From Cornwall To Clean Waves

Kate Richards on building RadWax

Kate Richards used to describe her early sales attempts like shouting into a sea cave, hearing only her own voice echo back. This month the surf world answered: she’s a Canopy Community People’s Choice winner, and her eco surf wax, Rad Wax, is now used within Surfing England’s setup.

Meet Kate Richards and Rad Wax

Rad Wax is a paraffin-free surf wax made in Cornwall. That matters more than it sounds — roughly 90% of surf wax sold today is paraffin-based, a petroleum by-product surfers rub onto their boards and wash straight into the sea. Kate, a lifelong Cornish surfer, came home from years teaching abroad to find the same damaging bars on every shelf. “Lots of surfers don’t realise that they’re putting that on their boards,” she says. Once she knew, she set out to build a sustainable surf wax that performed just as well.