Hello everyone my name is Michael I’m 26 and I write from Italy.
I love to surf and working with wood and I decided to build my first hollow board in paulownia.
How surfboards currently use a longboard single fin and a rusty hustler.
The board that I’m going to build I wish it was setting bonzer. But because it is my first board that I build I’m very undecided about which is the best set-up.
These measures are: 5.4’x21 1/2"x3"
Can you give me a help?
The last two photos are the fins that I would use and the placement: side fin 2.5" central fin 6.5"
Hi Michael. Welcome to Swaylocks. Your board looks fantastic so far. Love the outline and your craftsmanship on the deck skin joins looks great. You must have had a fair bit of experience working with wood. Hopefully others more knowledgeable than me on bonzer design will chime in. But as far as I know there is virtually no foil on the traditional side runner fins apart from just rounding the leading edge and sharpening the trailing edge. As a result of the limited foiling I believe in terms of thickness that they are fairly thin - maybe around 2mm? I’m sure someone on here knows more and will offer advice. Also if you use the search function here on Swaylocks I’m sure there will be plenty of information on bonzers setups.
By the way, which part of the Italian coast are you surfing mostly?
Hi Rohan, I live in southern Italy on the Tyrrhenian Sea. Unfortunately there are’t ocean waves. The period is very short compared to the ocean in the best days we have 8 seconds.
Thanks but I do not have much experience as I would like. so far I have built some furniture and 2 skateboards, unfortunately in Italy there is not much surf culture and this kind of processing of wood and I have to learn on the internet or watching photo on google. However, the woods that I used on the deck are paulownia, meranti and black wallnut
However, before writing I looked a lot of information about the bonzer on this forum. The placement, the toe, cant i got them all on this forum.
Unfortunately, I’m afraid to take the final decision on placement because I do not have the culture shape. And I do not know if it will work well or is better a twin fin or any other set-up
These are two skate, which I have built
The first truck I’ve mounted carver
The second is a 46" longboard pintail carbon and maple, I use my 4x4 to give him a concave
Mikelino. If you’re unsure about which fin set up will work best I can only suggest that you put in a single fin box along with some FCS or Futures fin plugs to cover a few options. That way you can test almost everything - single fin, thruster, quad and widow maker can certainly be accommodated pretty easily. Unfortunately getting all of these along with a bonzer and twin fin option in as well will be tricky. Of course your rocker, bottom shape and rails cannot be optimised to best suit all of these but if you average out these needs you will certainly be able to get something that will work pretty well with quite a few fin options. PM me with your email and I can show you what I have described here on a board I have. Of course I’m hoping someone with a little more experience here can offer you some better or alternative advice.
