History of the Surfboard Production Industry

The first documentation of surfboards was in 1779 by Lieutenant James King of the Discovery.  He devoted two full pages in the ship’s log to a description of surfboard riding, as practiced by the locals at Kealakekua Bay on the Kona coast of the Big Island of Hawaii.  The Hawaiian commoners generally rode waves on wooden boards as long as 12 feet, while the chiefs rode boards up to 24 feet long.  Because of European contact, Hawaiian culture, including surfing, fell into decline for more than 150 years. 

 Around the turn of the 19^th century, surfboarding slowly made its way to the continental United States with the help of surfing legends such as George Freeth and Duke Kahanamoku.  Surfboards were mostly made of heavy and unwieldy redwoods and hardwoods with designs adapted from Hawaiian shapes to fit California conditions.

It wasn’t until the late 1950s that materials other than wood were used for surfboards.  One of the materials originally experimented with was Styrofoam.  Styrofoam worked very well in surfboards because it was much lighter than wood boards that were previously available.  Initial testing found that the Styrofoam had some major downfalls and therefore a different foam made of polyurethane was employed.  Polyurethane is compatible with polyester resin which allowed a fiberglass lamination and seal.

Two pioneers of the polyurethane industry were Hobie Alter and Gordon Clark.  They began working with polyurethane surfboards in Laguna Canyon, CA in 1958.  They perfected their design by molding their boards in two pieces, hen joining the halves with a wide stringer to impart width.  In 1961, Alter and Clark started Clark Foam which soon became the leader in surfboard blanks.  Clark Foam had a 90 percent monopoly on the market until December 5, 2005 when they shut their doors.  Clark cited harassment by government regulatory agencies for excessive air pollution emissions as a reason for closing Clark Foam, but no known action was under way against him. Since Clark Foam closed, many new and innovative materials have been tested for surfboards, including carbon-fiber, hollow blanks by Salomon, and new "Flex" materials used by other various companies.

Please visit our “Recent Headlines” link to learn more about the closing of Clark Foam and the new materials available!