I can remember a few specific surfs where I had really bad chafing, not just bad, but really really bad!.
One was at Orewa last summer. On a good day Orewa is so much fun on the longboard and you can stay out for hours, if the tides right perhaps even a dawnie and an evening session, and when the surf gods play ball, maybe even a few days in a row.
I had been out for an AM session in the short springsuit, I'd applied some anti-chafe product and by the time I came in my legs (from thighs to knees) were killing me. The constant sitting on the board, turning for a wave, rub of wax and board on skin and my legs were NOT happy. But I wanted to surf the next day, so I rummaged around for something to put on the red, irritated skin, and the next day reapplied the product hoping for a different result. Alas - no, what followed was a painful few days as I tried to surf each day while battling chafing.
Fast forward to last winter and a surf trip to Lombok - ahhh the bliss of warm weather and springsuits and togs, what could be better! After one surf in my togs I realized one of the seams had been rubbing against my chest - badly! uh oh.... I had another 8 or 9 days of surfing! Once again I tried to apply what I thought might calm the irritation and then hoped for the best the next few days, resorting to waterproof plasters.
I knew there had to be something better, something that could actually prevent chafing, and also help with skin irritation / redness after a surf. I was in the process of looking at a few other product ideas when I decided that this was the product I needed to create. I tested the balm under all sorts of conditions, enlisted family, friends, runners, triathletes - and got it to a point I was happy with. Then I did a surf trip to the far North - the dream that is Shippies! It was warm - hot even, and I decided the last tweak was to increase the balms melting point . I wanted the balm to be resilient, and that meant the highest melting point possible.
The balm was then put into production !