A-frame

Aaberg, Denny

Aaberg, Kemp

Abberton, Koby

Abbruzzi, Sid

Abellira, Reno

Abubo, Megan

academia and surfing

Adler, Tom

advertising and surfing

Aeder, Erik

aerial

Aguerre, Fernando

Aichner, Scott

Aikau, Clyde

Aikau, Eddie

Aipa, Ben

air-drop

airbrush

Airshow

Ala Moana

Alabama

alaia board

Alaska

alcohol and surfing

Alexander, Kala

Alexandre, João (Dapin)

Allen, Chuck

Alms, Paige

aloha shirt

Alter, Hobie

Alvarez, Pepe

Ancell, Kevin

Andaman Islands

Andersen, Lisa

Anderson, Craig

Anderson, Simon

Andino, Kolohe

Angel, Jose

angle

Angola

Angourie

Antarctica

Apocalypse Now

Arabian Sea

Aragon, Janice

Arakawa, Eric

Archbold, Matt

Arena, Eduardo

Ashton, Juan

Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP)

Atlantic Ocean

August, Robert

Aurness, Rolf

Auster, Ken

Australia

Avalon, Frankie

Azores

backdoor

backside

backside attack, Pipeline

backwash

bail out

Bain, Rob

Baja California

Baker, Bernie

Baker, Grant “Twiggy”

Baker, Tim

Bali

Ball, John “Doc”

Ballard, Bill

Ballard, Rochelle

balsa

Baltic Sea

Banks, Jim

Barbados

Barilotti, Steve

Barland, Michel

Barreda, Sergio “Gordo”

Barry, Michael

Bartholomew, Wayne

Baxter, Jackie

Bay of Bengal

Beach Boys, The

Beacham, Debbie

beachboys

beachbreak

Beachcomber Bills Grand Prix

Beachley, Layne

beavertail

Becker, Phil

Bedford-Brown, Stuart

Belgium

Bells Beach

Bendall, Ma and Pa

Bennett, Barry

Benson, Becky

Benson, Blanche

Benson, Linda

Bermuda

On December 5, 2005, Gordon "Grubby" Clark, owner of monolithic surfboard blank manufacturer Clark Foam, abruptly shut the doors of his Laguna Beach, California factory, throwing the surfboard industry into a panic. At the time of closure, at was estimated that Clark Foam was producing 90% of the polyurethane foam blanks—the core of the modern surfboard—in the U.S. market, and 60% of blanks used internationally; the factory pumped out more than 1,000 blanks a day, seven days a week.

Clark warned nobody of his plans to shutter his business. He dropped his bomb on the surf world by faxing a seven-page letter to his surfboard shaping customers the day he shut things down, who immediately began to hoard any Clark Foam blanks they had in inventory. Overnight, surfboard prices doubled.

Clark never fully explained why he shuttered his business without warning. In his fax, he talked in vague terms about problems with OSHA and the EPA, but at the time of closure there were no Clark-related issues pending with either regulatory group. Clark had also recently returned from a trip to China to examine their rapidly expanding surfboard building factories, and was said to be convinced that inexpensive Chinese imports were about to take over worldwide surfboard market. Essentially, it's long been assumed that Clark threw in the towel rather than battle against the foreign market, or update his own operation, which was as secretive and quirky as it was huge.

Reasoning aside, Clark had his staff destroy much of the factory's equipment, leaving shapers to try and salvage favorite concrete-mold templates out of the rubble. Clark, whose reputation in the surf world had always been half autocrat, half likable outlaw, plunged to the depths. "My gripe isn't Grubby quitting, but how he did it," said San Diego shaper Tim Bessell. "All he needed to do to be a hero was give three months notice."

In its issue immediately following Clark's shutdown, 

 ran a stark cover with two Clark Foam blanks against a black background under the simple heading "This Changes Everything." Another 

 article says that the closure "could be the surfboard industry's H-bomb." In August 2006, 

published William Finnegan's feature on Clark's closing; the piece was called "Blank Monday," a play on "Black Monday"—the event that marked the start of the Wall Street crash of 1929. Yet despite the initial panic, followed by a trend for experimenting with new boardmaking materials, the Clark shutdown didn't much change things. Polyurethane foam is still the core material for virtually all high-performance boards. U.S. Blanks, currently the largest domestic blank manufacturer, is staffed by many ex-Clark employees.

Blank Monday

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Encyclopedia of Surfing

History of Surfing

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Encyclopedia of Surfing

History of Surfing

Interviews

Features