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Anyone who's built a Vari Eze or a KR knows how nice Clark foam is to
work with. They've shut down.
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/breaking_news/13361345.htm
GILLIAN FLACCUS
Associated Press
SAN CLEMENTE, Calif. - For more than 40 years, everyone from casual
weekend waveriders to top competitive surfers has shared one thing:
Customized boards that began as nondescript foam blocks mass-produced
by one Southern California company.
Clark Foam, an icon in California surf culture, enjoyed a virtual
monopoly on the blocks that have been shaped and hand-painted by
everyone from backyard do-it-yourselfers to design shops that churn
out thousands of handcrafted boards each year.
That's why the company's sudden closure this week has the laid-back
and thriving cottage industry fearing a wipeout.
Boards which cost between $300 and $800 have soared by as much as $200
at some smaller shops. Manufacturers are scrambling to secure the last
supplies of the polyurethane foam blanks, customers are hoarding
custom-made boards and thousands of specialty board shapers, air
brushers and workers who coat boards with fiberglass face unemployment
almost overnight.
"Everybody's figuring how they're going to get on with their life,"
said Chris Mauro, editor of Surfer Magazine, which first broke the
story on its Web site Tuesday. "There's probably a shortage of 2,000
boards a week globally now. It'll be months before things are back up
to speed where any Joe Blow can get a blank - maybe even years."
Clark Foam supplied the unshaped blanks for about 90 percent of all
custom-made boards purchased worldwide - and those boards make up
nearly three-quarters of the total international market, said Bjorn
Deboer of Stewart Surfboards, a major custom-made retailer and
designer in San Clemente. The rest of the $200 million U.S. market is
comprised of machine-produced boards mostly churned out at factories
in Asia and Eastern Europe.
A handful of small U.S. companies also produce foam, but Mauro said
not in great enough quantities to fill the gap. Australian companies
that make foam blanks turn out enough to meet Australian demand, but
not much else, he said.
"Everyone's scrambling to find new suppliers, foreign suppliers,
anybody," Mauro said.
Customers reacted by hoarding boards at stores up and down the coast -
and some requested multiple boards.
Jefferson Wagner, owner of Zuma Jay Surfboards in Malibu, upped the
price of his custom boards by $100 within a day of Clark Foam's
closure. He said people were calling with requests to buy 12 or 15
boards at a time.
"I have got every dealer in the book calling me, I have got customers
running into the store buying them," said Deboer, who said he sold a
record of 14 boards in one day. "It's a panic mode."
Making a custom board is a painstaking process that holds special
meaning for surfers. Foam blanks - which resemble rough surfboards -
are first smoothed and shaved with sandpaper and handheld electric
grinders and shavers. Painters then add intricate designs and color
before the board is covered in fiberglass and polished.
At Stewart Surfboards, shaper Geoff Madsen worked Thursday on one of
the last Clark Foam blank orders placed before the company's sudden
shutdown. The customer, a longtime surfer, has asked Madsen to shape
the edges - or rails - of a 10-foot-3 longboard blank so it will move
more slowly in the water like "old-school" boards.
A fine spray of white foam dust shot from the board like a miniature
Fourth of July sparkler as Madsen used an electric shaver to peel away
layers of its face. Thick slabs of foam fell away as he pushed the
hand tool down the length of the board in smooth motions, leaving the
unshaved portion sticking up like a half-mown lawn.
Across the hallway, airbrush artist Tom Cervantes trimmed the edges of
a nine-foot board with black paint, then blew neon blue coloring on
its front with an airgun.
Madsen, a 25-year veteran shaper, said he couldn't understand why
Clark Foam shut down so suddenly - especially because it had just
started a new business in shaping tools and machinery.
In a letter to customers Monday explaining his closure, company
founder Gordon "Grubby" Clark said he has increasingly been in trouble
with state and local government because of his nonstandard production
machinery - most of which he designed himself - and his use of toxic
and polluting chemicals such as toulene di isocynate, or TDI.
He said he spent $500,000 in fire code fixes, another $400,000
defending himself against an employee's lawsuit and faced buying a
multimillion "scrubber" to comply with emissions law. He also battled
with the Environmental Protection Agency over pollution issues at his
Laguna Niguel-based company.
"They simply grind away until you either quit or they find methods of
bringing serious charges or fines that force you to close," he wrote.
Local and federal officials said Clark was in compliance with all laws
and rejected the claim they were to blame for his demise.
Clark, who opened his company in 1961, revolutionized the surfboard in
1958 when he and surfing pioneer Hobie Alter poured resin over foam to
create an all-foam board. The foam boards were durable, but had better
flexibility than wooden boards that had previously been the hobby's
standard.
"He was kind of like the father figure and this came out of absolutely
nowhere," said Chas Wickwire, who custom makes about 500 boards a year
out of his Westminster factory. "He took us all, put us in the back of
a wagon and basically drove off the cliff."
The most practical surfers said they would take better care of their
existing boards, which can last up to 10 years with excellent care -
but much less without it.
"I am hanging onto my good one as long as I can to make it last," said
Mauro, also an avid surfer. "I am taking my board out of my car every
day now and storing it in a nice cool place and washing it off after
every ride."
Associated Press Writer Robert Jablon in Los Angeles contributed to
this report.
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Strike one more vendo - Clark Foam is gone
