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"What if you wanted to buy a new surfboard, but just couldn't get one?" was the lead for CaliforniaConnected's "Beach Blank Bingo" segment, which aired Friday, July 7, 2006, on San Francisco's public television station, KQED. The segment recounts the story of Gordon "Grubby" Clark (left), owner of Clark Foam, and the aftermath of his decision to go out of the surfboard blank business.
Clark Foam, the world's largest supplier of rigid polyurethane foam cores (blanks) for custom-shaped surfboards, unceremoniously shut its doors on December 5, 2005, which became known as "Black Monday." The closure led to a state of semi-panic among Southern California's custom surfboard makers, who had no immediate source of blanks to continue production. Clark Foam had 80% to 90% of the U.S. blank business for custom-shaped surfboards.
CaliforniaConnected claims "nationwide, more than two million people now surf ... and generate almost $2.5 billion in annual sales." This contrasts with the Surf Industry Manufacturers Association's estimate that the U.S. market for surfboards in 2003, the last year for which data is available, was about $200 million. (It's unlikely that sales increased by a factor of 10 in two years.) Custom-shaped boards claimed $150 million or about 75% of total U.S. sales. The remainder was divided between molded polyurethane/fiberglass (pop-out) boards and expanded polystyrene (EPS)/epoxy resin boards or boards with hollow cores.
In 1957, I started a company named Polytron Corporation to manufacture rigid and flexible polyurethane foam components for aircraft, electronic, packaging and thermal insulation applications. Pacific Vegetable Oil (PVO) Corp. purchased a majority interest in the company in 1958. PVO was a San Francisco-based oilseed processor and trader that created the Saffola brand of safflower oil and popularized low-chloresterol diets. PVO's interest was in the use of castor oil and other edible oils to produce polyurethane foams and surface coatings. By 1960, Polytron's Polycel components had a substantial proportion of the U.S. rigid foam market, including that for manufacturing surfboard blanks. By that time, edible oils no longer played a significant role in polyurethane foam production.
By 1960, it was evident that Clark Foam was gaining a lock on the Southern California market for shaping blanks, so Polyton concentrated on producing foam components for molded (pop-out) boards that were sold by the major chain retailers of the time: Sears-Roebuck and Montgomery-Ward, as well as department and sporting-goods stores. Polytron's distributor for Southern California, Chuck Foss, started Foss Foam to mass-produce pop-out blanks. Grubby Clark credited Chuck Foss, me ("Rodger" Jennings), and Harold Walker as having "pioneered the first successful blank business selling blanks directly to surfboard builders" in his December 5, 2005 fax.
Pop-out boards were better suited as status symbols for adolescents addicted to surfing movies, such as 1959's Gidget, because boards made from pop-out blanks were much less expensive than custom-shaped boards. Parents could use their Sears or Wards credit cards to buy their kids a surfboard for a few dollars a week. Pop-out boards also gained a majority of the market for surfboards rented by the hour or day to Hawaiian tourists.
By the 1970s, pop-out boards were a high-volume, low-margin commodity. In the mid 1970s, Polytron sold its investements in foam blank and pop-out board manufacturing facilties and concentrated on the use of rigid foams in the trasnsportation, construction, appliance and marine salvage industries.
Big-box discount retailers, such as Costco, now sell made-in-China pop-out boards for $200 to $250, while custom-shaped boards have increased in price by about 20% to an average of about $500.
Updated: 9/24/2006 with additions and updates to the "Alternatives to Polyurethane Foam Blanks" section.
Photo courtesy of CaliforniaConnected.
Go to the bottom of the page for a section on the use of polyurethane foam for raising sunken or stranded vessels.
William Finnegan Relives "Blank Monday" for "The New Yorker"
The ultimate rendition of the Clark Foam story appears in an unexpected venue
William Finnegan, the best-selling author of Cold New World: Growing Up in Harder Country and A Complicated War: The Harrowing of Mozambique, co-author with Matt Warshaw of The Encyclopedia of Surfing, world-roaming surfer, and staff writer for The New Yorker delivers an eloquent, feature-length analysis of Clark Foam and the surfboard industry in the magazine's August 21, 2006 issue. Unfortunately, the six-page article is only available in print or from LexisNexis, but it might appear in The New Yorker's digital archives after an appropriate hiatus. Here's a link to a brief abstract. You can obtain a back issue for US$9.00.As if making amends for the digital oversight, the magazine offers links to abstracts of a two-part article about the San Francisco surfboard scene that Finnegan wrote in 1999: "Playing Doc's Games: Part I and Part II." "Doc" refers to Mark Renneker, M.D. (a.k.a., "Doc Hazard" because of his near-sightedness), probably the most famous of the Ocean Beach surfers. I first learned about Dr. Renneker's devotion to cancer education and screening when he was the principal investigator of a demonstration project at the West Oakland Heath Center.
