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WHO'S GONNA FILL IN THE BLANKS?
Surf Expo board builders conference looks for answers to foam shortage
(01/15) Ahhh, the lure of the trade show -- an amusement park to the 11-year-old shop grom in all of us. Boards, backpacks, babes, boobs, Brazilians, it's sensory over "brode."
The novelty wears off in about 6 minutes.
While Orlando's Surf Expo has long highlighted the cutting edge of youth culture -- so much so that they even brand entrants on their badges, separating the under-30 crowd from the geezers – this year was a little more serious. Suddenly, in the wake of the infamous Foam Depression, the surf industry had a real issue to address. The now defunct Clark Foam had supplied the industry with 250,000 to 300,000 polyurethane blanks per year.
On Friday, the Surf Industry Manufacturers Association (SIMA) held a board builders forum at the Orange County Convention Center to address the concerns of domestic surfboard producers. No babes in here. Just mustaches and old flip flops.
Bill Bahne, Chairman of the SIMA Board Builder Special Interest group attempted to put the crowd at ease. "In two months," he stated, "there will be plenty of blanks available. So we can all relax a little."
He then turned the microphone over to a host of blank manufactures to address the concerns of the assembled shapers. First to speak was Gary Linden, with over 30 years of shaping experience in Southern California, now operating Walker Foam. "What got us into this problem was complacency. We were going on 45 years with the same material. It's about time we look at some other material," said Linden.
He then described the week of December 16th as, the heaviest time of his life. "Answering the phone was like suicide prevention hotline," he said.
He went on to describe the capabilities of Walker Foam, in filling the "blank" spaces in the industry. In early September, Walker was producing 80-100 blanks per week. By February, they should be up to 1,000.
Other representatives from polyurethane foam producers followed Linden in describing their capabilities, such as Just Foam, from within California, as well as blowers from Brazil, Argentina, Australia, and South Africa, even Dow chemical.
Ariel Favole, of Argentina's Elova Foam, admitted that this was a blessing for his family business. "But in the end, it's going to help the industry by creating real competition. Five or 10 suppliers are good for everyone. "He also added that Evola'a process is more environmentally friendly. He and his brothers work with the foam themselves, and he doesn't want to work with poison.
The question and answer session was short. Very short, considering the controversial undercurrent.
"They didn't let the EPS (polystyrene and epoxy) manufacturers say anything," said Floridian Greg Loehr, who has been working with epoxy since the early 80's.
Now with Resin Research, he was displeased that the exchange of ideas still revolves around polyurethane foam.
"Everything that anyone said was 'we're going to.' No one said, 'we're doing.' He feels that with 100 EPS blank factories across the states and four in Central Florida alone, there's no reason for the American surfboard industry to ever run out of foam. The browning and overheating problems with epoxy surfboards are all history. "First Clark dominated. Now they won't let us say a word," he said.
Sean Smith felt the forum was to cover the immediate shortage of polyurethane foam. In 60 to 90 days, he feels SIMA will deal with the issue of polystyrene foam. "It's our responsibility to present all the options, to be supportive of all types of material. We're looking for more contacts with alternative material viable companies," said Smith.
In other words, despite some steps forward here in Orlando, it may still be a while before your shaper can answer the age-old question: "Hey, when is my board gonna be done?"
*(The Action Sports Retailer (ASR) tradeshow in San Diego, happening next weekend, is having a similar board forum about the foam shortage. Stay tuned for the full report.)
All photos: Jack Reynolds/Reynolds Photography, Surf City, NJ.
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Jon Coen
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