Bonzers

[axolotl]

Has anyone had any experience with bonzers? The design has always intrigued me so i'm thinking about getting one as a semi gun for fast sucky waves over 5ft.
Wondering about the pros and cons compared to a thruster.
Thanks

[mical]

Carroll explains on Surfline

Question:

Having surfed a Campbell brother bonzer bottom, 5-fin for a number of years, I wonder why don't I see more people riding them.

I have yet to surf a board with more drive through the turns. This was my sole board throughout 2 years in Australia, east and west. Is there a drawback I'm missing??


Jmo



Answer:

Surfline's Nick Carroll replies:

WK sticks to its long-held theory that no surfboard has drawbacks. They all, however, have their very own performance characteristics, which may or may not suit the prevailing styles of surfing and approaches to waves.

The Bonzer is without doubt surfing's greatest example of a surfboard design slipping through the cracks, so to speak. When it was first created back in 1970 in Ventura by brothers team Malcolm and Duncan Campbell, it was a decade or two ahead of its time -- basically a single-to-double concave with three fins. Several top professional surfers, notably Ian Cairns, Peter Townend and Terry Richardson, rode Bonzers with great success, but the design didn't catch on, partly because it was difficult to imitate; not too many shapers were interested in concaves in the early 1970s, and the keel-style side fins didn't come off the shelf.

It may also have been that shortboard style -- at the time only a few years beyond longboards -- wasn't ready for a board that drove turns past its natural arc, as Bonzers and Thrusters both tend to do. It took the pressure of big time pro surfing in small surf through the late 1970s to take surfing styles to those levels.

Twin-fins -- originally another 1970 idea -- came along again in 1976, then the Thruster in 1980, then the single-to-double concaves in 1989. These design shifts largely did for performance what Bonzers might have done years before, but in a simpler, easier-to-imitate fashion. Meanwhile Duncan and Malcolm refined the Bonzer idea, coming up with double keel side-fin setups and moderating the dramatic concave nozzles. Quite a few top surfers rode it, especially in the mid to late 1990s, and loved its drivey certainty.

The Bonzer feel is essentially that of an enhanced single-fin, very sure of itself in the pocket and on the rail, and very tail-based. But the truth is that at the high-tech cutting edge of modern performance surfing, surfers have advanced well beyond an enhanced single-fin approach, and no longer ride solely in a tail-based fashion. They're riding off rail concaves, front rail edges, rockers ... just about any surface available, and they need a freer tail than that supplied by the Bonzer design.

This does NOT rule out the Bonzer as a great design for the power surfer who's looking to carve strong rail turns and ride the tube. For such surfers, it's an excellent alternative to standard Thruster design, and WK encourages its use.

[daisy]

i've been riding a Campbell Brothers bonzer a bit over the past year, it is a Bumblebee model (http://bonzer5.com/boards/) that a bloke named Gary from Calif. left here with Lucky Al.

at first i thought it was the most ugly and preposterous board i had yet seen - short, fat, and wide with the bizarre single fin plus 2 pairs of little glassed in side fins. but it goes amazingly well on small gutless waves, quick and very easy to turn. it has really opened up options for the fairly crappy beachbreaks we often ride here, and i haven't really used my 9-footer down in Da Nang since i had access to this.

i'd be really curious to try a bonzer with a more contemporary board shape. i also want to try a single-fin with a similar shape to the Bumblebee, to see how much it is just the shape or fin as opposed to the bonzer set-up that works in this kind of wave. based on riding some hollower waves up to around shoulder/head high, my (very uneducated) guess is that it is something like a single-fin. slides out if you push the turn to hard i.e. the centre fin pops out. you have to nurse the turns a bit, or delay the bottom turn compared to a regular thruster.

[carpet]

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Bonzer-5-Fin-Sur ... 4a9f35949b
Have a look at this one,might just be what your after.

[axolotl]

Thanks for the replies .
Yeah carpet thats what i was looking at but trying to keep it quiet.
I'm a bit concerned with the comparison to singles though,just looking for something with great speed with a rear fin, ie not a quad.

[ric_vidal]

Got a C-Bros bonzer in for repair at the moment, bit different to how they used to be, but then that’s just a memory.

