Clark Foam

Clark Foam was a Californian company that manufactured surfboard blanks — foam slabs, reinforced with one or more wooden strips or "stringers" — cast in the rough shape of a surfboard and used by surfboard shapers to create finished surfboards. He surfed on heavy redwood surfboards in the 1940s and 1950s. At age 19, Clark worked for Tom Blake, a legendary figure who invented the surfboard fin. Clark graduated from Pomona College in 1957 with a B. S. in engineering, They released the first foam core board to hit the market in June, 1958. Clark was soon manufacturing 250 blanks a week for Alter.

In 1961, Clark set up his own company, Clark Foam. Originally located in Laguna Canyon, it later moved to Laguna Niguel. Clark introduced a number of innovations in the production of surfboard blanks, including the use of steel reinforced cement molds, hydraulic glue presses, hot coating, and the use of computers in the manufacturing process. Clark's catalogue eventually offered customers more than 70 shapes of blanks, in 8 densities, incorporating 4 different woods for stringers. Customers could choose from a library of 5,000 rocker templates.

On December 5, 2005, Gordon Clark abruptly shut down Clark Foam, then worth about $40 million, and began destroying his molds and equipment, citing difficulties with government regulatory agencies over the chemicals and equipment he used and claims filed against him by former employees. The abrupt closing of Clark Foam sent shockwaves through the industry and left surfboard shapers scrambling for new suppliers. Since Clark Foam closed, surfboard manufacturing has turned to new and innovative materials, such as carbon fiber reinforced polymer, hollow blanks, and new "flex" materials used by other various companies.