In addition to the books mentioned earlier Finnegan is the co-author with Philip Gourevitch of Crossing the Line: A Year in the Land of Apartheid and Dateline Soweto: Travels with Black South African Reporters". He's also featured in Robert S. Boynton's New Journalism.
Photo courtesy of Baruch College, CUNY.
CaliforniaConnected Airs "Beach Blank Bingo"
West Coast PBS TV production recounts the aftermath of the Clark Foam closure
Titled with a catchy take-off on "Beach Blanket Bingo," the 1965 beach flick starring Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello, this brief video segment begins with what appears to be an inflated estimate of the U.S. surfboard market (2 million surfers and $2.5 billion in annual sales) and goes on to describe how Clark Foam's December 5, 2005 closure affected the Southern California surfboard market.Correspondent Judy Muller assigns 90% of the world polyurethane blank market to Clark Foam, with Walker Foam turning out a tenth of Clark's production. Muller goes on to note that polyurethane "is toxic, made from a witch's brew of chemicals, some of which can cause skin and respiratory problems."
She then describes how expanded polystyrene (EPS) blanks, covered with epoxy resin to prevent disolving by the polyester resin coating purport to solve the environmental problems.
Muller mentions mass-produced "pop-out" boards that now come primarily from China, but stresses that custom-shaped polyurethane surfboards are here to stay, primarily because surfing is a traditional sport. Pop-out boards cost 50% less than the shaped variety. But a few shapers are even going back to balsa and charging $3,500 a pop.
The Web page has links to the California Surf Museum, Surfrider Foundation, Huntington Beach International Surfing Museum, and Walker Foam, inter alia.
Photo courtesy of CaliforniaConnected
Clark Foam Links
News stories about the abrupt closing of Clark Foam on December 5, 2005. There's more to the story than you'll currently read about here.
- Clark Foam Closes Its Doors
- This brief article by Surfing magazine's Nathan Myers carries the subtitle, "World's largest supplier of surfboard blanks ordered to shut down for two weeks pending investigation." An update to the original article contains the full text of Grubby Clark's fax to his customers.
The fax contains a reference to me as "Rodger" rather than Roger Jennings, Chuck Foss (Polytron's distributor to the Southern California surfing industry), and Harold Walker having "pioneered the first successful blank business selling blanks directly to surfboard builders." - The End of the Custom Surfboard?
- A brief story from Surfline about the abrupt closure of Clark Foam on December 5, 2005. Clark Foam supplied 75% to 80% of the polyurethane foam blanks to U.S. surfboard shapers and finishers.
- Clark Foam Closes Factory
- A detailed story for Surf magazine about the closure of Clark Foam with quotes from the South Coast Air Quality Management District (AQMD) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) denying either agency shut the company down.
- Foam Surfboard Pioneer to Close Shop (Audio)
- National Public Radio's All Things Considered broadcast of December 13, 2005: Gordon "Grubby" Clark, along with surfing legend Hobie Alter, invented the modern foam surfboard. When Clark announced earlier this month that he plans to shut down his 44-year-old business making foam blanks for surfboards, the news sent shockwaves through the surfing community.
- World's Largest Surfboard Blank Manufacturer Closes
- Megan Michelson's article for Outside magazine describes the Clark Foam closure and mentions imported (from Thailand) "epoxy boards" which use polystyrene foam cores covered with epoxy resin.
- Foam Block Maker Closes, Surfing Panics
- Despite the substitution of "block" for "blank," this Associated Press article by Gilliam Flaccus adds credence to denials by AQMD and EPA representatives of any attempt to shut down Clark Foam. The article includes some market size data.
- Surfboard Shock Waves
- San Francisco Chronicle writer Glen Martin says, "Closure of Orange County's Clark Foam could force some shops out of business." The article also mentions epoxy boards.
- Production of Surfboards Overseas Expected to Swell
- Los Angeles Times writer Leslie Earnest describes the effect of Clark Foam's shutdown on the local shaping industry and importation of molded and shaped epoxy boards from Thailand and China.
