Tired of rashes that rendered him nearly comatose and a board that reeked of the smell of candy, the Jacksonville Surfing Examiner (or JSE, as he is so affectionately now known) had had enough. So he went on a quest: For Gulf Wax.
Growing up in the sixties, there was no surf wax. Surfers either robbed and melted down all of mom’s candles, or they broke down and bought some Gulf Wax.
Gulf Wax is paraffin used for canning, candlemaking and a variety of other uses, among others: surf wax. Back then, a box came with 5 bars and cost 50 cents. Break the bars in half and you had 10 bars. A nickel-a-bar was not a bad thing.
“I remember Gulf Wax,” says Ponte Vedra’s Scott Collings. I melted it in a pot and brushed it on the board with a paintbrush. Boy was my mom pissed for ruining her pot and my dad’s paintbrush. Worked well though.”
It did work well, and it still does. But it’s now 4 bars per box, and has skyrocketed to about 4 dollars. But that’s still a deal, and it sure beats smelling like a flower and nipples so sore they feel like they are going to burst into flames.
Gene Cooper, owner of Cooperfish Surfboards in Oxnard, California says, “I use it. I hate that greasy kid stuff.”
“I’m with you, Gene,” adds Gloucester, Massachusetts native Bob Wallis. “I hate that smelly, soft, boutique wax crap.”
But Gulf Wax is not quite easily accessible as it used to be, as the JSE was soon to find out.
First stop: Michaels, an arts & crafts store on the Southside, 5 miles away. They stock every kind of candle-making accessory and wax one would ever need, except of course, Gulf Wax.
Next: Super Wal-Mart (heck, they have everything):
Wal-Mart guy: “Can I help you?
JSE: “Yes, please. I’m looking for some Gulf Wax.”
WMG: “Gulf what?”
JSE: Gulf Wax. It’s paraffin, used for canning and candlemaking.
WMG: “OH! We ain’t got none.”
We ain’t got none? No wonder their prices are so cheap.
As it’s turning out, nobody’s got none. Now the JSE is out a half-day of searching, and in what he’s spent in gasoline, he could have bought a case of SexWax and one of those fancy rash guards.
Never! The quest continues…
Sources: Gene Cooper, COOPERFISH SURFBOARDS
Jacksonville Surfing Examiner
