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Overcast Get your wax on
Local business student fills a niche for fellow surfers
As a surfer in Long Beach for the last 12 years, Jacob Spilberg said that he could never seem to get his hands on wax for his board before hitting the water in the early morning hours.
“Surf shops usually open at around 10 in the morning, but surfers get up at the crack of dawn [to surf] and one of the true necessities of surfing is wax,” said Spilberg.
Ever since Quiksilver Pro New York drew in large crowds to Long Beach last summer, surfing has become more popular among residents and visitors and has fostered a greater demand for surf gear, including surfboard wax.
So, Spilberg — who is currently studying for his Master’s of Business Degree in Marketing at Baruch College — came up with an idea to establish a network of vending machines across the area that could provide surfers with convenient access to low-priced bars of wax 24 hours a day.
As part of an assignment for one of his business classes last January, Spilberg reached out to local surf shop owners in the hopes of installing the vending machines outside of their establishments in order to distribute wax to surfers all day.
Spilberg said that a similar project was launched in California, but was unsuccessful. Still, he said that he wanted to be the first to introduce the technology — which was designed by a manufacturer in China to house stacks of surfboard wax inside a vertical column that dispenses the product with the turn of a dial — along the East Coast and ensure its success by forming strong partnerships with surf shops.
Out of the several surf shops that were contacted, Spilberg said Unsound Surf and Long Beach Surf Shop in Long Beach and Boarders of Rockaway in Rockaway Beach agreed to install the vending machines, saying that they had enough space at their locations to accommodate these devices.
The machines are mounted on storefronts of surf shops and distribute half-bars of wax for $1 — half the price of a full bar. Spilberg said he reached out to various businesses to advertise on the product’s packaging, including Cosmic Kites and Skudin Surf in Long Beach.
