"Things are going to be OK, but it's going to be a while," said Duke Edukas, co-owner of Surfside Sports, a Newport Beach surf shop.
For decades, Clark Foam, based in Laguna Niguel, supplied shapers with foam blanks. Blanks are the basic template from which surfboards are made. In a letter dated Dec. 5, the company's owner, Gordon "Grubby" Clark, informed shapers that he would stop making and selling blanks.
Clark Foam's blanks were made using a toxic chemical called toluene diisocyanate. Clark wrote that he could not continue business in the current climate of environmental regulations and that he feared the possibility of paying heavy fines or even doing time in prison. However, an Environmental Protection Agency spokesman said last week that Clark Foam's operations did not violate federal law.
Clark Foam was not the only company in the foam blank business. Blanks can be purchased from foreign suppliers as well as from a nearby company, Wilmington-based Walker Foam, local shapers said.
"We're going to depend on overseas," said Roger Baltierra, owner of Baltierra Custom Surfboards in Costa Mesa.
Baltierra said he did not rely exclusively on Clark Foam products and expects to weather the current situation. Greg Walters, manager of Cordell Surfboards in Costa Mesa, also expects other foam companies to fill the gap.
"It's going to be no big deal. There are other suppliers," Walters said.
Chalupnik said Clark Foam's absence from the marketplace creates an opportunity for smaller foam companies.
For shapers, though, finding a new supplier is not a seamless transition.