More subtle concave transitions, very unsubtle rail channel thingmebob that I would fancy shaping, glassing or sanding.

[daisy]

another bonzer on ebay
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/62-Campbell-Bros ... 5885777a5d

pretty ambitious price though. and some funny sh1t in the otherwise random and unhelpful description: "A Quad fin (or 5 fins)"

[Jorgo]

I was at the "Fish Fry" at Currumbin y'day. Under a label Black Apache surfboards there was a Bonzer type model made locally on the coast. Looked pretty noice to be honest- 6 foot by 20 1/2 by 2 5/8 with diamond tail with rail chines from the back fins and concaves. But then again most of that stuff does. Plenty of weird and wonderful with more wonderful thankfully. Again some beautiful craftsmenship.

[daisy]

some photos of the Black Apache board here:
http://blackapachesurfboards.blogspot.com/
looks pretty nice, anyone got experience with their boards in general? i'm in the market for something like that.

[NuclearFishin]

another bonzer on ebay
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/62-Campbell-Bros ... 5885777a5d

pretty ambitious price though. and some funny sh1t in the otherwise random and unhelpful description: "A Quad fin (or 5 fins)"

If I'm not mistaken the 'Wayne ' in question is Wayne Lynch , which might explain the price - the seller probably sees it as a collectible.

just a bit of Trivia for ya , carry on .....

[daisy]

yeah i eventually realized who Wayne was . still think it is overpriced though.

the other bonzer went for $525 in the end, 19 bids so a fair bit of interest. anyone on here the new owner?

[PeepeelaPew]

...

[steve shearer]

what do the things go like more to the point??

Well if you've got a down the line wave then it's like nuthin else on earth...it's about lift and control from the concaves and rail fins,,,a sort of locked in luge feeling that urges one onwards to ever more daring high lines, at ever increased velocity.

Not every one digs it....on certain days it's a bitching deal. I wouldn't bother on average Sydney waves, nor if your trip involves freedom in the tail.

Luke Short makes 'em at Angas under licence to the Campbell Bros. I have one and it's golden.

Yorky has made one that looks very sweet, he's now on the Sunny Coast and easy to find.

That 6'6" looked pretty cherry......had to stop myself from bidding on it.

[carpet]

http://www.haydnlewis.com/
hayden is doing a sweet looking one called the toy,check it out,not to overpriced going by the ones in a shop locally

[Chillin]

Fcuk me, how good does that quad look!

[ant]

I scored the Board on Ebay and I'm hanging to get my hands on it.

Reckon it might be just the thing for some waves in Indo this winter.
Check out: http://www.bonzer5.com/ to find out more about the design/history etc

[trik78]

I rode only bonzer 5 fins for a consecutive 3 year period in Newy (mainly short, punchy beach breaks) My experience can be summarised as follows. They work in any size surf beause the fin box allows fine tuning. The are back foot driven and they have a definate sweet spot. They dont like fat waves. They excell in waves with a wall , the steeper the better.
How are they different from a thruster?
Unrivalled (in my experience) projection out of turns
Drive through cutbacks.
Regrets- Didnt get to ride them enought in the kind of waves they were designed for.
They took a bit of getting used to after 20 years of thrusters but the perserverence was worth it. (I havnt riddent a thruster for the last five years.)

[Cpt.Caveman]

Has anyone had any more experience with Bonzer's since this last discussion?

I was mulling over surfboard design theory and suddenly realised a bit of conflict between what I thought I knew (which is usually different to how things are... ) and what has been claimed about Bonzers.

The Campbell Brothers claim that Bonzers have superior drive through turns and top end speed compared to a thruster, and this conficts with the old theory that thrusters are slower than quads/twins because of the middle fin sitting against the flow of water and causing drag. The Bonzer has one huge middle fin (single-fin style) that should cause more drag than a thruster going by that theory...

The bros seem to have a theory that the fins are more about having a point of resistance to push off through a turn, and other fin systems make you fight the board and lose some efficiency and speed.... Something more to do with the water pressure built up somewhere between your feet, the redirection of that water under the board, and the fins and placement as a point of resistance to turn off near the ass-end of that process? Or am I reading too much into it...

I'm not keen on buying one but it did stir my brain...

http://bonzer5.com/boards/bonzer-mechanics/