Surf And Destroy (Old Business Models)

What do a countertop company and a surfboard company have in common? Both are run by Ken Trinder, whose novel anti-microbial countertop may soon be seen in hospitals.

A love of surfaces and materials motivates Ken Trinder, who runs both a countertop business, EOS, and a custom-made surfboard company, Shire. As Trinders countertops stand poised to enter new markets--a green product just hit Home Depot shelves, and he has hopes that an anti-microbial line will become a hospital fixture--he still finds time to let off steam by surfing and crafting custom boards (which can fetch up to thousands of dollars at auction).

FAST COMPANY: What is it about surfaces that gets you excited? Isnt that superficial of you?

KEN TRINDER: No, theres a creative element to both these concepts, making new proprietary types of countertops, and developing and handcrafting surfboards. They start as a hands-on process. There are things I do on the countertop side that tie back directly to things Ive learned making surfboards. Surfboards are made of resins, and the countertops have resins in them as well, so theres a tie-in there as far as understanding how those things work and react with each other. I know it sounds like those two things would be the most unrelated things in the world, but it all goes back to the same thing, the chemistry.

EOS has three countertop types, each of which is innovative in its own way.

We had the idea of making a new type of countertop that was polyester acrylic, and we took it upon ourselves to see if we could make it an inch-and-an-eighth thick all the way through. The typical thickness out there is a half-inch. But in the traditional half-inch thickness, you might have four or five hours of labor taking that half-inch sheet, cutting strips off it, and gluing up underneath it to have the illusion of it being an inch-and-a-half thick.

So you offer something thats thicker and more durable, but you save on labor costs.

In our industry, people always thought something with more product would make it more expensive. But it works out that we can do it in a way thats price competitive, when you factor in the labor savings.

Your second countertop is GEOS, a green product.

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Surf And Destroy (Old Business Models)