Sunny Trinh '92/93 often does "research" for his surfboard company 9:Fish on Southern California beaches.

A rogue wave could not have been more disarming than the sudden departure of surfboard industry leader Clark Foam, formerly of Laguna Niguel, Calif. The company had dominated the market since the 1960s with its foam surfboard blanks that shapers cut, sanded and painted to make custom surfboards. Before Clark, surfboards were made of balsa wood and carved by hand. Foam—lighter, stronger, more flexible and more durable than wood—became the material of choice for customers worldwide. Soon 90 percent of all surfboards were made with it. But the manufacturing process uses the toxic chemical toulene diisocyanate, the particles of which can cause lung problems. Clark Foam closed unexpectedly in 2005 with the owner citing mounting environmental agency pressure as the reason. With the source of most surfboard blanks now gone, prices skyrocketed and surfers, surfboard manufacturers and resellers alike were in a panic.

Sunny Trinh ’92/93 and his friend, Wes Negus, both inter-mediate surfers, began sharing ideas about what two engineers (Negus’ degree is from UCLA) could offer the surfing market.

“People like me want to emulate the pros, but we’re not that good, or that in shape, and we don’t surf every single day like the pros do,” says Sunny, who took up surfing after graduating from HMC. “Also surfboard shapes are usually created based on people’s intuition and experience in the water. Most surfers don’t have engineering degrees or backgrounds, so they shape it, try it out, tweak it. It’s more trial and error.” Trinh and Negus believed they could use their expertise to more precisely engineer boards that make it easy for intermediate surfers to catch waves.

During a 10-week sabbatical from his job as an engineering manager at Arrow Electronics in Woodland Hills, Calif., Trinh researched financing, marketing, importing and legal matters for their new business. He says his Mudd background helped. “Mudd teaches you how to be resourceful and do a lot of these things.”

Negus and Trinh came up with two prototypes (the 7'4" Hammerhead and the 6'2" Seared Ahi), had the boards made in China, and tested them locally and in Hawaii. Trinh says their designs are based on the basic engineering principles of fluid dynamics and mechanics. “We’re not going to do crazy tricks and maneuvers like pros can, and pros probably won’t use our boards, but it addresses 70 percent of the market.”

Their surfboards fall into the category of “fish” boards (there are also shortboards, longboards and guns), which are similar to shortboards in length (5'8" to 6'10") but slightly wider—a shape that helps surfers skim the water with minimal drag and optimal speed. Because their boards are thicker, surfers find it easy to paddle and catch waves, and, because the boards are shorter, they turn well. Their Grunion and Seared Ahi models get “crazy speed” due to a quad fin setup that is stable and has minimal drag. In addition to surfboards, the company sells the Bag-A-Rack (patent pending), a travel bag and roof rack combination.

The company name, 9:Fish, Trinh explains, comes from the Chinese cultural belief that nine fish symbolize good fortune. “Hopefully it’s symbolic of good waves, good times and good fortune for our company,” says Trinh.

Even though 9:Fish is just over one year old, Trinh says the company is profitable, and its boards can be found around the world, including New Zealand, Italy and Finland. Trinh says they are currently working with a dealer in Taiwan. In addition to popular coastal cities, their U.S. customers can be found in the Great Lakes and even Texas, Alabama, Michigan and Ohio. “Our boards are made to catch waves really easily, and in these places, the wave quality is very poor, not like Hawaii or California where we have consistent, clean waves. We have a nice little niche.”

Neither Trinh nor Negus, a design engineer at Harmon International, have quit their day jobs or plan to soon. “Since everything is virtual, it’s very doable,” says Trinh of balancing the two jobs. “Every night I’m on the computer. We outsource pretty much everything. Our surfboards are manufactured in China. A third party takes care of warehousing and importing the boards to the U.S. and shipping them out as soon as we place an order. We do everything by e-mail and phone calls.”

Trinh, who is the partner in charge of the finances—Negus handles operations—says running 9:Fish doesn’t feel like work, especially when he can surf twice a week. “It was exciting to take the leap,” he says of the decision to start the company. “I actually had no fears. Worse comes to worse, we’ve put a little seed money into it, and that’s about all we’d lose. At the same time, we’ve gained a ton of experience, had a lot of fun with it because it’s a passion of ours, and really enjoyed it.”

Trinh and Negus are maneuvering the sometimes cliquish surfboard industry with strategies that they hope will get them noticed. In addition to advertising in trade magazines, on YouTube (www.youtube.com/results?search_query=9+fish+surfboard) and surfing websites like Surfline, they take advantage of trade shows and special events like Doo Dah Surf Day held annually at Sunset Beach in Pacific Palisades. People are recruited to demo their boards, including members of HMC’s Surf Club and engineering faculty member Sarah Harris. Trinh also tries out new designs regularly.

This fall, he’ll be enlisting an Engineering Clinic team to investigate new materials for surfboards. There is still the issue of the chemicals used to make the current foam that Trinh would like to see resolved.” It would be great to come up with an environmentally friendly alternative,” he says.

Trinh believes the sky’s the limit if 9:Fish takes off. The action sports market is a $600 billion industry. He muses, “If we were to get 1/100th of a percent of that…”

In surfing terms, they’d be stoked.