I have read over the past few years in Sways much discussion on Thruster Vs Bonzer. I picked up one for the first time 2 weeks ago and I’d like to add something to the debate, while its fresh in my mind.
For me Bonzers definitely gives extra speed from a bottom turn and maintain it, so that I am now linking up turns much better. I could never do this to that extent on a thruster. But thinking about it, I ride usually 2 boards a session, Single fin logs, fish, thrusters and performance mals. I think the reason a bonzer has made such a difference to me is because I ride a thruster badly. I have not spent enough time concentrating exclusively on riding the thruster set up. I think you need to ride a thruster almost exclusively in order to get the most benefit from the design, particularly the timing of when to push the fins and when not to.
That why I think that some thruster riders aren’t too impressed by the bonzer, Firstly they are so tuned into the thruster the Bonzer just feels odd secondly they are so efficient on the thruster that there is only marginal benefit from a bonzer for them.
Thrusters come off a bottom turn well. So do bonzers.
Both are slower than they need to be in between turns, Thrusters are slow when not on rail, and are slow in rail-to-rail transitions (encourage the rider to make these transitions fast, because the design is snow-plow-like in between turns). Bonzers are not as bad as a thruster in these situations, but not as good as a thruster in a small radius turn.
I think, inherently, the thruster is better on the harder turns, simply because it uses water flow closer to the rail for turning instead of lift. And the water flowing across the rail is the fastest water, the best water to use for turning. However, make the radius of the turn slightly larger, and the bonzer will carry more speed through the turn, easily.
both work well, and good riders can do very well on either.
I think a bonzer cannot be appreciated adequately in a single test session, it requires too much relearning for someone really thruster-focussed. Weight fore-aft distribution needs to be back, and not shifting much as you go rail to rail. You need to push the bonzer HARD down a steep face and then jump back for the turn, which is kinda a pain. And the lean angle to kick in the fifth gear requires a little touch, you can definitely feel it on your first session (I did), but it wasn’t until my 3rd or 4th session that I could semi-consciously drop into fifth gear at will. And that was super fun…
Ultimately, neither design suited me more than what I was riding, so I prefer something else.
…and then I guess there’s the fins …your bonzer has five , yes ? And the thruster, obviously , has three .
So, how did you go , adjusting to the two extra rail fins on your first turn , Burnsie ?
…I’m thinking riding a board set up with the bonzer concaves , but with plugs / boxes , so you can use the same board as a thruster fin setup , or as a bonzer setup , might give a much ‘truer’ comparison , and a better idea of what the fins are actually doing ?
cheers !
ben
stoked you’re enjoying the bonzer , mate …what a GREAT souvenir of your trip to California , eh ?! [HOW did you tee all that up , did you have to order it about six months ago ? ]
my nephew is enjoying the one my brother bought for him from cafe haliewa…
.... a 6'9 ' <span style="font-weight:bold">thruster</span> ' <span style="font-weight:bold">with</span> , instead, two 7" side <span style="font-weight:bold">runners</span>, and a back fin box !!
It was made by a local guy… the concaves were only basically thruster type double concaves, not deep [not when you have a thin blank to start with !!]
Thanks for the response guys, My transition to the Bonzer took no time I was into it in the forst session. I think this can be explained by the fact that I often ride fish and I am naturally a front foot style surfer and weak on the back foot push, except on the backhand. So I was surfing better than I ever was before on my first bonzer session on clean waves. So I think Blakestah is bang on with his observations. My first clean backhand session on Friday has also borne this out , and while I felt It surfed well, the speed during transitions wasn’t as constant, probably because I’m rear foot heavy on the backhand.
I have been thinking a lot about fins lately and I can really appreciate a rotating center fin in a thruster set up reducing drag and giving more lift and drive, Though I’m struggling to understand how this will affect the foil of the center fin. I am still trying to get my head around rotating side fins.
Chip,
I was too late in ordering a custom bonzer, so I put out a call on surfermag classifieds and picked an almost new 5 fin by Malcom and glassed by Moonlight. A bit bigger(7’6") than I planned, but I love it, from turning to pulling in, it goes exactly where I want it to. Rich Pavel showed me around his personal 6’8" bonzer from a 6’8"P blank (What Else !) An If I could source a 6’8"P blank I’d really love to give that a go.
…yes, J Troy but when you drop the face the bonzer is faster…
…Blakestah explained the bonzer performance on a wave exactly right…but you still can shape the tail slim than most Bonzers and with a hip, so you can obtain a pivot point to do smaller radius arcs…
I have been thinking a lot about fins lately and I can really appreciate a rotating center fin in a thruster set up reducing drag and giving more lift and drive, Though I'm struggling to understand how this will affect the foil of the center fin. I am still trying to get my head around rotating side fins.
Imagine each turn is a two fin turn (just the inside rail fin and rear fin) and it feels like there are no fins in between turns.
