You can get by just fine without a basecoat wax, but your wax won’t last as long. If your board doesn’t have the right basecoat, the topcoat won’t stick to the board, leaving you with a naked spot on your board where slipping and sliding can happen. Your basecoat should stay on the board until you re-wax your board. Your topcoat clings on to the basecoat.
Circle pattern: Rub the wax onto the board in small circles, moving up and down the board until bumps start forming. Straight line pattern: Rub the wax onto the board in straight lines up and down the board, parallel to the rocker. Crosshatch pattern: Rub the wax onto the board on a diagonal, and then perpendicular to that diagonal, completing a crosshatch pattern. Kitchen sink: Rub the wax onto the board in any direction, using any of the patterns listed above or making your own.
To be safe, try using a different-colored topcoat wax than your basecoat. If your topcoat wax is the same color as your basecoat it will be harder to tell where you have applied it, so be sure to wax in one direction if this is the case.
Use the wax comb each time you surf if you haven’t applied a new topcoat. Sometimes, your wax will get flat and lose some of its traction. If you don’t want to apply a new layer of topcoat, take the comb-side of your comb and make a crosshatch pattern using diagonal scrapes.
