Spotswood College students Ava Brown, 16, Sylvia Larkin, 15, and Dylan Mumby, 15, are hoping Wave Wax will take Taranaki surfers by storm.

The year 11 girls have been cooking up their product in the technology department, using organic beeswax, tree resin, coconut oil, essential oil and emulsifying wax to make a honeycomb-shaped surfboard wax.

“We sponsor four surfers with our wax, in Oakura and the Mount,” Larkin said.

Now Wave Wax is being taken to the commercial market, with samples stocked at Backdoor surf shop in downtown New Plymouth.

The trio of friends started working together in a technology and product development class in year nine, where they came up with ideas for what could benefit the ocean.

Inspired by their passion for surfing and ocean swimming, they started weaving Harakeke flax kete to collect paua and shellfish in, before moving onto woven artworks.

The girls made the move to surf wax after becoming dissatisfied with using petroleum-based grip products on their own boards.

Much research and prototype-making has happened in the past two years to get the texture just right so it can withstand anything from Taranaki’s chilly waters in winter to Mt Maunganui’s tropical summer climes.

Even this year, the team ‘cook’ Mumby has been busily mixing prototypes over the stove in the school’s tech room.

It takes five hours for the wax to set, and care has to be taken not to burn the sweet smelling ingredients, which can certainly change the fragrance, the girls laugh.

The next step is up-scaling production.

Beeswax from the Spotswood College hive has been used so far, but the girls may need to look further afield to Egmont Honey to make use of its by-product for future expansion. Their other ingredients come from Pure Nature NZ.

A heavy duty sunscreen balm and air freshener are on the cards as the students look to venture into other markets.

“It’s nice to know we’re doing something that’s making a difference,” Mumby said. “And to make different products, that are not only for surfers.”

One more surf product the girls are already touting is a comb recycled from high-density polyethylene (HDPE) plastic, to use for applying the wax to surfboards.

The surf combs are made from melting down plastic bottle tops using a sandwich press and then laser-cutting them into comb shapes.

The resulting combs are marble patterned in earthy blues and greens, and the girls are welcoming donations of milk bottle tops so they can continue making this product.

There are also Wave Wax screen-printed cotton t-shirts, along with surfboard stickers, which have been popular at The Seaside Market.

A website is under construction, and content is regularly being created for Wave Wax’s Instagram, Facebook and Tiktok accounts.

It’s the girls’ first year being supported by the Young Enterprise Scheme (YES), where they successfully pitched to a panel at the Taranaki Chamber of Commerce.

They were judged third in the region for their ideas and development, textiles and creative technologies teacher Jessie Brodie said.

The students also receive NCEA credits for their work and the chance to compete nationally.

Wave Wax recently received an award for enhancing rural communities, from Taranaki-King Country MP Barbara Kuriger, and is planning to sponsor products for the Surfing for Farmers mental health initiative, Brodie said.

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