Article: It's high tide for surfboard makers rushing to fill Clark Foam's void: market saturation, especially among foreign brands, has ripple effect on board prices.

Depending on who you talk to, the surfboard making industry is either drowning, holding on or ready to catch another big wave.

One thing that no one disputes: After Clark Foam shuttered its surfboard blank production facility in Laguna Niguel at the end of 2005, the industry changed.

When Clark, an international maker of the polyurethane blanks that make up the core of surfboards, unexpectedly shut down operations, it triggered a cataclysmic shift throughout the industry that is still being felt.

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"Clark had a legitimate monopoly and probably controlled 90 percent of the world market. When it pulled out, there was a worldwide panic," ...

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