Walker says and I quote "we welcome one competitor but they must be small because we are taking over but we don’t want to create another monopoly in the foam industry we don’t want to fail and create another blank crisis, then you go on to say, but you’de better stay small and don’t mess with us ,sounds like Walker is replicating Clarks business practices? Seems rather hypocritical to us ,your competition who will not be intimidated by any means. By the way who are you to say what other competitors can and can’t do, sounds somewhat threatining but most off all ridiculous. Well we here at no name forwarded have it going on and only time will tell what happens, but we have a pretty good idea of what the outcome will be. Are you guys for real you contradict yourself in your business approach to this market and alot of us in the business don’t understand your intentions. Can you elaborate? Did the foam gods have a meeting and pass a law giving you sole rights to the kingdom of surfboard blanks with some kind of unwarranted supremecy over the rest of us. Good luck in your venture, we’ll be a few steps ahead of you before you can say what happened we thought we had a stronghold on all you damn surfers. China don’t surf but we do!
I don’t believe he said it and if he did…so what. The purpose of being in business is to be the best and it’s usually right over the back or at the expense of your competitors. Some purposely walk over their competition others are simply so much better the results are the same. Someone will pull out in front or maybe there will be so many in a cottage industry that no one makes enough money and that part of the industry goes away. We will sure find out about April. Possibly as soon as the end of Feb. There is still alot of inventory in shops right now.
Mostly whats been going on with regards to foam, Clark and Walker is a whole lot of talk.
I believe you need to read it again after your second cup of coffee and enjoy the sarcastic humor in that sentence. the guy was makin a funny and knows that there`s no way they will ever reach clarks production schedule anytime soon the markets wide open and its unlikely that another local manufacturer is even close to filling the void. personelly im rooting for walker 1st then the aussies just because of their the good sense of humor
Jbones,
I was not being overly serious. Thats just what I think. I am rooting for the first person to make a good product that takes care of their customers. I like Aussie foam as well. I get boards from Mccoy and the Burford holds up nice.
I got word yesterday from a local shaper who has been using Walker for a # of years; Walkers’ production of 40 blanks a day is now up to 140. Not a bad increase for two months after Clark’s shutdown. But at a purported production of 1000 plus per day at Clark, Walker has a long way to go and will in all likly-hood never meet those #'s. Way down the road under the leadership of someone like Linden, with a new factory out in the desert, 2 or 3 years from now----- maybe. In the mean time Aus, Brazil etc either have blanks on the way or will have soon. The solution to this Clark short-fall will come from a # of sorces, including EPS.
I got word yesterday from a local shaper who has been using Walker for a # of years; Walkers’ production of 40 blanks a day is now up to 140. Not a bad increase for two months after Clark’s shutdown. But at a purported production of 1000 plus per day at Clark, Walker has a long way to go and will in all likly-hood never meet those #'s. Way down the road under the leadership of someone like Linden, with a new factory out in the desert, 2 or 3 years from now----- maybe. In the mean time Aus, Brazil etc either have blanks on the way or will have soon. The solution to this Clark short-fall will come from a # of sorces, including EPS.
Some good points and I would bet there will be only a very small number of urethane foam providers who make it through the “blood in the water” period of present. Since Clark made 90% of the blanks and its been published he had a $20 million dollar a year business, that will not make for a lot of room for a pack of competitors in this market considering about half the Clark number was material cost and a big chunk of the rest salaries and expenses. If there were big profits to be made, someone would have taken a bigger bite out of Grubbys chops long before this. But, there is profit to be made, none the less. Shapers are picky and don’t like products that add process time or are a downgrade in quality. A few urethane guys will get it right and the others will get caught short with inventory they cannot sell and bills coming due. There is word of a significant urethane blank plant being built right now in Florida – and that’s just one of several that are not even on the swaylocks radar screen. What we have today is a lot of talk, followed by promises to be followed by some pretty down right bold individuals rolling the dice big on popping out surfboard blanks at a profit. In a few months, there will be too little. After that, too much. The further a tide runs out, the higher it comes back in.
my apologies solosurfer didn`tmean to come off that way and i was trying to point out that the remark made by walker foam was not one to be taken seriously in its context .and it would also help if i clicked on the correct post befor answering.
as you say that the Chinese foam industry is willing to flood the surf market with cheap blanks, custom rocker, with equal density through out the blank. They will have an “Ancient Chinese Secret” formula that will emulate EPS + Epoxy bonding properties for the PU/ PE style. Their kung fu will be strong. The stringers will be as accurate as a 12 year old can get it down. Their marketing teams will wear euro style shades without ear holders and will wear long black gothic trench coats and run around in groups of two. They will use cell phones with pop out voice and hands free aero floating capacity.
They will provide 10 to the power of Clark production, all the while constructing their moon base with a “laser” and one of the grinning Mr. Wongs or Feungs, will dub it “Def-Star” and have Hong Kong Cinema actor with his Korean actress with bolt ons larger than Japanese anime wimin in a Mos-Def rap arms folded gangsta lean painted on one side. They will build vast armies, great ships, and an airforce that rivals all the bird flocks the world has seen . . . that would make the Ex Soviet military power look like toy soldiers, all the while singing William Heung’s rendition of “She Bangs! She Bangs!” while throwing chopsticks into a poster of Simon.