- Clark Foam Apocalypse
- Surfer Magazine's Chris Mauro says, "Some Board Builders See Light Ahead While Clamoring to Fill Clark Foam Void." Chris's article includes an interview with shaper Gary Linden about Walker Foam filling the demand generated by Clark Foam's demise with Chinese blanks.
- Board Bummer: Surfboard Thefts on the Rise
- Santa Cruz Sentinal correspondent Terri Morgan reports that "Surfboard thefts have spiked over the past two weeks, according to the [Santa Cruz] county Sheriff's Office." Terri adds: "[Sheriff's department Sgt. Dan] Campos said the crime wave began after Clark Foam, the Orange County manufacturer of surfboard blanks used to build boards, abruptly closed its doors Dec. 5."
I learned about the Clark Foam closure from a soundbyte of this story on the Bay Area's NBC-TV affiliate's morning news program. - Foaming at the Mouth
- LA Weekly's Ben Marcus says, "Surf industry in uproar at closing of major supplier" and delivers the most detailed analysis of the closing of Clark Foam and its affect on erstwhile competitors in the urethane, epoxy, and carbon-fiber reinforced blank business.
- Surfers Hit Hard by Foam Company Closure
- A PBS "Jim Lehrer Newshour Extra" piece (for students) of December 27, 2005: "The price of a custom surfboard went up $200 overnight on news that Clark Foam - the country's primary supplier of foam used to make surfboards - was shutting its doors."
- Surfers in Turmoil With the Loss of a Major Supplier
- The New York Times finally chimes in with this December 30, 2005 article by Patricia Leigh Brown (who lives nearby in the East Bay) that's based on the earlier Santa Cruz Sentinel story. (Might require free registration.)
- Clark Foam Equipment Auction
- This March 8, 2006 Dovebid WebCast auction page for Clark Foam's manufacturing equipment has a list of featured items, which include Grubby's production reactors and storage vessels for polyurethane components.
The "(2) Approx 500 gal Saturated polyester polyurethane polyol storage tanks" item description is interesting because polyester poyols gave Grubby's foam its unique shaping characteristics (primarily "crispness.") Most rigid polyurethane foam was produced from polyether polyols. - Shape Of Things To Come
- The cover story from the May 18, 2006 issue of the Maui Times by Anthony Pignataro is subtitled "Could the loss of Clark Foam actually be a good thing?"
The story incorporates an interview with two Maui-based custom board manufacturers. One reported that the loss of Clark Foam as a supplier caused a substantial increase in his export business with mainland surf shops. - Worker's Widow Sues Clark Foam
- Jennifer Delson's "Widow of Worker Sues Foam Factory" article in the July 27, 2006 issue of the Los Angeles Times describes the complaint filed by Maria Teresa Barriga in Orange County Superior Court.
The wrongful-death suit filed earlier in July against Clark Foam "claims that her husband, Martin Barriga, and other employees ran with open buckets of toxic toluene diisocyanate sloshing on their hands, arms, torso, legs and feet."
The article goes on to describe Martin Barriga's causes of death: "Cardiac arrest, respiratory failure, inflamed and scarred lung sacs and arterial inflammation. A biopsy showed that he also suffered from a cancerous chest tumor."
The Honolulu Advertiser and Oahu Northshore Classifieds reprinted the LA Times article, as did the CorpWatch Site. - Gordon Clark's Letter re Imported Surfboards, et al.
- In an October 1, 2004 letter addressed to "Whom It May Concern," Grubby Clark advises his customers on how to minimize the concentration of styrene "fumes" emitted from glassing shops.
He then goes on to describe the efforts of Matt Biolas of Lost Surfboards to ensure that imported surfboards have their coutry of origin identified. Clark reports that Biolas and his attorney obtained a customs classifcation for surfboards. (Clark's citation of 9506.11.40.10 as the Harmonized Tariff Schedule product code for surfboards is incorrect; it's for snowboards. The correct code is 9506.29.00.30, Water skis, surf boards, sailboards and other watersport
equipment; parts and accessories thereof: Surf-boards, which are free of import duty.)
The attached "An Analysis of the Future of the Surfboard Industry," whitepaper, dated October 1, 2004, deals with issues such as shaping machines, quality control, and competition with imported boards.
