Biz Briefs: The Hole In the Pipeline

On Dec. 5, known as Blank Monday in the surfing world, the $4.5 billion industry's core snapped like a board caught in the Banzai Pipeline. Reason? The closure of Gordon (Grubby) Clark's four-decade virtual monopoly on polyurethane blanks, the raw material for most surfboards. (Shapers then customize them for surfers.) Clark's Laguna Niguel, Calif., company produced 80% of blanks worldwide, and his sudden exit (encircled by rumors of pressure by environmental regulators) left surfers treading water as board prices doubled and deliveries were cut off. One man's wipeout, though, could be another's dream wave. Harold Walker, a 47-year industry veteran with 5% to 10% of the California market, and Gary Linden have quadrupled Walker Foam's staff and are scouting for a new factory, hoping to produce 800 blanks a day by July, up from 125 now. But high-volume surfboardmakers, who can buy foam from Australia, China and Brazil, need big orders filled fast, leaving an opening for new competitors. Todd Proctor, who has patented a surfboardmaking process using Kevlar and epoxy resin, says demand is up sevenfold, and he has attracted venture capital to purchase Clark's distribution channel. SurfTech, the largest maker of epoxy boards, reports that business has doubled. Insiders say the search for new materials could mark a technological turning point, similar to an earlier move away from balsa wood toward polyurethane. "It will be the biggest shift in 40 years," says board-shaping icon Eric Arakawa.