Wow! Impressed! Center fin is right for sure.
Bonzers are Drivey. That fin looks fine!
Love the white fins against the blue.
Nice contrast.
Surfding
That's quite a rack of material against the wall!
I have no idea, but despite that this my favourite thread of 2010 (with Huie’s and Surfdings Marko Vs yellow shootout being second although they haven’t really got going yet). The good thing about watching the pros at work is that you have the facilities for speedy builds and we don’t have to wait long to see the posts.
I enjoy the detail … so 5 7/8 is the height of the fin? Whats the position of the side fins from the tail and also their base length?
Lillibel quoted 18 of cant so you have a decent amount. I know I had some speculative ideas for tweaking the bonzer, but what you are doing makes complete sense to me - the Campbells have refined and proven their formula and you are already doing something fairly different with such a HP design. You’ve got the Cambell template which presumably has fairly long bases so the overlap will keep the cluster more compact for shorter radius turning and Lillibel already said the Campbells do overlap their side fins.
If you didn’t do the Campbell formula first then you would never know whether variants were better or worse anyway. I realise your resources aren’t limitless but if you ever do get to produce a tweaked and inspired variant for comparison that would be great.
I’m looking forward to the vid of it being ridden.
Thanks MrJ,
I’ll get those exact details for you tomorrow when
I bring it home and wax it up. Yeewww! I’ll Photograph it then ride it
at one of our little reefs up here tomorrow too. The wind is on shore
but there is pleanty of swell.
I have got a little video mapped out, so should be fun.
…Can someone show us how to post a video directly up on Sway’s. Ta. I have a Mac.
Cheers Guys,
I think the back fin is perfect. I just glassed one bonzer and am doing thins today. I and doing the ewing one soon any advice on glassing the wings. I am scred to use color but I always use color. what did you cut your flutes with they look great. I used a dowel but I think i should ov gone biggger so the flute would be wider and not as deep.
Well its done.
I sanded and surfed it and just arrived home.
…Firstly, I’ll say " The truth is in the pudding" being the video i will make. So I need to restrain my self as it is only the first surf…But I won’t ha ha.
All reports from all the research i have done on the Bonzer, this 1st surf would have to be the worst conditions for the maiden test ride, except it had some power pockets.
The surf was a washing machine style, on shore, mellow reef platform left (my forehand) with a rip running through it. A renowned cutback wave but a good wave for fade and up into the pocket, when that section popped up (I have surfed it quite a few times and If you have a bad board you really struggle on this wave) its called Anne street.
Any way…Holy Shit, this board blew away all my expectations.
It was super loose (on the carve on the rear of the board), extremely drivey(on the front foot), The hold off the bottom turn was an absolute pleasure. The speed, well I had to stand on the tail to wash off speed waiting for the pocket to show, fade while up high, drop in and boom on the front foot and away. Slide, hit the lip with weight forward and your going backwards with ease (This really surprised me).
So after the first surf I give the HPSBZ (cheers for the name MrJ) 2 thumbs up.
It feels like a thruster with an injection of confidence.
…I don’t like to yank my own chain, but the board kept getting better every wave. On my last wave I hit a solid end section, after a fade, and through the tail around into a reverse 360 landing in the explosion at the bottom (Not in the air at all) and road out of it. I was like shit, what have I got here…
Bad points,
I don’t think it will work when small
Took a late drop on a heafty peak and it tracked pretty full on and I went down the mine shaft! (that’s the low nose entry + single fin + deep concaves + low rails, ha ha)
It felt like a thruster but with an injection of confidence.
Not Like a single fin (not that I ever really rode single fins) I only ever made one before for Burleigh Heads Single fin comp. It was a 6 channel and felt nothing like the Bonzer, By the way I made the final in that comp and came last in that final.
So for now…until the next surf i’m stoked!
By the way it weighs 5 1/4 pound
Back fin 5 7/8" @ 5 3/4 up
side 10 1/2" up with 1/2" over lap.
Side base length is large = 5 1/4", small = 4 1/2"
I hope I dont really kook it in the video I intend to make, ha ha.
I plan to have a few session on the vid (Its going to be a kind of running Yorky surfboard Diaries type of thing) so edition 1 might be a few weeks away yet.
Untill then, Thanks for all you interest in my project.
Cheers, I’ll keep you up dated as to how it is going.
PLEASE don’t think i’m on here to try and push my brand, I’m a hand shaper an busy enough, and really couldn’t really give a rats arse about gaining any more work via Sways…I just like it here!
Ching, Ching.
well adrian very good stuff it will go good on that other left on troys cave.
** nice i like the project **
** ps make sure you hide the background on the vid haa’’
**
Yep, You know that :-), cant wait.
Hey Yorky,
I mostly missed this thread, but looked all through just now. It's a tasty board and brave move all glass-on these days...
Where did you move to? Left lennox??