Related Foam Surfboard Links
Links to other sites that are involved in or related to the manufacture of foam surfboards or blanks, were early Polytron Corp. customers, offer historical perspectives on the surfboard industry, or celebrate the joy of surfing.
- Surfline Article on Polyurethane Foam
- This April 2001 article by Jason Borte traces the history of polyurethane foam from Joe Quigg's early experiments to actor Cliff Robertson and the Sweet brothers, Dave and Roger, to Hobie and Grubby Clark, and finally to Clark Foam. As noted elsewhere, Robertson-Sweet was an early Polytron customer.
Otto Bayer "invented" [poly]urethanes in Germany immediately prior to World War II; urethane fiber was intended as a competitor to DuPont's Nylon. Polyurethane foam was a postwar development spearheaded by DuPont, the first U.S. manufacturer of 2,4-Tolylene Diisocyate on which early rigid foam compounds depended. Rigid urethane foam wasn't used to construct radomes until the early 1950s. - Classic Joe Quigg Foam Paddleboard Using Foss Blank
- Hawaiian Island Vintage Surf Auction: "In the early 60's, Joe Quigg made approximately 20 surfboard class paddleboards. They had to be under 11' and have a surfboard fin. This board is just over 10'10" and features a balsa stringer, with Foss [F]oam blank having been sealed and glassed with [V]olan cloth. ... Pre-auction estimate: $1500-$3,000"
- Surf Industry Manufacturers Association
- Every industry with more than a few manufacturers, suppliers, dealers and magazine publishers needs a trade association with a Web site. The SIMA site inclues links to topics related to current polyurethane blank supply issues.
- First Issue of SIMA's "shapes"
- The Surf Industry Manufacturers Association (SIMA)'s Board Builder Special Interest Group has published the first issue of shapes, which includes lists of the group's members and and suppliers of polyurethane and EPS blanks.
- Walker Foam Press Release (SIMA)
- Harold Walker's Walker Foam is another veteran supplier of polyurethane blanks who wants to fill the hole left by Clark Foam's shutdown. Walker Foam imports blanks from a factory in Southern China.
- Walker Foam's New Web Site
- The closing of Clark Foam gave Harold Walker, Gary Linden, and Joe Boyle the opportunity to dramatically expand Walker Foam's Wilmington, CA plant output—to a reported 750 to 1,000 blanks per week and growing.
The new-found prosperity enabled Hal to create this new Website. Unfortunately, the "History of Walker Foam" page contains several technical errors, such as the following:
1. "... expensive measures to prevent a spill of thousands of pounds of TDI that would turn Laguna Niguel into Bhopal." The Bhopal disaster was the result of a methyl isocyanate leak at Union Carbide Corporation's Bhopal plant. Methyl isocyanate is a gas used primarily for manufacturing carbamate pesticides. Toluene diisocyanate (TDI) is a liquid with a high boiling point (251°C/484°F).
2. "I think TDI is made with a reaction of phosgene -which is nerve gas - and hydrochloric acid." TDI is made by reacting phosgene with toluene diamine. Phosgene is produced by reacting carbon monoxide with chlorine. Phosgene is a poison gas that was used in World War I, but is not a "nerve gas" or nerve agent. TDI doesn't contain even trace amounts of phosgene. - Legendary Surfers: From Wood to Foam
- Volume 3, Chapter 1 of Malcolm Gault-Williams' Legendary Surfers history. This chapter points to Dave Sweet who, with Cliff Robertson (the movie and TV actor), formed Robertson-Sweet Surfboards. Robertson-Sweet was Polytron's first large customer for urethane foam components. The chapter also contains a reference to Polytron's Southern California distributor, Chuck Foss.
- Hobie Alter Biography
- This Surfline biography of Hobie Alter describes how Hobie gave Grubby Clark his start in the blank business. (Many years later, Hobie's parents and mine were neighbors in a Palm Springs mobile home park.)
- Dewey Weber Surfboards
- Dewey Weber was one of the earliest manufacturers of foam-core surfboards and, according to the Dewey Weber Web site, purchased most of their foam from Grubby Clark.
- Bennett Surfboards Pty Ltd
- Barry Bennett was Polytron's first large international customer for Polycel surfboard foam components. In the early 1960s Polytron shipped 20,000 pounds of foam components to Bennett Surfboards on every Matson Navigation vessel leaving Oakland for Sydney.
