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84 [ 3 ] Foam Futures evolution of tHe modern surfBoard industry EARLY SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA SHAPERS continued to experiment with different designs and materials: composite constructions, foam cores, dual keels, concave planing hulls, and positioning of skegs. Surfboard making began to turn away from the use of timber altogether. There were a number of reasons for this. First, supplies of quality balsa wood dried up dramatically. Balsa was grown commercially only in Central America, where enough rainfall and a tropical climate combined to create ideal growing conditions . Then in the early 1950s, growers in Ecuador, who supplied most of the balsa wood to surfboard makers through California distributor General Veneer and Australia’s Arthur Milner & Co., found a more lucrative market: the airline industry. Boeing and Lockheed both began using balsa wood to decorate the interior of their cabins and were accordingly supplied the lightest , highest-quality wood. Second, the rise in the popularity of surfing and the labor-intensive nature of shaping wooden boards made it difficult for shapers to keep pace with demand and therefore capitalize on the surf craze. Surfboard maker Phil Edwards recalled, We had been getting our surfboard blanks from Ecuador. . . . Two thirds of the board—about 35 pounds of it—was ending up in shavings on the floor. Time was involved, precious time when the surf was up and there were horrible moments when we would hover uncertainly over a board, knives poised in the air, looking first at the board and then at the open door where someone stood impatiently, saying, “Jeez, you guys. Come on! The surf is good.” And it was an expensive process.1 Foam Futures 85 Between the late 1940s and mid-1950s, a new foam material was being used in experimental surfboard making. Polystyrene or Styrofoam (a soft, open-celled material) was the first type of foam trialed in surfboard construction , around 1947—again by Bob Simmons, who had seen the foam used in the molding of radar domes. There were, however, major limitations to its use. When Styrofoam came in contact with polyester resin—used to seal the foam—it began to dissolve. In attempts to fix the problem, shapers placed glued-timber veneers over the top of the foam. If these “sandwich boards” were left in the sun, however, the glue bonding the Styrofoam to the wood veneer began to release. Many surfboards simply fell apart on the beach. Surfboard maker Dale Velzy explained the problems working with Styrofoam: I was working out of my mother’s garage at the time [1949]. I took this big block and chopped it down, cut a plan shape out of it, and shaped it. I cut it out with saws and then took rough sandpaper, almost gravel, to finish it up. It was terrible to work with because those phenolic beads just tear up so bad. But it came out pretty nice. Because of the heavy boat cloth we were using back then, I knew that I could cover up the rough surface—if I could figure out how to glass it.2 The board Velzy made was twelve feet long, two feet wide, and three inches thick. He had tried using polyester resin to seal the Styrofoam, but it wouldn’t stick properly. Instead, Velzy glassed the board with shellac, a liquid secreted by a scale insect and used by furniture makers in the early part of the twentieth century as a wood finish. Surfboard makers were on the search for more suitable foam. Whereas Styrofoam was unsuitable for surfboard making, a new type of polyurethane (PU) foam provided a solution to problems of dissolving cores, timber veneers, and unattractive glue marks. In contrast to Styrofoam, PU foam had a dense structure, and when combined with fiberglass and resin, the foam remained intact. Because the foam was liquefied, it required a method for casting it into solid molds. The first shaper credited with casting liquefied PU foam into molds long and wide enough for surfboard making was Laguna Beach local Hobart “Hobie” Alter. Like the other Southern California board makers operating in the early 1950s, Alter was troubled by the shortage of balsa wood. Although able to successfully cast the foam in smaller container-size portions, Alter could not find the correct chemical ratio to allow the liquid to be cast in the size required for surfboard making (at least ten feet long, three inches thick, and two feet wide). In tests [3.137.218.230] Project MUSE (2024-04-19...

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