There’s A Sex And Fu Wax Shortage In Oz

Remember when bog roll was as scare a commodity as precious metals? When fruits and vegetables were being hoarded as if they were non-perishable goods? And when people all around seemed unable to realise that the supermarkets were never going to close regardless of how bad the pandemic was? 

Well, that shortage of household goods and food has now struck the surf industry. 

The is an absolute dearth of cold water Sex Wax in Sydney at the moment. And there’s reportedly next to no Fu Wax floating around either, despite that sticky substance never being easy to find. Anecdotally, I went to three surf stores on Sydney’s northern beaches only to find no suitable Sex Wax, and more reliably, people who surf much more than I are reporting similar situations. 

While some sections of the board manufacturing industry have seen a 3000% increase in sales, this uptick in demand isn’t the main contributor to this lack of good wax on our surf store shelves. The main reason is that these “objectively” better waxes (read Mike Ciaramella’s conclusive investigation into surf wax quality here) are made overseas. 

“Yeah, wax shortages everywhere. Barely any FU, there distribution is terrible [to begin with].” Sam Zubevich told Stab, who runs Cake Club, a start up that delivers wax to your letterbox when required. “Sexwax ran out of purple too which hurt in Victoria and Tasmania, but thankfully we’re just restocking today.”

It isn’t just wax savants like Zubevich being hit either, local surfers are also feeling the pain. As one Sydney local reported to Stab during a lull.

“Mate, I’ll tell you what, I haven’t been this distraught since the local café ran out of milk lab barista blend,” a Bondi-based budding professional surfer told Stab. “Like, things were pretty tough when the beaches closed, and particularly trying when the yoga studios transitioned online, but the only thing worse than not surfing is having to rub Mrs Palmers on my twin-fin mid-length. 

“I finally fucking get why they call it Mrs Palmers, cause it’s nowhere near as good as the real thing,” Bondi concluded. 

Specifically, Sex Wax is made in the USA and shipments are significantly slower than usual (they’re only shipping once a week, even for direct orders on their site) and Fu Wax is made in Brazil. If you want, there’s still a fair bit of Mrs. Palmers and other less superior waxes floating around, but if you want to surf like Ciaramella you best go for a base of Sex with a dash of Fu on top.

Let us know in the comments how it was “a slow news days”!