Corky's Column

The golden years of foam

Surfersvillage Global Surf News, 16 November, 2008 : - - In these days of amazing technological breakthroughs all over the place, which includes the surfboard industry, it is easy to forget some of the major innovations of the past that brought us to where we are today. Kinda like the car. One of those brought me to where I am today. 

I am so glad that we have those because my old back could not deal with having to ride a horse around all the time. Plus the shoveling of hay and cleaning up all the horse poo poos. Yuck. The car was a great idea. Now the challenge is to come up with one that is better and safer and does not eat up the atmosphere. Yet no matter how great a car they come up with there will still be the ’57 Chevy shining in infamy.

Surfboards are kinda the same thing. At first they were big ol’ cut down tree trunks. Then they figured out balsawood and fiberglass. But the single most important breakthrough in the history of surfboards was the invention of the polyurethane foam and fiberglass board. The lightweight foam board made the sport of surfing doable by just about anybody. 

Before that you had to be Superman, Heman, Batman or the Incredible Hulk just to carry the things down to the water.  If one hit you it was lights out. There were a couple of main players in the invention and development of the foam boards which took place in the late 1950’s. Hobie Alter and Gordon “Grubby” Clark. Hobie was the owner of Hobie Surfboards in Dana Point and would go on to become the largest and most innovative surfboard builder on the planet during the 1960’s. 

Grubby worked with Hobie and between them developed the first foam surfboards on the market. Seeing that foam was going to become a huge market for surfboard builders Grubby went into business for himself and opened up CLARK FOAM. This company became the far and away main source of surfboard foam from the time they opened the doors to the time that they closed them a few years back. 

Grubby was responsible for making and delivering almost all of the foam blanks in the United States, and also a majority of them overseas, for well over forty years. It is safe to say that he had a virtual monopoly on the surfboard foam business. Grubby was a surfer as well as a businessman. That is why he continued to develop better molds to comply with the needs of the surfboard shapers as styles of boards changed. 

Clark Foam not only had the stuff but they had the “good” stuff. He always made sure that the product was top quality and always evolving with the sport. One of the great surf jobs was driving the delivery truck that went up and down the coast taking fresh blanks to all the hungry surfboard shapers. A good friend of mine named Daryl “the Doggie” Diamond was the west coast delivery dude for years and years. 

It was me that originally gave him the name “Doggie.” He was the perfect surf dog.  And it fit well with the two D’s in his name. Doggie used to stash his board in the delivery truck and hit all the good surf spots up and down the coast as he delivered the blanks. He would hang with the different shapers and always time his delivery hours according to swell directions and wind conditions. 

What reminded me of this is my pal Allan Seymour. Allan has the rights to make the classic green long-sleeved Clark Foam Christmas shirts. The Christmas shirt was a yearly gift from Grubby to each of the surfboard shapers who used his foam. Nobody else got them. Not top surfers or magazine guys or anybody else. They were not for sale.  It was really a cool and exclusive thing to have one of these puppies.  Doggie used to be the dude who got to give out the shirts.

When Grubby shut the doors that was the end of the Golden Years of Foam. Today there are still foam boards but more and more new materials are being used and new technology is being developed everyday. The Christmas shirt is now available in a limited edition and makes a great gift for a surfer. Contact Allan Seymour at allan@classicsurf.com for information.

Now I am gonna toss my foam surfboard in the back of my car and head out to find some waves. If I had to lug the tree trunk down to the beach on the back of a horse I would stay home and watch football instead.

www.corkycarroll.com

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Corky Carroll

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