The demise of the California company that makes hard foam surfboard blanks could be bad news for many surf shops -- and surfers.

ADVERTISEMENT

Clark Foam closed its doors abruptly in December, apparently because the owner, Grubby Clark, felt he could no longer cope with increasingly stringent federal and California environmental regulations. The factory's contents go on the auction block next week.

That leaves surfboard shops that make custom boards with no place to buy the blanks.

"What we're dealing with now is a guy who had a monopoly on the industry and now that's gone, and everybody's scrambling to find where they're gonna get boards from," John Brooks, a sales representative, told WFTV in central Florida. "But as long as there's surf and the ocean, there will be surf shops to sell surfboards."

Joe Armstrong, owner of Inlet Charley's Surf Shop in New Smyrna Beach, said he expects his shop will survive -- but he predicted that smaller stores will be in trouble.