A California company says it's ramping up to fill the void left by the shutdown earlier this week of Clark Foam, the world's biggest producer of foam cores used in making surfboards.

Wilmington, Calif.-based Walker Foam Inc., a small competitor of Clark's, said it began producing foam cores at a Chinese plant two weeks ago and within two months could be manufacturing about 1,000 a day, or close to the number Clark was making.

"We should be in full production in two months and be able to provide the needs of the industry," said Gary Linden, Walker's general manager.

If Walker Foam can match the demand for foam cores within a few months, it will bring relief to surfers who had feared Clark's shutdown would lead to a shortage of boards and a rise in prices.

"We're inclined to believe they (Walker) will be able to do that," said Sean Smith, executive director of the Surf Industry Manufacturers Association.

Three out of every four surfboards sold in the U.S. is built with a polyurethane foam core, known as a blank, that is sculpted by a shaper and then covered with a protective fiberglass and resin shell. Clark accounted for 90 percent of the boards made with polyurethane, Smith said.

Walker produced 100 blanks at its Chinese plant last week, plans to increase that number to 700 weekly by around the end of this month and be up to 1,000 per day in two months, Linden said. Clark was producing about 1,000 a day, according to Linden.

"I'm trying to get through this week and comfort everybody," said Linden, who also owns Linden Surfboards in Oceanside, Calif. He added that he has been inundated by calls from surfboard makers following Clark's closure.

Clark's founder and owner Gordon "Grubby" Clark said in a seven-page letter to customers Monday that he was ceasing production because his use of toxic chemicals led to ongoing problems with the Environmental Protection Agency and other regulators.

Clark's shutdown sent shockwaves through Hawai'i's storied surfboard industry that boasts some of the trade's top craftsmen in the world. Even with Walker's plans to ramp up production, many surfboard shapers are scurrying to secure enough blanks to last the next couple months.

"This is like an atomic bomb," said Eric Arakawa, a premier Hawai'i shaper. "Some will survive and some won't."

Arakawa, who shapes for Hawaiian Island Creations and Town & Country Surf, is among the fortunate in Hawai'i because he gets blanks from Australian manufacturers. Just the same, Arakawa is jetting to Australia on Tuesday to reinforce the relationship with his suppliers.

Others who don't have established relationships with Australian foam companies may be out of luck for the next few months because the factories are already operating at capacity, several shapers said.

For now, surfboard makers are carefully watching their remaining blanks.

"It's kind of like the Nevil Shute novel 'On the Beach,' " said David Parmenter, a Makaha-based shaper and writer. "The bombs have gone off and now there are pockets of survivors in remote locations waiting for the winds to bring radiation."

Figures on the size of the Hawai'i's surfboard-making business are difficult to come buy. The Surf Industry Manufacturers Association estimates U.S. surfboard sales totaled $200 million at stores last year. Estimates on how many people are employed in the business in Hawai'i range from several hundred to more than a thousand.

Yesterday about five of those workers sat idle while their employer, ResinWorks, waited for a decision from Al Merrick of Santa Barbara, Calif. ResinWorks, a Kane'ohe-based glassing shop, makes boards for Merrick. J.C. Kinsler, ResinWorks owner, said Merrick wanted to wait to see what happened with prices before they produced more.

Some Mainland shops marked up prices of boards by $100 after Clark shut down. Boards usually sell for about $500 to $1,000. Kinsler said Merrick didn't want his boards marked up.

A check of three O'ahu surfboard shops yesterday found prices had yet to increase, though there had been more people buying up available inventory.

Smith, of the surf industry association, said surfboards typically have carried small margins with manufacturers, with maybe $100 being divided up between the shaper, an airbrush artist, fiberglass laminator, hot-coat resin specialist and sander.

"There's going to be some fallout, hopefully it won't be as large as initially thought," said Smith, who was visiting O'ahu's North Shore.

Parmenter said he is worried small shapers such as his own Aleutian Juice label may suffer in the future because much of the production these days is geared toward large surfboard companies that employ computerized shaping machines to do much of the initial work.

In doing so the industry may lose some of the small board makers that have been responsible for much of the innovation in board design, Parmenter said.

Said Honolulu shaper Keoki Ching: "There's a lot of guys in the industry who are saying, 'You know, let's go back to our old jobs.' "

Reach Greg Wiles at gwiles@honoluluadvertiser.com.