Clark Foam
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
Please help improve this article or section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. This article has been tagged since January 2007. |
Clark Foam, founded in 1961, was the premier manufacturer of surfboard blanks -- foam slabs, reinforced with one or more wooden strips or "stringers", which are cast in the rough shape of a surfboard. Company founder Gordon "Grubby" Clark settled on rigid polyurethane as the material for his blanks, and for decades his company exerted an essentially monopolistic control over the market[1].
On December 5, 2005, Clark abruptly shut down Clark Foam, citing burgeoning harassment by government regulatory agencies, although no known action was under way against him. Since Clark Foam shuttered, surfboard manufacturing has been inundated with new and innovative materials, such as carbon-fiber, hollow blanks by Salomon, and new "Flex" materials used by other various companies.