(The URL for Bennett Foam Brazil leads to the Rhyno Foam site (in Portoguese) which offers some remarkable surfing photographs. - Foam Surfboards in Australia
- A detailed history of the manufacture of early Styrofoam and later urethane foam custom boards in Australia. This page contains a reference to Barry Bennett's use of "Polytron foam."
- Dion Chemicals Pty Ltd
- Barry Bennett organized Dion Chemicals in 1962 to import foam components from Polytron and manufacture blanks for the Australian market.
- The Surfrider Foundation
- "The Surfrider Foundation is a non-profit environmental organization dedicated to the protection and enjoyment of the world's oceans, waves and beaches for all people, through conservation, activism, research and education. Represented by over 50,000 members and 60 local chapters in the U.S., the Surfrider Foundation also has affiliations in Australia, Japan, France, and Brazil."
The Surfrider foundation also has a blog. - Duke Kahanamoku's Biography: Twilight Years
- One chapter from the Legendary Surfers' detailed biography of Hawaii's Duke Kahanamoku, "the father of modern surfing."
Duke was the guest of honor at a Polytron-sponsored surfers luau organized by Chuck Foss and held in Summer 1965 on Huntington Beach, adjacent to the pier. Duke was 75 at the time and had just been inducted as the first member of the Hawai'i Sports Surfers Hall of Fame. - The Surf and the Fury Blog
- This site authored by Surfsister, a Southern California surfer, teacher and mother, is a highly personalized surfing blog that (uncharacteristically) includes images with most posts.
Surfsister has a post about Grubby Clark's exit from the blank business that has two uncharacteristically on-target comments.
Be sure to start with the January 2005 archive to get the most out of this very interesting surfing blog. - Computer-Aided Surfboard Shaping Video
- This 4.5 minute video clip from Proctor Surfboards demonstrates the Digital Surfboard Designs (DSD) SurfCAD profiler that automatically shapes foam blanks to a standard or customized design.
The "Proctor Surfboards Digital Surfboard Design" entry in Proctor Surfboards' blog has more details on DSD's SurfCAD computer-aided-design profiler. - Hand Shaping a Surfboard Video
- This 8.5-minute video clip from Proctor Surfboards complements the preceding segment on computer-aided shaping by emphasizing the craftsmanship required to hand-shape foam blanks.
(Unfortunately, this clip has no narration.)
Urethane Technology and Raw Material Links
Links to governmental, quasi-governmental, regulatory, and TDI supplier sites.
2,4/2,6-Toluene Diisocyanate, also called 2,4/2,6-Tolylene Diisocyanate and abbreviated TDI, is a highly toxic and very irritating compound. Inhalation of TDI vapor isn't known to cause cancer in human beings but can lead to hypersensitivity to TDI vapors.
The principal use of TDI is the production of flexible polyurethane foam (F-PUF, also called slabstock) for mattresses, cushions, packaging, and similar uses. Manufacture of surfboard blanks is one of the last uses for TDI in the production of rigid polyurethane foam (R-PUF).
Most local and state governmental bodies object to the existence of TDI within their jurisdications--let alone use of TDI to produce large numbers of surfboard blanks--and issue not-in-my-backyard (NIMBY) ordinances to eradicate small manufacturers.
The principal use of TDI is the production of flexible polyurethane foam (F-PUF, also called slabstock) for mattresses, cushions, packaging, and similar uses. Manufacture of surfboard blanks is one of the last uses for TDI in the production of rigid polyurethane foam (R-PUF).
Most local and state governmental bodies object to the existence of TDI within their jurisdications--let alone use of TDI to produce large numbers of surfboard blanks--and issue not-in-my-backyard (NIMBY) ordinances to eradicate small manufacturers.
- OSHA Safety and Health Topic for TDI
- This safety and health guide for TDI on the federal OSHA site has links to other government sites that provide toxicity data for short-term and long-term exposure.
- Preventing Asthma and Death from Diisocyanate Exposure
- This 1996 Alert from the Center for Disease Control's (CDC) National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health was intended to "help prevent asthma and other respiratory disease in the 280,000 U.S. workers potentially exposed to diisocyanates."
- Air Toxics Hazard Summary for TDI
- This U.S. Envionmental Protection Agency's Technology Transfer Network Air Toxics Website Hazard Summary fact sheet for TDI summarizes governmental and non-governmental regulations and toxicity/hazard studies for the compound.
