Filling in the blanks

With the world’s largest maker of foam surfboard blanks abruptly closing, many board shapers are left scrambling for the materials needed for their craft, livelihoods.FOR THE RECORD

A story in the Dec. 8 edition of the Daily Pilot, “Filling in the blanks,” misspelled the name of the owner of the Frog House surf shop in West Newport. His name is T.K. Brimer.

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Last week Gordon “Grubby” Clark gave Dan Forte a free copy of Surfer’s Journal. This week, Clark practically put Forte out of business.

“I have a handful of blanks until next week and then it’s a free-for-all from there,” said Forte, owner of Dano Surfboards in Costa Mesa.

Forte has dozens of orders for surfboards, but nothing to build them with now that his main supplier, Clark Foam of Laguna Nigel, has abruptly closed its plant.

“A lot of us are just wondering how we’re going to survive,” Forte said.

Just a week before, many of Clark Foam’s customers had received Christmas presents from the company that supplies nearly 80% of the world’s foam blanks -- lightweight cores that are later hand-shaped and glassed into surfboards.

But then on Monday, Clark, 74, faxed a seven-page letter to hundreds of Southern California shapers and surf shops, saying that a crackdown by local, state and federal environmental agencies was forcing him to close his doors.

“For owning and operating Clark Foam, I may be looking at very large fines, civil lawsuits and even time in prison,” he wrote in his letter.

News of Clark Foam’s demise sent shockwaves through the Orange County surfing community.

“The sky is falling in the surfing world,” said T.K. Brinner, owner of the Newport Beach Frog House surf shop. “There’s a panic going on and my advice is that everyone remain calm.”

The effects of the Clark closure were felt almost immediately for custom shapers, already struggling to compete with mass-produced boards from Asia, Brinner said.

“This area of Orange County has dozens of surfboard manufacturers that pay their mortgage and feed their families making eight to 10 boards a week,” Brinner said. “There’s an immediate and undeniable effect and it’s tragic.

That will likely mean higher prices at the surf shop. Brinner said many of his wholesalers have already asked him to increase short board prices by $100 and long board prices by $150; so far Brinner has resisted.

“I don’t think it’s fair to do that,” he said.

But it might be hard to resist in the short term. Anyone holding foam is hording it until prices stabilize, Brinner said.

Beyond the economic consequences, Clark’s closure has set off a host of conspiracy theories in the surfing community.

“I’m not convinced it’s real,” Brinner said. “I think it’s a grandstanding performance leading up to a substantial increase in prices.”

In his letter, Clark said that the federal Environmental Protection Agency was cracking down on his company for its use of the toxic chemical toluene diisocynate, issuing him a citation that “had never been resolved.”

EPA spokesperson Mark Merchant said his agency had cited Clark in 2004, but the issue had been resolved.

“He’s in compliance with federal law,” he said. “It’s hard for us to think that federal regulations have shut him down.”

Huntington Beach shaper Robert August said it was strange that Clark didn’t first look for other solutions before closing.

“If he was having these huge problems, why didn’t he just move to Mexico?” August said. “I would have figured he’d just pack everything up, put it in a container and ship to Ensenada.”

August said he has enough board blanks to last him several weeks, but would soon looking for supplies elsewhere. There aren’t any other foam producers in the U.S., but August said he might be able to find some of the material in Australia or Asia.20051208ir5p7mknMARK DUSTIN / DAILY PILOT(LA)Dan Forte on Wednesday works on one of the last Clark Foam boards in his shop. The supplier of 80% of the world’s blanks called it quits this week.