December 5,2005 marked a day in surfing history that will change things for all of us...forever! Whether we are surfers, board builders or shop owners, things have dramatically changed. Hopefully for the better, but for now and the short-term things are a bit hectic and unknown.

For those of you that have been on a 4 month surf trip to a place without communication...on December 5th, Clark Foam closed their doors for good. They made the majority of all of the foam used to make handmade polyester surfboards...some estimated more than 80% of the market share! Shapers and surfers have counted on Grubby Clark and Clark Foam for blanks since they opened in 1959...now they are no more!

There are still 2 small manufacturers of polyester foam in the US...Walker Foam and Just Foam. Both, like Clark was, are based in Southern California and both are trying to increase their production capacities. Other polyester foam is coming in from overseas, from places like Brazil, Argentina, South Africa, Australia and other countries. The quality of this foam ranges from good to garbage and as these foam companies try to increase their production quality will change again.

Some industry gurus feel that we will soon have more foam than we know what to do with. Quantity will increase to meet demand that was created by Clark's closing and once demand is met, there won't be the need for all of the foam companies that are currently being created and/or expanded. The ones that will survive are the ones that provide the best product at the best price and offer the best customer service.

A couple things that are for sure are surfboard prices will go up and you won't be able to get as many variations that Clark offered. Clark made all sorts of custom rockers, 100 or so plugs that offered a variety of lengths, thicknesses and widths as well as custom stringers that only they were able to do. Shortboards, funshapes and performance longboards should be fine. Retro stuff, bigger, thicker & wider longboards as well as multi stringered blanks will be harder if not impossible to come by.

Enough ranting, I'm going to collect some of the emails and posts I received from board builders and post them later. Feel free to add comments or posts.

Stay Stoked,
Eric