Despite the lack of supporting evidence, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS)has determined that TDI "may reasonably be anticipated to be a carcinogen." The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has determined that TDI "is possibly carcinogenic to humans." - CDC/ATSDR Medical Management Guidelines for TDI
- The Center for Disease Control's (CDC) Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) Medical Management Guidelines (MMGs) for TDI are a resource for physicians and other health professionals who might be required to treat persons who have had accidental contact with TDI (liquid or vapor) in the workplace.
- U.S. National Library of Medicine Toxnet Database
- Search the U.S. National Library of Medicine's Toxnet (Toxicology Data Network) databases on toxicology, hazardous chemicals, environmental health, and toxic releases for TDI:
1. In the first page, type "toluene diisocyanate" (include the quotes) in the Search All Databases text box and click Search to return about 1,450 hits.
2. Click the HSDB (Hazardous Substances Database) to open the HSDB search results page, mark check boxes 1 and 2, and click the Saved Checked Items button.
3. Click the Display Saved Items buton, and click the Download button to open the Download dialog.
4. Select Full format and click download to return a large text file from the database.
Conclusion: "There is inadequate evidence for the carcinogenicity of toluene diisocyanates in humans. There is sufficient evidence for the carcinogenicity of toluene diisocyanates in experimental animals." - Chemicals "Known to the State [of California] to Cause Cancer or Reproductivity Toxicity
- The State of California's Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986 requires the Governor to revise and republish the list of chemicals known to the State to cause cancer or reproductive toxicity at least once per year.
This latest list, dated July 9, 2004, includes TDI, which was added on October 1, 1989 as a carcinogen (Type of Toxicity = cancer). However, there appears to be no evidence to support the presence of TDI on the list. - U.S. Manufacturers of Toluene Diisocyanate
- Chemical profiles are published weekly in the Chemical Market Reporter, a publication of the Schnell Publishing Company, a member of the Reed Elsevier group. This profile of U.S. TDI manufacturing capacity and market share was published in December 2001 for the year 2000.
- Polyether Polyols, TDI and MDI Anti-Trust Class Action Lawsuit
- The Alexander, Hawes & Audet law firm (San Francisco and San Jose, California) has filed an antitrust lawsuit against BASF Corporation, BASF AG, The Dow Chemical Company, Bayer AG, Bayer Material Science LLC, Bayer Corporation, Huntsman International Holdings LLC and Lyondell Chemical Company. The action charges that these firms "allegedly agreed and conspired to charge Polyether Polyols, MDI (diphenylmethane diisocyanate), and TDI (toluene diisocyante) prices at certain levels, and also implemented price increases as part of this agreement."
- Urethane Raw Materials Anti-Trust Class Action Lawsuit
- The Alexander, Hawes & Audet law firm has filed another antitrust lawsuit against BASF A.G., Bayer A.G., Rhein Chemie GMBH, Crompton Inc., TSE Industries, Inc., and Uniroyal Chemical Company for alleged price fixing and anti-trust violations relating to chemicals used to manufacture urethane products. Crompton previously pled guilty to a related federal anti-trust felony charge and settled for a $50 million fine.
Alternatives to Polyurethane Foam Blanks
Expanded polystyrene, composite construction, and other approaches
Links to sites that offer or explain alternate technolgies for manufacturing foam blanks and surfboards.
- Surftech Tuflite Blanks
- Surftech's Tuflite blanks combine an expanded polystyrene (EPS) foam core with a wrap of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) sheet foam, plus fiberglass and epoxy resin. Surftech blanks usually aren't shaped, so qualify as pop-out "epoxy boards." Tuflite blanks are made in Thailand.
- Awash in a Sea of Controversy, SurfTech Powers on
- A 2003 story by Ben Marcus in the Santa Cruz Sentinel about Surfer magazine naming Randy French, SurfTech's owner, "the 15th most powerful person" in the surfing world.
- Salomon S-Core Blanks
- Salomon, a French ski, snowboard, binding, accessory, and apparel manufacturer that's owned by Addidas, offers S-Core (Secret-Core?) blanks to a limited number of shapers in Australia, U.S., and U.K. The Salomon site offers a surfeit of Flash but not even a modicum of technical details on their blank technology. Salomon boards are hollow, except for polystrene foam stringers that determine flex and torsion resistance.
