I was just driving home this evening from sailboat racing, and i realized that i miss the letter that Mr. Clark used to send to customers every year about the end of the year…i don’t miss the prescription to the Surfer’s Journal that i don’t get anymore since he closed, i wondered why i got that from him because over the past 38 years of building surfboards here in Hawaii and back in New Smyrna Beach , Florida, my contribution to the surfboard industry has been about as important as one of the grains of sand on the beach at Pipe is to how that wave works! not very important. But i think that is one of the things that i miss about Gordon Clark, he treated me anyway like i really was important to this industry, I hope the best for you Mr. Clark, aloha
YUP !
Grub is a heck of a nice man !
He’s around…in the shadows…even here…H
I miss seeing the Clark Foam sign whenever I drive past the old building while visiting my parents. They still live in the house I grew up in, about 3-4 miles west of Clark Foam right off Crown Valley.
When I was 13, my next door neighbor and I built a halfpipe out of the plywood from the old “Laguna Niguel, Sea Country” billboard that used to be right next to the Clark Foam building. Nice of my mom to back up the Caprice Classic wagon behind Alpha Beta so we could load up the wood while nobody was looking. The ramp was the most kinked, rickety thing you’ve ever seen.
I always think of these things when I drive past Cabot Rd on Crown Valley. Man that area has changed.
Gordon always loved the underground garage shaper just as much as the guys who bought 10,000 blanks
per year. That’s why he infuriated most of the big companies by selling blanks to individuals at pretty much
the same price the bigs paid. He probably likes parts of swaylocks, and I hope he does visit now and then.
He gave me opportunities I’ll always appreciate, and I learned something every time I talked to him.
Mike
Cool story LanceM!!
I love those little tidbits of history. They somehow keep things kind of homey, familiar and personal, in a world that keeps getting more crowded and less personal all the time.
I agree with all the others here. Gordon always treated me with greater respect then I probably deserved and as far back as I can remember when I was virtually unknown to a wider audience he always made me feel important and significant. Even in the beginning when I was buying reject blanks with little clue as to where it was all headed some day.
It was like he knew … and treated you like a star, far in advance of it every happening and of course… regardless if it ever did. I am happy to count him as a friend.
Didn’t Clark foam blacklist you if you bought blanks from a competitor?
No.
He Knew I bought what was around and in my budget.
I was buying Southshore foam from Jerry Mowe ,at the same time I was buying foam from Gordon.
He knew…and never said much about it…H
Must be listening to too many rumors. I tried several Clark blanks in New Zealand, but I definitely didn’t like the consistency of the foam. Heard the service was very good though.
Hmmmmm…I always had to pay in full up front, No credit …no Net 30. Never made me feel special…kinda grubby.
Hey Deanbo, i don’t think i was ever on any of Mr. Clark’s lists, red or yellow , black or white, (isn’t that a little church diddy?)… I know that there’s a few real “characters”, or whatever you can call some of the personalities in the surfboard industry that can still be really annoying. … i’d like to make some colored lists myself once in awhile, my influence in the industry being what it is i’d just be wasting my crayolas, and i don’t have much of the big box left at my age…i just kind of think that i’d have wanted to treat some of these egos the same maybe…i just liked the man’s attitude… i’m smiling thinkin about it… danny