Clark Foam

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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]. Clark graduated from Claremont McKenna College in 1959.

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. However, there were several issues pending with the EPA, which Gordon "Grubby" Clark said was the reason for the abrupt shutdown of his company in a seven page fax^[1]. Since Clark Foam shuttered, surfboard manufacturing has been inundated with new and innovative materials, such as carbon-fiber, hollow blanks, and new "Flex" materials used by other various companies.