I have an inquiry to Tom at Red-X about this but wonder if anyone else has tried converting a 5 fin Bonzer (Red-X) to a standard Thruster configuration? The center fin is Red-X also. The board was made by Point Blanks and the rider feels like a modification to more standard thruster set up might be more to his liking. Any recs on Red-X fin types that might do the trick?
20 bucks says that if he just stuck with it for another month, then switched back to a thruster (after learning how to surf the bonzer correctly) he’d never want to ride a thruster again…
anyways, i dont think that either of the side boxes are set for normal thruster fins… but might as well try both, and see what happens.
John this is Toms reply to the same question on the surfermag BB.
The back side fins are in the correct thruster location. But, the range of our center boxes is not enough to do a Bonzer center fin or a thruster center fin. So, the Bahne, or F/U center box is a good way to go.
Hey, some people like to walk backwards.
…recent Bonzer convert…
John,
A thruster rear fin is usually set at around 4"-4-1/2" trailing edge from the tail. On a Bonzer it's 5" to 5-1/2". The back side fins are in the same location. But, with a thruster sude fin the cant will be at about 4 degrees based on a Bonzer box installation. We do make plugs to fill the holes left by removing the fron side runners.
Tom
P.S. Surf was fun but shifty this morning.
I forwarded replies to the guy. Maybe he just needs to adjust his fins and/or get the hang of it.
Seems like you could get another inch or so rearward with a red-X fin by hacksawing off the tab and epoxying it to the front of the fin instead of the center… kind of like the trailer on the XT-1 set.
Pickles,
In an e-mail I discussed riding attributes of Bonzers to John and recommended that if he really wanted to try a switch a rakey template would be the way to go X-6 or X-3. You could gain some travel by cutting 1/2" off the back of the center fin root. But, you'll be giving up some rigidity doing so. Epoxy won't give you much on nylon.
Tom
Sounds familiar, I’ve heard old stories of people not happy with bonzers until changing the center fin for a cutaway.
They aren’t thrusters and the rider cannot approach them as a thruster.
Encourage the rider to stick with it a little more
Hey man, is X6 real yet? I don’t see it on the website or on the wetsand store … sounds like a killer set to me (OK,OK,I’m a knox groupie).
Yes, they are available. Just call up Block Surf 805-583-0057.
How is it that you ride a bonzer differently than a thruster? I’m just curious.
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How is it that you ride a bonzer differently than a thruster? I’m just curious.
I don’t ride thrusters but I’ve seen many people pump them (at best) or hop, skip, & jump them down the wave. I’ve heard that riding a single fin and learning to use the rail (etc.) and surf with the wave will make the bonzer transition seamless.
For me I first road a bonzer in more powerful surf than I’m used to that probably helped thought I normally ride single finned boards.
They are a blast and very performance oriented.
Ahhhh! Heresy!! Why not take the Statue of Liberty’s torch arm and tack it onto Mt Rushmore? Or put a Harley seat on a tricycle?
I’ve ridden my Bonzer from Tybee Island, Georgia, to Hanalei 3x overhead, to here in Oregon, and it’s worked great everywhere. But then I learned to surf on single fins. Just stick with it and learn to ride your rail rather than breaking your fins free like on a thruster. They all have their place, but trying to convert a Bonzer to a thruster is just…unimaginative.
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Quote:How is it that you ride a bonzer differently than a thruster? I’m just curious.
I don’t ride thrusters but I’ve seen many people pump them (at best) or hop, skip, & jump them down the wave. I’ve heard that riding a single fin and learning to use the rail (etc.) and surf with the wave will make the bonzer transition seamless.
For me I first road a bonzer in more powerful surf than I’m used to that probably helped thought I normally ride single finned boards.
They are a blast and very performance oriented.
A thruster rider cares more about being able to turn on a dime, and to generate speed when necessary. The modern thruster is designed to suit those goals.
The Bonzer is designed to glide through turns and minimize speed loss when the rider draws a smooth line. Bonzers cannot generate speed from rider input as powerfully as a thruster. This basic attribute varies with side fin cant and rear fin size.
My personal preference on smaller waves is being able to generate speed - I believe this attribute has driven performance surfing for over 20 years. But there’s more than one way to surf a wave.
“Bonzers cannot generate speed from rider input as powerfully as a thruster”
Blakestah, this is simply not true. I completely disagree with that statement. On the contrary, I’ve found that you have to pump a thruster several times to get it up to full speed, whereas on the bonzer it only takes one or maybe two pumps and your flying!!! I’ve also noticed that when you stop pumping a thruster, you start losing speed right away. The bonzer maintains it’s speed for a longer time before beginning to slow down. I have a 6’5" malcolm campbell bonzer, and that thing is a rocket right out of the gate, in any conditions. I’ve surfed it in everything from waist high mush to way overhead barrels. Same results, everytime! Cheers
…I have a 6-7 swallow bonzer for hometown waves.I use a X8 center or a X4 on smaller yet fast days.
…My bonzer is also not concaved,just a flatty w/ just a hint(1/16") of mono thru the fins.Yeah ,it works great!Herb
ps…Thanks Tom for going the distance in building them…I should be by your way soon…I email or call first.
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Blakestah, this is simply not true. I completely disagree with that statement. On the contrary, I've found that you have to pump a thruster several times to get it up to full speed, whereas on the bonzer it only takes one or maybe two pumps and your flying!!! I've also noticed that when you stop pumping a thruster, you start losing speed right away. The bonzer maintains it's speed for a longer time before beginning to slow down.
They’re based on completely different approaches to making a shortboard ‘work’. Drive comes from toe-in, you lose it with cant. Lift comes from cant, you lose it with reduced cant to maximize drive. Bonzers generate a lot of lift from bottom contours and heavily canted size fins. Thrusters generate acceleration from less cant and flat tails.
I’ve spoken with many many bonzer/thruster riders. Those who didn’t glass boards for Malcolm or make finboxes for him were pretty straight on with my statement, and I find it completely consistent. Bonzers do not ACCELERATE FROM RIDER INPUT as powerfully as a thruster. Maybe you’d like to claim they hold speed through non-accelerating turns better, and are faster overall, lots of their riders think so. But there are really few UNBIASED riders who claim you can accelerate from pumping a bonzer like you can a thruster. Any many of them claim the Bonzer is better in more powerful waves (where rider-input acceleration is not as important in performance), and feels like it needs to get going in smaller waves.
I haven’t ridden one enough to know personally. But I am interested in the design, and have made a point of noting input from people. I’ve noted a specific difference in the claims made by a few people all of whom have some potential conflict of interest and the rest of the crowd.
Perhaps my strongest interest is in understanding shortboard design. As Greg Loehr noted recently, the design is almost completely driven by what happens off the bottom turn - how short can you turn, how much hold do you have, and how much speed can you generate. Cant is a variable that alters both drive and lift. How much is good for a board is up in the air, as far as I know. Maybe the Bonzers ARE better most of the time. But they cannot generate speed like a thruster with such canted side fins, and with a dominant center fin (unless I’ve missed the boat completely on the variables related to drive). And maybe the design is better that way.
photo posted by mlsurf on surfermag forum
I think if you put a rotating single in there drive pump pump pump you up!!!