Seriously, why is this not a thing already? Photo: Katie Rodriguez
Allow me to paint a picture for you. A promising forecast at your local watering hole leads to a coffee-fueled morning drive at first light. You carry your fancy bean water to a lookout zone you’ve stood at a million times, but today’s different. The stars have aligned and it’s absolutely firing. On top of it all, it looks like most chose to sleep in. Just a few people are trading back to back, rippable a-frames. You suit up, walk down to the beach, dance across the cobblestones, and paddle out. First wave you stand up, slip, and blow it. You surface to find you tracked some slick grime from the rocks onto the top of your board, and despite having waxed the thing before trekking down to the beach, it’s now got a slippery spot where your front foot goes. What do you do?
If you left your bar of wax in your car, you may only have three options: bum some off someone in the lineup (if anyone has any, which is unlikely), hoof it back to the car, or try to scratch up or rub sand in your wax to remedy the situation. All less than ideal scenarios. If you’re the resourceful type, maybe you stashed some wax in the arm or leg of your wetsuit, or maybe where the chest zips – meaning you’ve got wax in your arm or leg hairs, and could easily lose your reserve if a set to the head blows it out of your suit. There’s got to be a better way.
In pursuit of a solution, let’s quickly detour to a similar problem that existed some time (I’m not sure how long, exactly) ago. Growing up, before I had my learner’s permit and tore around Huntington Beach in a Honda Element, I remember being impressed by the ingenuity of surfers who’d create key necklaces to wear around their necks underneath their wetsuits as a safer alternative to the old hide-the-car-key-under-the-wheel-well trick. At some point, modern wetsuit designers got smart and added a discrete key pocket around the calf (on some suits) or, after chest-zips were introduced, a loop underneath the neck to secure your car or house key. For those of us that rely on that little addition daily, its introduction was revolutionary.
Back to wax: could wetsuits, like most boardshorts, easily be equipped with a second discrete pocket (maybe with a zipper?) in an area that wouldn’t impact performance to store wax or other small items? I’m no wetsuit designer, but it seems like someone should’ve thought of this already?
According to Andrew Park, president of 7TILL8 Wetsuits that specializes in bespoke neoprene, the likely reason a “wax stash pocket” hasn’t turned the wetsuit market upside down is low consumer interest.
“I’m assuming with additional stash pockets it’s mostly due to a low customer response,” said Andrew via email. “I certainly utilize my key pocket on my calf.”
Andrew says his key pocket does fit wax in a pinch, but my counterpoint would be that unless it has a zipper – which most don’t – one tumble over the falls or a duck dive under a decent-sized wave could tear the wax out of your suit.
According to Andrew, major changes like this are hard to introduce to the market, but if enough customers call for them, brands will likely take notice.
“Products are hard to create and modify but I think with enough of a customer response asking for larger key pockets or additional (ones) could see a positive response from the brands,” he said.
So, what do you think? Terrible idea or paradigm-shifting? Use your voice. Vote below!
