Is surfboard wax toxic? The truth about wax

When you first set out on the sustainability path, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed with a reusable coffee cup in one hand and a bamboo straw in the other, it quickly becomes evident that there’s almost no end to the ways in which problem products have infiltrated every aspect of our lives.

Unfortunately, this includes surf wax. As lovely as it smells and as innocent as it seems, the reality is that most surf wax is made from paraffin, which is a by-product of petroleum.

The process that turns oozy black petroleum into paraffin and then into surf wax involves bleaching the substance (which releases some pretty hectic chemicals known as dioxins) and then adding more chemicals to make it the perfect consistency to spread across a surfboard.

By the time petroleum has been turned into a lump of surf wax, it contains acrolyn (a known carcinogen), and benzene and toluene (probable carcinogens), along with a host of other nasty petrochemicals and then fragrances (read: mystery chemicals) to cover up the smell of the other chemicals. 

95 per cent of surf waxes contain these harmful petrochemicals. So, while surf wax might smell good enough to eat, the reality is that most surf waxes are the last thing we want near our bodies — or our oceans.

If you consider how many bars of surf wax you churn through in a year, and how many people around the world are surfing each day, it becomes clear that toxic surf wax is a pretty serious issue.

The good news is that we don’t need to stop using surf wax altogether: there are eco-friendly alternatives that work just as well!

Our choice is all-natural, petroleum-free Native Dog Surfwax — which comes in both cold water and warm water options — is wax you can feel good about using. Handcrafted by a local family on the pristine south coast of Western Australia, it contains beeswax (whitened using carbon and clay filtration so it doesn't turn your board yellow), organic coconut oil and tree sap (from their farm).

Wax on, friends!