Sport Today

Tue Feb 14, 2006 12:27 AM ET

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A material developed to protect electronics
in nuclear weapons could resolve a shortage after the major supplier of
surfboard foam suddenly closed its doors late last year, officials said
on Monday.
Surfers worldwide reacted with shock and prices shot up in December
after the southern California company that invented the foam and
fiberglass process used in most surfboards went out of business. Its
owner, Gordon Clark, was apparently tired of fighting environmental
regulators over the foam blanks that he supplied to surfboard shapers
worldwide.

Reading about that crisis in the world of surfing got Leroy Whinnery
thinking. A polymer chemist at the Sandia National Laboratories, a
national security lab in Livermore, California, he had been working on
a foam material to protect the electronics in nuclear missiles.

"I read in the paper about the surfboard foam core manufacturer closing
his doors and thought that this foam that I had been working on, if we
could get it to lower density, could be relevant and help the surfing
community," he said.

The problem with the old surfboard foam was the presence of a toxic
chemical called TDI. The Sandia material, which they call TufFoam, does
not contain TDI.

Whinnery said he has made a mini two-foot long surfboard with the
material, and the lab -- which is operated by a Lockheed Martin Corp.
for the U.S. Department of Energy -- is now trying to license the
technology.

If surfboard makers are interested, the proceeds could even ultimately
help national security, a lab official said.

"Essentially the taxpayer gets a return on the investment. When we get
licensing revenue in, that gets pumped right back into additional
research that the lab does," said Scott Vaupen, a Sandia business
associate.

True story.

Have you seen the bottle vending machines that drop glass bottles from the
top row down into a chute and you pick up your bottle down at the bottom of
the machine?

Snapple was the first company to make widespread use of them but now they
are all over. The concept of a "glass bottle drop" vending machine was only
made possible when someone used a product developed by NASA to cushion
Astronauts and their equipment. Other products were tried but none worked.

And yes, the hardest slots to keep in stock on a bottle drop vendor are the
top rows. Everyone wants to see a bottle break. Like going to a NASCAR race
to watch the crashes I guess....

Glenn

The interesting thing is what the foam is used for.   I asked him about
the foams properties, here's what he told me:

"The stuff is called Tuff-foam and is typically used for encapsulating
"sensitive" parts in "systems".   I guess a couple of the big
advantages are
that it's a close-cell foam which means it's much less likely to absorb

water if there is a break in the glass shell and it doesn't use some of

the
seriously *** chemicals that are used for traditional foam."

I love the euphamism for missles and ordinance, sad all these smart
guys workin' on missles.

-Tim

He holds grudges against some long time big name shapers that signed
licensing agreements with Surftech...who wouldn't want to get $50-$100
per board and you didn't even have to personally shape it to have your
name on it?...

Every mold that he had, these were developed by numerous shapers over
decades, was destroyed under his command...

He depressed prices to thwart competition...some people think that he
could have been prosecuted for racketeering...

Doing business in Mexico is no piece of cake...
Walker Foam just found out that doing business in China is not a piece
o' cake, either...

He was swimming with sharks (lawyers)...several employees suing for
contracting cancer...

He owns a huge ranch in Oregon and likes to fish...at 76 how much time
do you think he has left?

There's a bunch of other reasons...some we know and some we don't...
Doesn't matter now...it's over...

Time to chill out and kick it...before it's too late...

p.s. Don't lose sleep on surfing's future...it's healthier than ever...
Surfers are amongst the most resourceful humans on the planet...

WARDOG
http://surfingsports.com