World’s Largest Surfboard Blank Manufacturer Closes
By Megan Michelson
December 8, 2005 The surfing industry suffered a major blow this week, with a rippling effect that could be felt world wide. After 45 years in business, Clark Foam, the world’s largest supplier of polyurethane foam surfboard blanks, shut its doors Monday.
The owner and founder, 72-year-old Gordon “Grubby” Clark, of the Laguna Niguel, California-based manufacturer, attributed the sudden closure to federal and state safety and environmental regulations. In a seven-page fax sent to surfboard shapers announcing the shutdown on Monday afternoon, Clark wrote, “the state of California and especially Orange County where Clark Foam is located have made it very clear they no longer want manufacturers like Clark Foam in their area.”
The main issue, according to Clark’s fax, is the company’s use of a liquid chemical and known carcinogen called Toluene Di Isocynate, or TDI, used to make soft and flexible foams.
“I may be looking at very large fines, civil lawsuits, and even time in prison,” Clark wrote, admitting that the Clark Foam factory “emits TDI fumes into the air” and that his “official safety record as an employer is not very good.”
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), however, counters Clark’s explanation for the abrupt closure.
“I can’t say for certain why [Clark Foam] closed,” Mark Merchant, spokesman for the EPA told Outside Online. “But the way we see it, the EPA can’t conceive of how we would have been the reason.”
According to Merchant, Clark had no outstanding environmental violations. Although he was issued a ten-page citation in 2004 for misuse of TDI, Clark corrected the problems by the May 2004 deadline.
“The EPA has always said that we’re not in the business of putting people out of business,” Merchant said, adding that the EPA has an entire division dedicated to helping businesses meet environmental compliance.
Why Clark Foam is shutting its doors is perhaps just as significant as what the impact will be on the surf industry. At about 300,000 foam moldings a year, it is estimated that Clark Foam makes over 80 percent of the world’s blanks, according to the Wall Street Journal.
“This is the biggest thing to hit the surfing industry in a long time,” Marc Kent, a life-long surfer and host of Surf Talk Radio, a syndicated radio show on the California coast, told Outside Online. “It’s going to ruin your backyard shapers. The price of surfboards in small shops is going to go up because blanks will have to be made in Australia or China. Everyone is going to be affected.”
Tom Brubaker, manager of Central Coast Surfboards in San Luis Obispo, California, said it was a major loss, but that the surfing will go on.
“There’s going to be a six-month hiccup, where surfboards will become scarce for a bit,” Brubaker told Outside Online. “People aren’t going to stop surfing, but they may make their boards last a little longer.”
Without Clark Foam, more surfers may turn to boards made of polystyrene foam and epoxy resin, called epoxy boards. Although sales may increase for epoxy board makers, like Santa Cruz, California-based Surftech—which just this week saw an increase in pre-orders for the spring for their epoxy boards made in Thailand—Clark’s closure is still not good news.
“We don’t look at this as a great thing. Shapers are the backbone of our company, and what hurts those guys, hurts us,” Duke Brouwder, marketing director at Surftech, told Outside Online. “We’re not jumping for joy.”
