WAXD
Biodegradable surfboard wax
BUILT BY
NATURE.
NOT OIL.
Join The First Wave. The first 500 backing a cleaner ocean before there's a bar to buy. First to get it, 40% off, a say in what we build. Because you were here first.
the problem
You love the ocean. That's the whole point.
You've waxed your board a thousand times and never once asked what's in the bar. Neither had we.
Turns out, it's paraffin, refined Crude oil. The same petroleum compound that decimates marine life when it enters coastal waters. That disrupts the hormones of fish and clogs their gills. That coats the feathers of seabirds so they can no longer fly. It coats coral polyps and blocks the light they need to survive. That breaks down into microscopic particles and enters the food chain.
An estimated 23 million of us. Twice a week, every week. Rubbing crude oil onto a board, then paddling straight into the water we love.
How it started
Surf wax hasn't changed since 1972.
In 1935, a Californian surfer named Al Gallant walked across his mother's freshly waxed floor and felt his bare feet stick. The next morning he rubbed the same paraffin (sold for sealing jam jars) onto his board.
It worked, and nobody made a purpose-built wax for another three decades. In 1972, Mr. Zog's Sex Wax refined the formula into the industry standard. It hasn't fundamentally changed since...and that's the problem.
This isn't a sustainability brand.
It's a correction.
Surf wax has been refined crude oil since the sixties, rubbed on boards by the people who love the ocean most. Nobody questioned it. We did.
86 TONNES
of surf wax washed into
the sea, every year
what's at stake
NO OCEAN.
NO SURF.
NO US.
If we don't protect it, nothing else matters. An estimated 86 tonnes of paraffin surf wax washes off our boards into the sea every year. That stops now - with the next bar you decide to buy.
This is what doesn't break down. .
What's really out there
Four things every surfer should know.
11M tonnes
Drowning in plastic
Around 11 million tonnes of plastic pour into the sea every year, like tipping 2,000 rubbish trucks in daily. A bottle can take 450 years to break down, and even then it just shatters into microplastic.
84%
Reefs on the brink
Between 2023 and 2025, 84% of the world's coral reefs were hit by the most intense bleaching event ever recorded, across 82 countries. Half our living coral is already gone since the 1950s.
1M+
Inside the animals
Plastic pollution kills more than 100,000 marine mammals and around a million seabirds every year. Petroleum wax has been found in the stomachs of seabirds and sea turtles.
~95%
And then there's the wax
An estimated 95% of surf wax is made from petroleum - the same paraffin scientists keep finding in the stomachs of seabirds and the animals we share the ocean with.
The range
One lil dude for every occasion. Coming soon.
In testing
Base coat
Goes down first, on a bare board. Tackier, tougher and built to hold so every top coat has something to bite into instead of skating off a slick deck. No scent, it lives under everything anyway. No base, no bumps.
All water temps
In testing
Cold wax
Made soft, for properly cold water. Cold turns normal wax hard and glassy - useless, basically. This one keeps its grip long after your hands have gone numb. Smells of coconut; grips like it means it.
5–14°C
In testing
Cool wax
Firmed up for that in-between water. Warm enough to melt a soft wax flat by your second wave - so we toughened this one up. Holds its bumps, and its nerve. Coconut scent.
14–20°C
In testing
Warm wax
Built for tropical water, where ordinary wax turns to soup. Firm enough to keep its grip when it's baking out there. Coconut for now, more scents in the works.
20–25°C
What's actually in it
Nine ingredients. Nothing to hide.
No paraffin, no synthetic fillers, no mystery "fragrance." Just what's on the label.
01
Beeswax
The grip. Sourced, not synthesised.
02
Pine resin
Straight off the tree, for extra tack.
03
Dammar resin
Firms the bar without a drop of paraffin.
04
Candelilla
A plant wax that holds its shape in the sun.
05
Coconut
The natural scent, and a softening oil.
06
Shea
Keeps the bar smooth, not brittle, in cold water.
07
Rice starch
A natural texturiser — nothing synthetic.
08
Arrowroot
Fine-tunes the grip without any fillers.
09
Vitamin E
A natural preservative, not a chemical one.
still in the workshop
BUILD IT WITH US
Let's be straight: it's not finished. We're deep in R&D, batch after batch, samples in the water, chasing a plant-based bar that grips as hard as the crude-oil stuff, without a drop of it.
Early signs? We reckon we're onto a winner. But "we reckon" isn't good enough to bet your session on, so we won't launch until it holds up cold and warm, session after session. Get it right, not out.
And we're building it in the open. This is our business and by "ours", we don't just mean me and Josh.
What should we fix, which scent's next, fish or block? Tell us. Got a skill or fancy mucking in? Even better. Come build it with us.
7
Samples tested
9
Natural ingredients
5-25°
Water temp range
Same grip. Different board.
READ BOTH LABELS,
THEN CHOOSE.
WAXD
Beeswax, plant oils, natural scent. That's it.
Breaks down in the water
Grip you can trust, session after session
Plastic-free packaging
1% of profit donated to ocean clean-ups
95% OF OTHERS
Paraffin: crude oil, refined
Never breaks down. It just spreads.
The same grip, at the ocean's expense
Wrapped in more plastic
Nothing back
Who's behind it
Honestly? We're rubbish at surfing.
We're Alex and Josh - sea babies before we were surfers, in the water as kids long before either of us could stand on a board.
Josh studied marine biology at uni, and kept finding the same thing everywhere he dived: plastic. In the reefs, in open water, in the stomachs of animals that had no idea what it was. A standout memory? A beach in Vietnam that was more bottles than sand.
Alex had built businesses before - but none that ever felt like they truly mattered. This one does, because it's finally about one of things he's most passionate about: the sea.
The more we dug into what's actually in surf wax, the more it became impossible to ignore: this has to stop. Eighteen months of kitchen-table batches later, here's the bar we'd want to buy and we hope you will too.
ALEX & JOSH - CHIEF BEACH BUMS
THE FIRST WAVE
EVERY MOVEMENT STARTS WITH THE FIRST WAVE
This isn't for everyone. If you don't care about the ocean, cheap paraffin will do you fine.
But if you've read this far, you're not most people. The first 500 surfers on this list are The First Wave. The ones who chose a cleaner ocean before we'd sold a single bar. You'll be first to get it, and you'll get 40% off your first order the day we launch. Not because the wax is worth less, because you were here first and we don't forget who shows up early.
40% off is locked in the moment you join, nothing to pay until we launch.
The 1% pledge
Every bar gives back.
We donate 1% of our profits to causes protecting our oceans. The people running the beach cleans, fighting the pollution, and rebuilding the reefs. It's a line in our accounts, not a marketing gimmick.
1%
Of profits, every bar, no exceptions
Beach cleans
Funding the crews clearing our coastlines
Reef repair
Backing the people rebuilding what bleaching took
Surf like you want it here in fifty years.
One surfer swapping their wax won't clean the ocean. We'd never pretend it would.
But a whole crew of us, choosing better every session? That's how the maths starts to change. That's the whole idea.
Be part of the First Wave. 40% off at launch.
The First Wave
First 500 · 40% off at launch