FAQs

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!

But it doesn't mean we don't like Geckos!

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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.

Check the video below

 

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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

 

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Why Make Natural Surf Waxes

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!


Phil's Original Organic Surf Wax

 

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Feedback

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

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the wax is really good

Phil Grace

Australia

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"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

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""love this wax"
T.

Thailand

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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

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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

USA

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Got any more questions or comments?
Ask here.


 

Amazing Geckos :the full story

Gecko's amazing sticky feet


Gripping gecko: The secret is in their hairy feet

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.

Kellar Autumn & Ed Florance
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.

Kellar Autumn & Ed Florance
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
.
Gecko BBC
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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