I have used both Woody Wax, and Sure Step. The Woody Wax seems to last a week or two, then need reapplication. When it says to rinse off, you damn well better rinse well, because I can guarantee it's slippery if you don't! I don't use the WW anymore, because the only rinse water I have is lake water, and it doesn't seem right rinsing off with dirty-ish water.
I went the whole 9 yards with Aurora, including the kit with Boat Clean Plus cleaner, Boat Scrub stuff, and Sure Step. I think any good cleaner would work, and the special Boat Scrub which is supposed to remove oxidation didn't seem to do anything except foam up like a soap. Then I applied the Sure Step. I have a pretty aggressive non-skid pattern made up of little pyramids, and the Sure Step gets down in the valleys. It used a lot of material, and I have a small boat. Then, I couldn't remove the dried product with a rag, because it was down in the valleys of the pyramids. I wound up scrubbing it with a natural bristle scrub brush to try and remove the dried residue. The results were about as shiny as one would expect from un-polished gelcoat, which is to say shinier than ever before, with a noticeable reflectiveness to it vs. before. Water beaded very nicely, and the surface was slippery-ier than before, but not slippery-slippery. The following year I tried to apply the Sure Step with a foam roller, hoping to apply less, and that did work reasonably well, but still a PITA to remove. And the second year didn't seem as nice as the first year.
Some people have suggested that they water down compound, and scrub the non-skid with it and a brush. This would bring up some smoothness. I just gave up, because over the winter (under the cover) my non-skid seems to have deteriorated. So, any kind of compounding looks like it will wear it considerably. I guess I'm just waiting until paint is needed now. Based on the little spots flecked out, and the small hash cracks in the gelcoat, I think that if I had clear running water, Woody Wax would be a decent stop-gap for the next few years until paint is needed.
I guess the long and short of it is I liked the aesthetic results of going crazy and working my butt off for Sure Step, but the convenience of spray on, scrub around a bit, and rinse off every other week is a win for Woody Wax. (Come to think of it, using Woody Wax from the beginning with a brand new boat would probably keep it nicer for a longer time, vs. doing nothing until it's an old, chalky boat.)
