About 3 months ago my good buddy Bagman who has been around the surf scene for many years let me take out his 10’2" Eaton Bonzer. It was an older “ACE” model with lexan bonzer runners. It surfed like nothing I’ve ever been on before, seeming to make it’s own speed.The board was way too big for me and was very stiff but it still was an unforgettable eperience.
Well, many of us have had that feeling as we look out the barrel knowing that we just don’t have the speed to make it out, “Where can I find some more of that precious stuff called speed in a surfboard design?” There are no obvious answers of course but being committed to experimention I’m about to embark on one.
Having surfed quads and Twinzers some and feeling the freedom and speed they give I’m directed to collaborate with a shaper friend on something a little out of the box which I believe is called a “Zinger.” That is a bonzer type board without a center fin. I want to build something that will have that hydroplanning effect which bonzers have but make it more responsive by getting the center fin out of the way and running a couple of trailers (I’ll have to try different fins with various fore and aft placement) inside of each of the concaved surfaces at the tail of the board. I’ll put either single or double bonzer runners on either side of the concaves. Lean toward double runner cause I think it’ll keep the board a little looser. The board will have fin boxes so I can experiment with fin patterns and locations.
Projected board specs are something like ~
9’2"x17.25"x22.5"x15.5"x3.0" Thumbtail. Nose rocker about 4.5" and tail rocker about 3.75" with the wide point in the middle. The nose tip will be a little drawn to fit into the step part of the wave well.
Any input would be greatly appreciated. I know that Jim, Rich, Herb, Carl, and Thrailkill have seen their share of experiments so if any of you guys are inclined to pipe in some input it’d be appreciated.
I’d like to push the performance envelope so here goes ~
Don’t know exactly, but seeing Eaton is a OB guy and Albert Elliot, aka. ACE is a OB guy, there might be some synergies here. ACE is known for his progressive big guys shapes, 8ft+ boards for 200lb + guys. He uses lots of 3 ,4 and 5 fin designs, and from some of the ACE boards i’ve seen guys surf, they work extremely well. ACE shapes out of South Coast Surf Shops in San Diego. Don’t know if Eaton /Ace did some boards, but it would make sense if they did. They both veer of the traditional course. That all i know.
Rich, yeah, the Eaton Zinger is definitely known for speed. There’s a guy who surfs the Lane on one, I think its a 9’4" or so. Read the Eaton “Whats a Bonzer” page : http://www.eatonsurf.com/Bonzer.htm
And the photos are of a Zinger. “A Zinger is a twin fin Bonzer…”
Rich, I had a 10’ Zinger shaped by ACE that was really fun. A great board for Indicator. Sold it after about 10 years of being the second owner to buy an older shorter Eaton 3 fin bonzer.
I’ve been interested in trying a zinger myself. Anyone know the fin placements,fin toe in and fin cant on them? The fin cant looks a lot less than the three and five fin bonzers. Anyone know why that is?
I’ve had three of them. He told me he shaped with Mike Eaton at one time. The one I really liked was a 7-2 swallowtail. Very smooth and fast. I think Keith Melville posted the bottom of one of his a while back. Did you do a search? Ace has quite a following in the OB Sunset Cliffs area. Most of them are on longboards. Two of mine had the small bonzer keel fins, two larger hatchet fins, and a small center keel fin towards the tail. The last one he made me was on another 7-2 swallow tail. It was a six fin without the channels. He told me he split the small tail fin into two fins. The board worked well,but didn’t have the same magic as the original. I’d sometimes remove the tail fin and ride it as a twinzer type board. I still have a set of the hatchet fins.Mike
Halcyon, I’d check with Wil Jobson, he’s made Twinzers with deep concaves for at least a decade, and is a free thinker and understander of hydrodynamics of the highest order. Last time I spoke with him was months ago, but he was heading down to your town to find a place to shape. Arrow should know how to find him. At the very least, you will find his dialog incredibly interesting and stimulating.
HTH
-Dave
PS. Eaton wouldn’t be bad either, but you can’t just drive across town and find him.
I figured the “Twin fin bonzer” thing was like saying a regular one is a “Single fin bonzer”…the “bonzer” part is the side runners which modify whatever main fin setup the board has…
I’m in regular contact with Wil and am making some fins for a few of his boards.
Rooster,
If you have any photos of those hatchet fins they might be useful. How deep are they?
The concave depth varies from bonzer to bonzer and I’m pondering over how to configure the ones in this board. It seems to me that if it’s too deep it’ll make the board awfully tracky but I’ll be sure to share the photos with Wil and see what he has to say about the effects of this sort of bottom configuration on rail to rail transition.
After some thought and looking at the photos of the Zinger that Benny1 has shared it appears to me that the fins need to be set just outside the concaved section of the board in order to make things work right. The more I think about it putting fins inside of the concaves would interfere with the way the bottom configuration is intended to work. I know I’ll consult with Wil about fin placement.
You never know when some kind of new magic will happen.
Thanks for the input guys, It’s really appreciated.
Howdy. I’ve ridden both Ace’s 5 finners and Eaton’s zingers, and they are quite different.
The Ace 5 finners have much shallower concaves, turn differently than the Eatons, and of the ones I tried, seemed to work best on 9 foot boards (having ridden this set up on 9, 10, & 11 footers it really stops working well on the longer boards). Going from memory here, the hatchet fins are either 4.5 or 5 inch, the other 3 fins are tiny (about 2 inch) glassons.
The Eaton zinger has a unique feel to it, the first 6-8 times I rode one I hated it, very strange characteristics I thought. However, when I rode one long enough I finally figured it out, and then I really liked it (never thought that would happen!). They seem like a front foot rider’s board to me, as opposed to the Ace 5 fin set up, which is a back footer’s dream. The zingers have way more radical concaves, so don’t be shy; I believe they would act real squirrely if the concaves were shallower… and yeah, I would NOT put the fins in the concaves…
My hatchets are 5.5inches and double foiled. I’ll take a photo with my new digital and try to post a bit later. Along with some stuff for our photo friend down under. Mike
I have a 7’10" Eaton Zinger shaped by Joe Bauguess. As Mike said to me when I bought it there is so little foam under the tail due to the deep channels the tail shape you use doesn’t really matter (squash, swallow, rounded pin). The two main fins are just outside the two deep channels and are almost parallel to the center line. The two outer bonzer fins are made of Lexan and are only hot glued in place.
