retyped without permission:
Wednesday, December 7, 2005
WIPEOUT ON SURF-PIPELINE
Clark Foam in Laguna Niguel, the biggest maker of foam blanks for surfboards, has closed, affecting all who make, sell and buy boards.
By SHAWN PRICE and NANCY LUNA The Orange County Register
END OF THE LINE: Tim Stamps, a shaper at Harbour Surfboards in Seal Beach, shapes a Clark Foam blank into a surfboard Tuesday.
At a glance: Clark Foam
Location: Laguna Niguel
What it does: In 1961, Gordon “Grubby” Clark launched Clark Foam. The chemist-engineer soon became an industry icon after pioneering the mass production of foam blanks, or the inner core of surfboards. Clark is the leading supplier of foam blanks in the world.
What happened: On Monday, Clark notified customers he was ceasing operations, citing a crackdown by local, federal and state authorities over the plant’s use of TDI, a toxic chemical. However, regulatory agencies including the Environmental Protection Agency said Tuesday that Clark’s plant is safe and in full compliance with state and federal codes, including how it stores TDI.
Reaction: Clark Foam notified local employment officials that the plant is permanently closing, affecting 120 employees.
“It’s as if Quiksilver woke up, and someone said, ‘Sorry, we have no cotton to supply you,’” said Rich Harbour, owner of Harbour Surfboards in Seal Beach, which has used Clark’s foam core to make boards since the 1970s.
Clark Foam , the local company that shaped the modern surfboard industry with its near-monopoly on lightweight cores, unexpectedly shut down late Monday after more than 40 years of business.
News of the Laguna Niguel company’s closure spread quickly after surfing pioneer and Clark founder Gordon “Grubby” Clark notified dozens of customers around the world Monday by fax that Clark Foam “is ceasing production and sales of surfboard blanks.”
“It’s as if Quiksilver woke up, and someone said, ‘Sorry, we have no cotton to supply you,’” said Rich Harbour, owner of Harbour Surfboards in Seal Beach, which has used Clark blanks to shape its boards since the early 1970s.
Clark Foam’s closure will crimp supply and affect everyone who makes, sells and buys surfboards.
The news rippled through the surf world, with visitors to Web sites wondering if the closure meant the end of the custom surfboard. It left local businesses reeling.
Tuesday, the dwindling number of boards with Clark blanks prompted some shops around the county to raise the price of a new board $100 to $200.
Clark Foam supplies an estimated 90 percent of the world’s surfboard blanks. Some smaller board makers already started sending workers home Tuesday because they didn’t have enough cores to keep going.
“This is going to put so many people out of business,” said Bill Stewart of Stewart Surfboards in San Clemente. “We’ll be OK, but the small places are done. It’s like telling the auto industry they can’t get any plastic or metal.”
Clark, 74, didn’t return calls Monday and Tuesday to comment on the closure. In his seven-page statement to customers, he said a crackdown by local, state and federal authorities over his use of certain chemicals forced him to close his 120-employee operation.
But several government agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency, said Tuesday that Clark Foam was in compliance with local, state and federal codes related to its use of hazardous materials and that they were not responsible for his closure.
“There’s a whole bunch of surfers out there complaining we shut them down,” said EPA spokesman Mark Merchant. “We didn’t shut him down.”
Merchant said his agency cited Clark Foam in 2003 for minor infractions, including failing to have a proper emergency response plan in place in the event of a chemical spill. The federal agency gave Clark Foam until May 2004 to comply, which it did.
“We haven’t heard from him since,” Merchant said.
Whatever the reason, the closure left local surfboard makers and sellers wondering what exactly happened with Clark Foam, which gave no hint that it was closing.
“It’s as much as we know,” factory manager Matt Stevens said of the fax that went out Monday afternoon. “We’re just wrapping things up. It’s a sad day.”
Meanwhile, surfboard shapers and shops are fearing the worst.
Mark Allen, who readies blanks to be cut for Pro Cam Inc. Surfboard Preshaping in Huntington Beach, was one of the first to lose his job in response to the Clark closing. The company receives shipments from Clark Foam about twice a week.
Allen was laid off along with his six co-workers when they were caught without any spare blanks.
“If we don’t have any surfboard blanks, we don’t have a business,” Allen said. “I don’t think anybody thought this was going to happen. Small places are pretty worried.”
In the early 1950s, Clark teamed with Hobie Alter to pioneer the first foam and fiberglass surfboard. Clark later bought out Alter and formed Clark Foam, which grew to become the premier supplier of foam cores.
As a result of the company’s dominance, surfboard makers and shapers have few places to turn for replacements.
Three-time world champion longboarder Colin McPhillips of San Clemente says he’ll be careful with the boards he has now.
“If there’s no blanks, there’s no boards. This is major,” said McPhillips, who also has a personal stake in board sales: His name is on three Stewart longboards. “If my three models of boards don’t get made, they don’t get sold. That’s money out of my pocket.”
In his fax, Clark alleged a long-standing battle with the Orange County Fire Authority over his use of the toxic chemical toluene di-isocynate in making the polyurethane foam blanks that serve as the lightweight core of a standard surfboard.
TDI is listed as a cancer-causing toxic air contaminant in the state of California, according to state regulatory officials.
Clark wrote that state and county regulators had “made it very clear they no longer want manufacturers like Clark Foam in their area.”
However, Capt. Stephen Miller, a spokesman for the Orange County Fire Authority, which tracks hazardous chemicals, said Tuesday that Clark has been in compliance with all the agency’s fire codes and that he has no idea why Clark chose to shut down.
“This sounds like this is a business decision,” Miller said.
South Coast Air Quality Management District spokesman Sam Atwood said that after an inspection of the plant earlier this year, the regulatory agency questioned the accuracy of Clark’s emissions report.
“We believe it had underreported its toxic emissions,” Atwood said. Atwood said inspectors were specifically looking at smog and TDI emissions. It was unclear late Tuesday if Clark had re-reported its emissions to the AQMD, Atwood said.
However, Atwood said Clark Foam has never been in violation of AQMD’s emission requirements. The agency, which tracks air-quality standards, said it’s also never logged any public complaint about Clark.
Miller said the fire authority had not fined Clark and was not “aware of any action taken by any other agency” that would force the facility to shut down.
At the end of his memo, Clark wrote: “The only apology I will make to customers and employees is that I should have seen this coming many years sooner and closed years ago in a slower, more predictable manner. I waited far too long, being optimistic rather than realistic. I also failed to do my homework.”
Staff writer Mary Ann Milbourn contributed to this report. CONTACT: (714) 796-2329 or