board pad or wax?

[supnorte]

I had a surfing background, so when I started surfing with smaller SUPs I used wax (but a kick pad was and still is fundamental), but now I only use pads. The one I have I think is made by On A Mission (it comes with Infinity production boards) and it's light and very grippy.
The problem with wax is that it will stick to your board bag, car seats, wetsuits and it just looks ugly.
On my surfboard I'm using now Hexa Traction from RSPro. Beautiful stuff and it grips.

[eastbound]

https://octopusisreal.com/collections/grip/products/front-deck-corduroy-grip-new

these are nice--thinner than sup pads, but plenty of traction, so the feel is superior, but the cushion is less--they get pricey when combined with a kick, and i needed two of these to get the coverage i wanted

very nice, tho--ended up pretty sloppy looking tho

[OkiWild]

For me, one of the unforeseen nice parts of transitioning to SUP, was elimination of everything wax...

Live in the sub-tropics for a while. Wax in my bags, in my car, on my clothes...

Personally, I don't' want a board that sinks. I like to paddle around. I like to be be able to stand there while waiting for a set, and not have to fight to stay upright when it's a little choppy. I'm finding that I like about 1.3x my weight in volume. I'll often be out for 3-6 hours, and this means the pad rules. The hard deck that comes with wax and wax-mat like products is hard on the feet. So it's the EVA pad in the back, and if needed, wax-mat up front.