- Salomon Surfboards Hit Retail
- Transworld Business Magazine's Casey Koteen reported on March 25, 2005 that Salomon began marketing S-Core boards through four California surf shops: Surfride, Revolution, Jack's, and O'Neil. Koteen says " The S-Core distribution model is similar to the way Clark [F]oam operates, except that the shapers are the only ones who can order their own preshape models. What they do with them from there is up to them." Prior to March 2005, S-Core boards were generally available in Australia and the U.K only.
- Second Skin Surfboards (Epoxy and S-Core)
- Second Skin Surfboards is a UK dealer who sells Tuflite epoxy surfboards and Eric Arakawa S-Core boards.
- Interview with S-Core Shaper Tim Patterson
- An interview with Tim Patterson who shapes boards for Killer Dana Surf Shop's team rider Micah Pitts. Tim discusses the riding characteristics of Salomon and Tuflite boards, use of shaping machines for increased production rates, and other surfing esoterica.
- The Biggest Little Man: A Chat With Shaping Maestro Timmy Patterson
- Surf Magazine's Chris Mauro interviews Tim Patterson, who's a member of the Salomon R&D team, about molded versus shaped boards and S-Core performance.
- XTR Epoxy Surfboard Blanks
- XTR was one of the pioneers of epoxy surfboards and is a major Southern California producer of epoxy blanks for molded and shaped boards. XTR uses extruded polystyrene (XPS or Styrofoam), rather than expanded polystyrene (EPS) foam, because XPS is more resistant to water absorption than EPS foam.
- Aviso Carbon Fiber Surfboards
- This Flash-heavy site describes Aviso hollow carbon-fiber composite boards.
- Lost Enterprises Aviso and XTR Pages
- This almost-unreadable page by Aviso dealer Lost Surfboards has a more detailed description of Aviso composite technology. Several of Lost's 05 series boards are available with XTR epoxy blanks.
- New Carbon Fiber Surfboards Hit Retail
- Transworld Business Magazine's Casey Koteen describes Aviso's expensive, carbon-fiber-composite boards. The boards retail in shortboard sizes for $1,100 or so. Wholesale prices range from $800 to $850.
- Surflite EPS Foam Surfboard Blanks
- Hawaii's Surflite produces a 7'-6" pressure-molded expanded polystyrene (EPS) blank in two densities, 1.3 and 1.8 pounds per cubic foot. (EPS expands and fuses polystyrene beads that contain a "blowing agent.") These blanks are considerably lighter than those made with 2.2+ pounds per cubic foot urethane blanks.
- How to Build Your First Surfboard: Polystyrene
- Stephen Pirsch (a.k.a. Surfer Steve) explains how to make your own surfboard by shaping an extruded polystyrene (Styrofoam) blank. After you read this treatise, you'll probably want to reconsider your decision to make your own surfboard.
- Wooden Surfboard Makers Carve Small Market Niche
- This Associated Press article, courtesy of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin's December 18, 2005 issue describes, a "new" line of hollow wood surfboards produced by Mike LaVecchia and Rich Blundell of Grain Surfboards.
A 4-minute video segment on Al Gore's Current TV cable network describes Grain Surfboard's production techniques and committment to renewable resources by "planting 10 trees for every board we produce."
These boards retail for $1,200 to $1,500. (My first surfboard was an 11'-0" hollow redwood longboard that took two men and a small boy to drag to the beach.) - Rusty's View of EPS vs. Polyurethane Blanks
- Rusty Surfboards answers questions about the availability of blanks subsequent to Clark Foam's demise and the practicality of substituting expanded polystyrene (EPS, bead) foam for polyurethane (PU).
- Hydro Epic Hollow-Core Composite Boards
- According to Hydro Epic's Web site, their hollow-core composite surfboards are manufactured of DuPont Kevlar,carbon fiber, carbon reinforced glass, pure carbon, UV-inhibited Mil-spec epoxy resin, aluminum, aluminum honeycomb, aluminum coated fabric,
and air.
Like early hollow wood surfboards, Hydro Epic boards have a removable or porous plug to equalize pressure between the inside and outside of the board as the result of board temperature changes. (See the earlier "Wooden Surfboard Makers Carve Small Market Niche" item re my first hollow wood surfboard.) - Hydro Epic U.S. Patent 6800006
- Abstract in class 441/74 (Surfboards):
A surfboard having composite covered honeycomb deck and bottom surfaces. The surfboard has a hollow inner volume which contains a longitudinally oriented stringer. The stringer is spaced both from the nose of the surfboard and from the tail of the surfboard so that the nose and tail are more flexible than the length containing the stringer. The process of making the board is also disclosed.