They will open the “Dragon Breath market” and it will make NASDAQ seem like a 12 year old freckle faced kid with a frog in his pocket’s piggy bank. They will design super user friendly software that will make Bill Gates go point dexter in the face of the Han Dolomite Dynasty I Ching I (version one for WEstern European versioning). They will have features that do not force you to click START to shutdown. And instead of saying IE has experienced and error and must shut down, do you wish to send error report? No the Great Wall of Chin web browser will show you in Chinese Simplified (see cantonese and mandarin can’t speak to each other but they can write to each other), exactly how to fix the problem and if you can’t how to resolve it.
Nay, the nation that once was though to produce flashy martial ways, good food (dog excluded, since the new China markets to Americans who are dog luvers), fortune cookies will enjoy the fortune and fruits of the labors.
They will clean their polluted waters and lands, then seeks to put their Clark Exponential factors on other lands, where they were once clean, but now will enjoy.
Their government will be a strange mix of Iron Hand Emperor Dictatorship, but put on the capitalistic face of freedom and enterprise, all the while following closely Sun Tzu’s thoughts. And unlike the Prime Directive, they will certainly wish to interfere with your world, while bringing order as they see it.
The Dragon will fry the Cobra and Chinamen will be the ones to eat the Frenchman’s sandwich. They will delight in the English language, for its use in science and measurements. But writing and speaking will the theirs. And yes you can panic. YOu can’t kill art, but China can if they wish too. The red and gold star ships will fold deep space and touch the newborn stars. And history will be rewritten. None of this matters.
But perhaps the solution can be in the Birth of Chin. Or China. Some refer it as Qin. During the warring states, the legend goes the Emperor of Qin, seen as the unifier of the state you see now wanted to bring 7 warring states in the land of China together . . . an assassin had come to the point of slaying the Emperor . . . but realized the goal of the Emperor was to unite them all. Though there would be great upheaval, the lasting peace would establish a sembelance of order . . . Despite it all the Hero had a choice. He could kill the emperor (China today would have had a vastly different history, and perhaps not be in the contingency of world powerage) or let him live and bring the order at the cost of his own life.
He alone could affect his world and the world of others. His story tells that everyone has that choice. Only one small competitor. Only one small Hero.
This is China Town boy, it can be very easy or it can be very hard
Year of the Dragon
ah yes wise hiro, you are the true zen master whose knowledge and ancent wisdom knows no boundries. only you can lead us to victory angainst the hunglows, hungfats,and hunglongs with their dragon and crane style of foam blowing and their monkey style of glassing.yes only you can lead us for i am not worthy and not ready to snatch the bar of wax from your hand.i bow before you great and wise master
Walker foam also said in a press release in december that they were in china for 6 months, now trying to ramp up production after december 5th, ‘buying the warehouse nextdoor to theirs’. At the SIMA meeting at the ASR in SD they said that they weren’t ramping up production in china. Joe Boyle (walker sales manager, harold walker’s son) told a close personal friend of mine at the ASR that they weren’t in china for 6 months prior to the closing of clark foam, that that was just rumored, despite his company’s public disclosure of them being in china 6 months prior. These guys make no sense. Why all the hiding of information, or issuance of false information? Walker’s public statements conflict. When are we really going to hear the truth? Shapers, as paying customers, deserve the truth. What foam will you choose as a shaper???
ah yes wise hiro, you are the true zen master whose knowledge and ancent wisdom knows no boundries. only you can lead us to victory angainst the hunglows, hungfats,and hunglongs with their dragon and crane style of foam blowing and their monkey style of glassing.yes only you can lead us for i am not worthy and not ready to snatch the bar of wax from your hand.i bow before you great and wise master
Good one. I take it you like my Year of the Dragon (bad eighties movie) quote.
When are we really going to hear the truth? Shapers, as paying customers, deserve the truth. What foam will you choose as a shaper???
This is not meant to be rude or an attack…but honestly cutomers deserve to know nothing about the inner workings of Walker. They will be able to make a choice at some point, to do business or not. If they get the opportunity.
Hippo! -------------Are you sure you’re not Ambrose in Drag? Mcding
I’m calling you on it since the cops are all doped up somewhere.
Please drop the rhetoric or we’re faced with another giant waste of time being here w/ you.
Hi Skip -
Looks like a little house cleaning was in order! (bradbomengen is outta here)
thanks much better now
DMC Foam is the florida urethane plant going into production right now. DMC Foam has a 10,000 sqr ft facility where the production is going on as we speak. BLanks will be flying out the door shortly. And-prices will be similar to Clark prices. Visit www.dmcfoam.com for more info
good the more companys out there the better off we are isn’t capitalism great
DMC Foam is the florida urethane plant going into production right now. DMC Foam has a 10,000 sqr ft facility where the production is going on as we speak. BLanks will be flying out the door shortly. And-prices will be similar to Clark prices. Visit www.dmcfoam.com for more info
This may be true, but there is going to be some glitches along the way. Murphy’s law. The skill in the new market will be to those shapers who can find foam to fit their needs consistently or even have more than one source. It’s going to be an interesting couple of years.