Warm or cold wax?

Question

I lived in hawaii for 4 years (I was 10-14) and learned how to surf there and actually am quite good now. Anyway, we moved to san diego(1 week ago) because of millitary, and I am used to using warm wax on my board, and it ranges down to 62 degrees I think and now that it is winter in san diego it is about 58-60 degree water. And my question is why do you need to use warm vs cold water wax and is this okey for the time being. Thanks.

Answer 1

You are goinng to need "cool" water wax.

Waxes are rated and formulated for temperatures at which they retain their tackiness, thus giving you best grip.  If you take a board with a coat of tropical wax and paddle it out in cold water, that wax is going to harden and give you very little grip, and vice versa.  However a good use for that tropical wax is to use it to apply a nice thin basecoat - this will give you a base layer of hard wax upon which you can apply the cool temp wax..

Answer 2

use cool to cold wax, you can look at the temperatures on the bar of wax

Answer 3

Hey welcome to san diego I live there too :) Um i surf at La jolla and I am still usin warm water wax yeah it is getting colder here but I think that the warm was will still be fine and and the way its not really winter here it will  get hot again it doesnt really start to get cold think about early nov. late oct.!!! SO u could always switch waxes if u had too!! good luck ! psssssh forget the mets GO PADRES! lol

Answer 4

If you used cold water wax somewhere warm then it will melt faster and easier. Use warm water wax in San Diego. I go down there every year to surf.

Answer 5

warm water wax. the only difference is the melting point. if you use warm water, you're not going to have any trouble