Is Gecko Glue like other waxes on the market?
Yes and No. It is white and sticky and applies like other
waxes, but it has no harsh chemicals.
What is Gecko Glue?
Gecko Glue surf wax is an excretion from the Cosymbotus
platyurus
(common Australasian gecko). The Geckos excretory gland
is located just forward of the anus. The Gecko will only
excrete the substance when they are sexually aroused.
Are any Geckos harmed in the production process?
No they're not. The Geckos are housed in a specially designed
Gecko farm, which mimics their natural environment perfectly.
Geckos have been known to live a long life in this controlled
environment. All geckos on the farm are treated humanely
at all times.
What do you feed your Gecko?
The Geckos are fed a controlled diet of Deschampsia cespitosa
(Lemon grass) and Gryllus rubens larvae, which are the
Gecko's favourite food. This helps to keep the Geckos
happy and so increases the amount, and quality of the
Gecko excretions.
How many Geckos does it take to make a 90g cake
of Gecko Glue surf wax?
It takes about 10 geckos approximately 4-5 days to produce
1 cake of wax.
Are you for real? Does Gecko Glue really come from
Geckos?
Yes we are completely for real.....well......some of it's
true........well
........OK we make the wax!
How to wax a surfboard?
Wax goes on the deck (top) of the board. Usually comes
in two coats, a base coat which goes directly onto the
deck in a thin layer and is quite hard, and then a sticky
coat over that which beads up to provide traction. Start
by putting a thin even coat of wax on your surfboard then
use long, quick strokes with, light pressure to get a
nice bead.
Wax combs can be purchased to rough-up wax as it gets
worn slick and to strip wax for a fresh coat.
There's no need to buy any custom wax remover from a
surf shop, just leave the board in the sun for 5 minutes
and strip with a wax comb or any piece of hard, straight
plastic.
Does Gecko Glue sponsor surfers?
Yes we do. We already sponsor a surfer from Re Union islands
and are happy for other surfers to email their portfolios.
The sponsorship is small but will keep you in a good supply
of wax and other accessories. Gecko Glue in partnership
with saltwater Dreaming will also give sponsored surfers
a good exposure on the internet and the surfing world.
Contact Gecko Glue for sponsorship
enquiries
Petrochemicals are in 95% or all surf waxes today. Paraffin
surf waxes are the most common. Paraffin is the final
byproduct in the petroleum refining chain. It has been
a reliable candle fuel. You can find many different grades.
Petroleum waxes are derived from crude oil. The wax is
separated from the other components during the refining
process.
First the crude oil is subjected to atmospheric pressure
distillation. This step removes and separates all of the
low boiling point components, such as gases, gasoline,
naphtha, kerosene and diesel fuel.
The higher boiling point components remaining are then
processed by vacuum distillation. The distillate cuts
are usually solvent extracted to remove impurities using
polar solvents.
The residue and some intermediates are solvent extracted
using a combination of propane, phenol, and cresylic acid.
The waxy oil cut is dissolved in a solvent blend. The
solution is then chilled to about -28 °C. At this
low temperature the wax precipitates from the oil, and
can be removed using large rotary drum filters.
The wax portion (slack wax) still contains a large amount
of oil, up to as much as forty percent. It is dissolved
in solvent again (deoiling step), reprecipitated, and
filtered at about 5 °C. In some cases the deoiling
step is repeated a second time. However, petrochemicals
remain in these paraffin based waxes.
Why is this harmful to the environment?
Wax will not stay on your board forever, the
petroleum based wax will eventually fall off. All of this
wax in the water, on reefs, accumulating on delicate ecosystems
will eventually add up. Petroleum based wax although a small
contribution to reef degradation, multiplied with millions
of surfers worldwide has a large effect.
Help us be consciencious about what we put
back into the water after a long day of taking from the
water. Phil's Original Organic surf wax only requires a
thin application to keep you on your board and with its
all organic materials has no effect on these ecosystems.
Let's make it happen!
wax has arrived and it smells amazing!! My
room smells like bubble gum ahha, I have been for a few
surfs and the wax is really good! It doesn't stick to my
wetties or clothes just my feet which is awsome!!
Cheers
Tyson
Australia
----------------------------------------
the wax is really good
Phil Grace
Australia
------------------------------------
"hi ,im wanting to buy 2x lots of gecko
glue wax.i bought some a while back and is the best wax
i ever used. you peaple are awsom. please send me info and
price and how to order more please.
