Blank Monday

August 21, 2006 P. 36

August 21, 2006 P. 36

The New Yorker, August 21, 2006 P. 36

THE SPORTING SCENE about Gordon Clark and the evolution of surfboard design. Gordon (Grubby) Clark, now 73, did not invent the modern surfboard. It just began to seem that way, as his company, Clark Foam, of Laguna Niguel, California, founded in 1961, came to dominate the production of the polyurethane-foam “blank”-the lightweight alabaster surfboard core. Clark Foam-estimated to be worth $40 million-and surfboards became conceptually inseparable. Clark's monopoly was estimated to cover 90% of the U.S. market and 60% of the world market. He was described as surfing's Bill Gates. Mentions Surfer magazine. Today, the world's surf population exceeds 20 million. Mentions Dick Metz. On December 5, 2005, Clark abruptly announced that Clark Foam was ceasing production of all surfboard blanks and he began destroying all of his blank molds and irreplaceable equipment. He alluded to run-ins with government regulators, primarily over the chemicals and equipment he used, and to claims filed against him by ex-employees. Rage and disbelief roiled the American surfboard industry. Many shapers didn't know where their next blanks would come from. How could an entire industry have relied on a single supplier? December 5th became known as Blank Monday. Clark got his start working for Hobie Alter, of Hobie Surfboards, one of the first surf shops. Alter began working with polyurethane, and Clark saw the potential immediately. In June, 1958, they put their first foam-core board on the market. In 1961, Clark formed Clark Foam. The basic surfboard design quest was for greater lightness without loss of strength. The writer describes the first surfboards he bought. Mentions Bill Bahne and the Surf Industry Manufacturers Association. Describes the difficulties of making a surfboard blank. Clark could be morbidly competitive and punishing to disloyal customers. But nobody could make blanks as efficiently, as cheaply, or with such consistently high quality as Clark. He always tried to give shapers blanks of whatever size, shape, density, etc., they wanted. Eventually, he was publishing a catalogue offering blanks in over 70 shapes, at 8 densities, with stringers in 4 different woods, along with a library of 5,000 templates for the “rocker.” Clark's plant was said to ship 1,000 blanks a day. Mentions Peter St. Pierre, head of Moonlight Glassing. In the early 1990s, top shapers began to experiment with computerized shaping machines. Clark opposed this, as well as the new line of post-polyurethane pop-outs that began to emerge. The main hope of the industry, he believed, lay with increasing the number of “sophisticated buyers.” The Clark Foam factory lies in the middle of an upscale suburb, Laguna Niguel, and this encroachment brought Clark unwanted attention, mainly from the E.P.A. Describes Clark's industry letters. Mentions Jimmy Pflueger. In the aftermath of Blank Monday, the price of a blank doubled and the prices of boards went up by as much as $200. Within six months, there were two dozen new companies making polyurethane blanks for the American market. Mentions veteran shaper Tim Bessell. Some shapers believe that the forced innovation Clark brought about will be good in the long run. Clark sold most of his wood mill, where the stringers were made, along with his library of rocker templates to Green Valley Mill, in Oceanside. But no one has figured out how to rebuild Clark's lost machines. When he said he was the standard, he wasn't wrong. In some ways, board building has taken an evolutionary step backward. The writer visited Indonesia and tested some of the new boards. Mentions Surftech and board shaper Owl Chapman.

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