The patent is assigned to Hydro Epoch, Inc.
Other recent patents in class 441/74 can be found here. - Surfboard Technology for Drone Wings
- The December 2004/January 2005 issue of Boeing Frontiers describes the adaption of Foam Matrix, Inc.'s FMC (Foam Matrix Core) technology for producing composite surfboards to manufacture "cost-effective airfoils and control surfaces for unmanned aerial vehicles, ... wind turbine blades, access panels, aircraft body components, and other contoured structures for aerospace and marine applications.
According to the article, "Foam Matrix won a contract to build the wings and control surfaces for Boeing's X-45A joint unmanned combat air vehicle demonstrators in part through its willingness to invest in the project." - Foam Matrix U.S. Patent 6605326
- Abstract: A shell part formed of honeycomb (20) with fibrous reinforcing regions (21, 24) at inner and outer surfaces of the honeycomb and with foam material (26) penetrating the honeycomb cells and reinforcing regions, where the outer surface of the article is convexly curved and the inner surface of the article is concavely curved. This permits the construction of a hollow object (10) by connecting the ends of two shell parts together. Each shell part is formed by laying an outer region of fibrous material including cloth (30) sandwiched between tissue paper layers (32, 34, 35), against a mold wall 44. Next, a honeycomb sheet is laid over the outer region and an inner region (21, 60, 62) of fibrous material is laid over the honeycomb. Then, foamable material (26) is laid in the mold and the mold is closed to cause the expanded foam to penetrate the honeycomb and most of the fibrous layers. When the mold is open, foam above an inner fibrous layer is torn away, along with a releasable Nylon cloth (60) of the inner fibrous region, to leave the shell part.
Note: Polytron had a relationship with Hexcel Corp., the originator of honeycomb structural core material, for the development of foam-filled honeycomb for aircraft and other light-weight structures. - NPR: Present at the Creation: The Surfboard
- National Public Radio's July 22, 2002 segment of the "Present at the Creation" series provides a history of surfing, links to surfing music, a promo for the 1964 surfing movie Ride the Wild Surf, and a Kathy Kohner Zuckerman interview about the Gidget mystique and surfing then and now, from the Weekend Edition segment for August 5, 2001.
The article concludes: "The next generation of surfboards, made from composite materials, promises to be even lighter, stronger and faster." - Sustainable Surfboards
- The UK's Combined Universities in Cornwall (CUC) are using Objective One European Regional Development Fund resources in a project to develop "foam made from castor oil" for surfboard blanks. (The last time castor oil was used to produce semi-rigid urethane foam was in the early 1960s.)
Another of Sustainable Composites Ltd's deja vu projects was the 'eco-board.' "The 'eco-board' was the brainchild of Chris Hines, sustainability director at the Eden Project and former director of Surfers Against Sewage, and Pat Hudson, Eden Guide. It consisted of a balsa wood core (a 'blank') cut from a balsa tree growing in the Humid Tropics Biome at Eden. After shaping, the core was coated with a composite layer of hemp cloth in a matrix of resin derived from castor oil."
Aside: Sustainable Composites Ltd is located in Redruth, the ancestral home of the Jennings clan.
Salvaging a Beached Destroyer with Polyurethane Foam
A bit off the foam-surfboard topic but an interesting foam-related story
In the early 1960s, Polytron developed and patented a method for raising sunken ships with urethane foam, which led us into some interesting projects for the U.S. Navy. Our largest project in 1965 was refloating the U.S.S. Frank Knox (DDR-742), which had run hard aground (at 16 knots) on Pratas Reef in the South China Sea.The official U.S. Navy story and a brief third-party account of the salvage effort make interesting reading. Unfortunately, the Time and Newsweek articles about the gounding aren't available on the Web.
As mentioned in the official account, use of explosives to free the vessel resulted in blowing much of the foam back out of its hull. Thus, Polyton made multiple air/sea shipments of more than 100,000 pounds of foam components for the project. The Navy's final challenge was chopping and scraping the foam out of the vessel at Subic Bay prior to a trip to Japan for remaining repairs.
by Roger_Jennings
I'm the principal consultant of OakLeaf Systems and the author of 30+ books on Microsoft operating systems (Windows NT and Windows 2000 Server), datab...
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