Thanks"
D.
Australia
-----------------------------------
""love this wax"
T.
Thailand
-----------------------------------
Hi guys,,I always buy my wax from you,gecko
glue,,it's the best wax I have used in my life,,,I started
surfing when I was six,,,now I'm fifty.you do an excellent
job whith all your products,,you are quick and your extra
little gifts are an attribute to all of you,,,hope to get
there and meet you all one day.you are awesome.
kindest regards D.
Australia
-----------------------------------
HELLO,I JUST GOT OUT OF THE U.S. AIR FORCE.
WHILE IN I GOT SOME OF YOUR WAX AS A GIFT. THAT IS SOME
KICK ASS WAX!!! I GOT RIDE OF ALL MY OTHER WAX AND NOW I
USE ONLY YOURS!!!
Wayne
The mystery of how geckos manage to scurry
up walls and stick to ceilings may have been solved by scientists.
It seems the little lizards have a network of tiny hairs
and pads on their feet which produce electrical attractions
that literally glue the animals down. With millions of the
hairs on each foot, the combined attraction of the weak
electrical forces allow the gecko to stick to virtually
any surface - even polished glass.
Californian researchers believe the reptile's sticky toes
could now help them to develop a novel synthetic adhesive
that is both dry and self-cleaning. If a human hand had
the equivalent "sticking power", it could lift huge weights.
"If the hands were maximally attached, we estimate that
kind of size would be able to hold about 90 pounds (40 kilos)
or so," Professor Autumn Kellar, one of the researchers
in the gecko study, told the BBC.
Noisy creatures
Geckos are small, insect-eating, and often very noisy creatures
that have become popular pets. Biologists have long admired
the animals' ability to walk up smooth surfaces but have
never really understood how it was done. Suction was regarded
as an unlikely explanation since geckos can cling on to
a wall even in a vacuum. That astonishing trick of walking
upside down on the ceiling would seem to rule out friction.
Furthermore, without any glands on their feet, it would
be hard for geckos to produce their own natural glue.
Close up on the gecko's setae
But a team of researchers, led by Professor Robert Full,
now think it may all come down to van der Waals forces -
the weak attraction that molecules have for one another
when they are brought very, very close together.
Outstanding adhesives
The scientists looked closely at the feet of a Tokay gecko
(Gekko gecko) which is native to South-East Asia.
Close-up pictures reveal about two million densely packed,
fine hairs, or "setae", on each toe.
The end of each seta is further subdivided into hundreds
to thousands of structures called spatulae. Professor Full's
team of biologists and engineers calculated the combined
adhesive force of all the tiny hairs lining the gecko's
toes is 10 times greater than the maximum force reportedly
needed to pull a live gecko off the wall.
The spatulae - scale bar:
one thousandth of a millimetre
"These billion spatulae, which look like broccoli on the
tips of the hairs, are outstanding adhesives," said Professor
Full, head of the Poly-PEDAL (Performance, Energetics, Dynamics,
Animal Locomotion) Laboratory at the University of California,
Berkeley. He said: "Geckos have developed an amazing way
of walking that rolls these hairs onto the surface, and
then peels them off again, just like tape. But it's better
than tape." Professor Full's team believe the stickiness
of the gecko can now be attributed to intermolecular forces
so weak they are normally swamped by the many stronger forces
in nature.
Unbalanced charges
These forces come into play, though, because the gecko foot
hairs get so close to the surface. He said: "The hairs allow
the billion spatulae to come into intimate contact with
the surface, combining to create a strong adhesive force.
"Our calculations show that van der Waals forces could explain
the adhesion, though we can't rule out water adsorption
or some other types of water interaction." Van der Waals
forces arise when unbalanced electrical charges around molecules
attract one another. They are responsible for the attraction
between layers of graphite, for example, and the attraction
between enzymes and their substrate
.
Hanging on to glass: The gecko's
party piece
Though the charges are always fluctuating and even
reversing direction, the net effect is to draw two
molecules together, such as molecules in a gecko foot
and molecules in a smooth wall. In yet-to-be published
work the gecko hairs have been shown to be self-cleaning,
unlike any other known adhesive. Work has also begun
on building a mechanical gecko that Professor Full
hopes will lead researchers to a new, synthetic, dry
adhesive.
The gecko research is published in Nature. SEM images by Kellar Autumn & Ed Florance
Story from BBC
online Sci/Tech
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