traction of a Slip 'N Slide. Surfers apply wax from the block-shaped bars so it turns into hundreds of small, sticky bumps for the best traction.
According to stickybumps.com, the best way to achieve the desired bumps on the deck of your board is to start by cleaning it of old wax. If the board is new, make sure it's clean. Apply basecoat, a hard wax that serves as a foundation for the next layer of softer - and stickier - wax.
The bumps are achieved by rubbing the wax on the deck of the board - where your feet will be planted - in a nose-to-tail then a rail-to-rail direction. This pattern builds up ridges that become bumps.
In most cases, the top coat of wax is applied in a large quantity the first time the board is waxed and then a little before each use to keep it sticky.
Most surfers look for wax that applies quickly and creates a thick layer of bumps that have a putty-like feel underfoot, giving traction that allows for maximum control over the board.
The type of wax used as the top coat depends on the temperature of the water in which the surfboard is being used. In warmer, equatorial waters such as in Tahiti, hard "tropical" or "warm water" wax is used.
Wax that is too tacky and sticky simply melts off your board in high water temperatures.
Conversely, cold water calls for soft and sticky wax that will not become too hard and lose the desired putty-like feel.
Warm water waxes have been of fairly high quality for years. Surfers began using paraffin, a hard wax, in the 1930s and '40s. By the late 1960s, paraffin was being manufactured in large quantities by companies exploiting the sudden rise in the number of surfers.
Wax became softer over the 1970s and '80s with the addition of a beeswax-type additive and a new Vaseline-like softener. Tacky cold water wax was not invented until the last several years as new "tackifiers," such as resins, synthetic rubbers and heavy alcohols, are used to supply more traction for cold water wax, according to the Sticky Bumps Web site.
International expansion of revenue from products Wax Research already makes is one of the company's future goals, with the second being the continued development of new products for different markets.
"Our plans for expansion are to franchise manufacturing in other countries and expanding our product line worldwide," the Dahls said via e-mail.
Carlsbad company keeps surfers on board
By Edward Graham | Special to Today's Local News
Sunday, April 2, 2006
You can have a brand-new $600 surfboard, but without a $1.50 bar of surf wax, all you're going to do is fall off.
Carlsbad company Wax Research, the maker of Sticky Bumps surf wax, controls about 65 percent of the annual $9 million in revenue generated internationally by the surf wax industry.
The company, which started making surf wax in 1972 in Del Mar, now has a wide variety of products including sweatshirts, snowboard wax, surfboard bags and surfboard leashes.
The company derives the majority of its revenue from its line of surf products, especially from sales of Sticky Bumps in the domestic and international surf wax markets.
"I like the smell and the way it feels under my feet," said Will Carless, a transplant from England who has been surfing for seven years. "I also like the way the wax bars are designed because you can break them in half, which makes for easier application."
The company is co-owned by founder John Dahl, who runs the business with his wife and longtime business partner, Cris Dahl.
"John Dahl founded the company in 1967 due to his love of the surf lifestyle, and therefore wanted to work in the surf industry," the Dahls wrote in an e-mail response to a reporter's question.
The name Sticky Bumps describes how the wax appears once applied to a surfboard's deck. An unwaxed surfboard, when it's wet, has all the traction of a Slip 'N Slide. Surfers apply wax from the block-shaped bars so it turns into hundreds of small, sticky bumps for the best traction.
According to stickybumps.com, the best way to achieve the desired bumps on the deck of your board is to start by cleaning it of old wax. If the board is new, make sure it's clean. Apply basecoat, a hard wax that serves as a foundation for the next layer of softer - and stickier - wax.
The bumps are achieved by rubbing the wax on the deck of the board - where your feet will be planted - in a nose-to-tail then a rail-to-rail direction. This pattern builds up ridges that become bumps.
In most cases, the top coat of wax is applied in a large quantity the first time the board is waxed and then a little before each use to keep it sticky.
Most surfers look for wax that applies quickly and creates a thick layer of bumps that have a putty-like feel underfoot, giving traction that allows for maximum control over the board.
The type of wax used as the top coat depends on the temperature of the water in which the surfboard is being used. In warmer, equatorial waters such as in Tahiti, hard "tropical" or "warm water" wax is used.
Wax that is too tacky and sticky simply melts off your board in high water temperatures.
Conversely, cold water calls for soft and sticky wax that will not become too hard and lose the desired putty-like feel.
Warm water waxes have been of fairly high quality for years. Surfers began using paraffin, a hard wax, in the 1930s and '40s. By the late 1960s, paraffin was being manufactured in large quantities by companies exploiting the sudden rise in the number of surfers.
Wax became softer over the 1970s and '80s with the addition of a beeswax-type additive and a new Vaseline-like softener. Tacky cold water wax was not invented until the last several years as new "tackifiers," such as resins, synthetic rubbers and heavy alcohols, are used to supply more traction for cold water wax, according to the Sticky Bumps Web site.
International expansion of revenue from products Wax Research already makes is one of the company's future goals, with the second being the continued development of new products for different markets.
"Our plans for expansion are to franchise manufacturing in other countries and expanding our product line worldwide," the Dahls said via e-mail.
