I emailed them and called them multiple times and never got a response. I’ve read they are the best but I haven’t been able to place an order.
I’m pretty sure they’re still around. Just saw a new Insta post from them the other day.
Have you tried Great Pacific Foam EPS? We have gotten feedback from pro shapers that, in comparison, it has superior firmness and less off-gassing.
https://shapersupply.com/collections/great-pacific-foam
Marko Foam is still around and doing great. Most shapers when ask to compare EPS sources say they prefer to shape Marko. The alternatives are U S Blanks, Millennium which are fairly decent and other brands that are nothing more than CNC’ed construction grade foam. Off gassing has nothing to do with it. Not relative.
Most molded eps i can try, marko, us blanks, australian one’s, are good quality with great high density (between 2 and 2,5#)
I like more to make my one blanks with lower density block foam (between 1.25 an 1.5) covered with thicker skins. With my process boards are standard weight, standard flex (ie compare PU stringered stock board) but way more stronger particulary against dings.
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** most shapers - have they tried GP Foam? We can give examples of high volume shapers that provided the feedback.
McDing / Oss1… LOWEL - perhaps for the Swaybacks community you should pull away the vail and explain that you are in our same state competitively selling blanks against us.
Upmost respect for Marko Foam and the Peterson family but someone should be able to plug an alternative on this forum when they are complaining with problems about contacting a certain vendor.
This shaper put their heaviest footed team rider on GP Foam blanks for a whole season to compare, and he shapes/glasses over 100 blanks a year for the feedback on off-gassing. Multiple other shapers doing 50ish board a year agree with both density and specifically off-gassing.
@lemat that response was to Lowel.
We mill a lot of 1# for the guys building foil (wing and downwind). They typically wrap in carbon for those lighter densities.
@ShaperSupplyCo are the gp blanks molded?
Of course, the fact that you (Florian) sell GP blanks means that you are not biased. But OSS1 (McD) is? LOL
No - hotwired from block foam. Molded may be what causes the off-gassing issue but would need to ask that to an eps chemist.
As far as we know there is only one company in the US providing truly molded blanks so it’s difficult to single out that all molded blanks cause more off-gassing issues.
After hot-wiring thousands of blanks, it is easy to draw the thought that manufacturing blanks in a mold is more of a benefit to improve blank production time. It is extremely time consuming to hotwire a blank that is clean & smooth enough for cnc machining.
The difference here is that we are posting from an account with our business name vs a person with a competitive business directly in our region posting with an obscure handle (Oss1) and not even stating who he is in his signature.
A reader can make go through this post and make their own conclusions, but if you are making contributions as a supplier/business owner you should state who you are so to create some transparency for the reader.
Historically, OSS1 posted as McDing. Most of us now know OSS1 is/was McDing.
Pretty much McDing made no secret of the products he sold in the past. All but new members would know that. He has also provided many useful technical pearls as well as secret sauce.
Further, in recent months you have taken issue with general complaint (no company name identified) posted on this forum.
Methinks thou dost protest too much…
The easy way to get in touch with Marko is to go to their website and find a distributor near your location. The distributor may have what you are looking for in stock. If not he may be able to work your order into his own deliveries and save you some money on shipping. I have shaped Insul Foam, US Blanks, Millennium and what used to be known as “White Hot” EPS. I was an early dealer for White Hot. I prefer Marko for tight cell structure and ease of shaping. They are a 3rd generation family owned company and were doing EPS long before they got into Surfboard Blanks. If their foam is good enough for Stretch; It’s good enough for me. Not interested in getting into a pissing match over who’s foam is best. I guesss I should have got permission from the Big Dog, before I stated my opinion. I prefer Poly.
I am only a longtime hobby shaper, 33 years since the first one this year. I used all kind of foam eps, xps, pu from many brands.
Molded eps was good quality every time i use them but cost too much (imported here). Block (localy made) i buy are less steady in density and homogeneity from block to block (like pu blanks) but never a real problem for me.
More i go more i think that off gassing mostly come from how much air (density, ball packing and temp dependent) is trap between balls when you closed foam. Boards build (foam closed) hot days are far less temp sensible than those buid in winter. I have friend that have off gasing problems, he let board in car, i put valves on his boards. He don’t think open screw, so i put board in hot box (+/- 45°C) close vent hot, no temp problems after. That’s a windsurfer trick.
Off-gassing is one of my favorite board builder concepts.
Foam has air/gas in it.
Gases expand and contract with increases and decreases of temperature, respectively. If sealed in an air tight container (e.g. surfboard), gas pressure increases or decreases respectively.
The “gas laws” of physics…
Yes and eps is closed cell foam (ball) that increase and decrease with temp allow more or less air in move in foam space between balls.
The off-gassing problems the shapers/glassers were complaining about were specific to manufacturing, not after-care.
Most noticeably, excessive bubbling while installing futures boxes. To help mitigate this, they would have to let blanks sit for a day or two after they are shaped which was slowing down production. They also complained about excessive fumes and having to wear a vapor respirator while shaping / finish-sanding multiple boards per day. This was also due to off-gassing.
All EPS is molded, whether it is molded in a large block or molded into a small individual blank. And “surfboard specific eps” just doesn’t have added fire retardants used in other types of construction.
Yeah they dont have distributors in el salvador unfortunately
That’s a tough one. Try contacting them directly via email . Even here in the U S they are hard to reach at the company #. Direct your email to Ty@markofoam.com. I’m sure he will get back to you.
And for everyone else I remind you that Trolls live under bridges.