Josh
YEEEEEEEAAAAAHHHHHH! Good on ya bro! I am glassing on the fins of one know. I will have a thread going when its done. I gotta try doing a shorty.
Here’s a few shots of a Bonzer-like board I made several years ago. I found that it rides best if you stay on the tail. I have a tendency to move all over my boards, but with this one you really need to be over those fins. Just like the griffin 5 fins, they can be incredible when you stand in the right spot.
This board was made when we were wrapping the balsa skins around the rails, using 1lb eps and no stringer. Charlie Price glassed it and put the fin boxes in.
shoots,I just read your first bonzer 5 ride experience,almost word for word how I was blown away the first time i rode mine,except I rode mine for the 1st time on a real good day,all backhand rides,overhead to double overhead.And like you,don’t know how it will work on a small day,only ridden it head high and above as a 5 fin.I hasten to add that I did not shape mine,Matt Calvani (Bing) did,it’s a synchronizer,and I LOVE it.On the bing site,you can check out the instructions for the synchronizer fin set up,it’s well done,clear pictures.I rode a Bonzer 40 years ago,a Bing shaped by Mike Eaton.Bonzers will never die!Aloha
shoots,I just read your first bonzer 5 ride experience,almost word for word how I was blown away the first time i rode mine,except I rode mine for the 1st time on a real good day,all backhand rides,overhead to double overhead.And like you,don’t know how it will work on a small day,only ridden it head high and above as a 5 fin.I hasten to add that I did not shape mine,Matt Calvani (Bing) did,it’s a synchronizer,and I LOVE it.On the bing site,you can check out the instructions for the synchronizer fin set up,it’s well done,clear pictures.I rode a Bonzer 40 years ago,a Bing shaped by Mike Eaton.Bonzers will never die!Aloha
Glad to hear the stoke Yorky. The board looks great. My experience is the bonzer is fine in small waves… if it’s kind of steep. It’s just not a mush buster, though there are those who say they ride them successfully even in mush. Wait until you get a glassy day. Carves like butter. It’s good for style.
I’m curious about the ewings. Did you get any sense of what they’re doing? Cold they work on other designs. I’m about to make (remake) a bonzer semi gun. I’m wondering if they could help loosen up the board without compromising hold?
Lillibel Check surfysurfy.com about 10 post or so back there was a sick step up with e wings i talked to JP about it when I was there he said they worked great on the step ups.
Hey Speedy, mate lucky you didn’t miss my thread, I would have been a bit pissed at you had ha ha.
Yeah I moved from Home town Lennox at the start of the year. Moved to Warana on the Sunny coast. I really like it up here, lots of Lefts and shit its warm. Love that.
Gavin, Cheers mate. I look forward to watching your build… Where will you be posting it, it would be cool to keep this Bonzer thread going. All good.
Sharky, wow balsa rails, Thats some serious business, looks neat.
Kava Thanks for the link. I’ll check the synchronizer out for sure.
llillbel, Yeah mate I really feel the E-wing, it really projects you into and through turns when on rail, also I feel when riding flat-straight it gives a narrower flow into the tail plan shape, hence increased speed.
I went in a comp today and rode the bonzer, Pa and Ma memorial 3rd longest running comp in Australia, Some good surfers. Any way It was held on a fat right 3-4 ft point. In the free surf in the morning I only caught 2 waves one was steepish with some power and the board felt good. The other was a mush burger and mmmmm.
I got through my first heat, but when your scratching around for waves I think It wasn’t the best choise of equipment…I’m sponsoring the event so the bonzer got a lot of exposure. Grommets didn’t know what to think, fossils were like yeah a bit of old school. ha ha.
I jumped back on my thruster and It felt better suited to those conditions- a bit nose nose flip (made it clime and easy to control at a moments notice) flatter tail rocker, similar to bonzer but flatter (speed) with a hip for quick direction changes.
I got through another heat and have the finals tomorrow, word is comp is going to be moved to the left I first rode my Bonzer. That will be interesting. However I have 4 Nice but different boards to choose from depending on the waves. Any way, I’ll let you know more next ride on the Bonzer.
see ya
PS Gavin Time for you to take the reins of the Bonzer Thread for a while mate ha ha
I ended up riding my thruster on the fat shit point in the comp and came 5th…But then went back to the punchy left and my bonzer fell awesome from the first wave… I’m going to start training as I think my leg/core strength is letting me down while riding it, You can drive it soo hard off the bottom it feels like your body compresses ha ha.
good result in the comp Yorky! I’m just summarising what you produced here for my amateur armchair assessment:
looking at the fin layout pic below it seems that you did faithfully follow the bonzer layout.
so IMHO you can claim a true bonzer experience, but with an extreme HP emphasis
your post on how the V flattens out the tail.
In a moment of idleness I wrote a massive post on reverse-V on the surfermag forum a little while ago. I hope I got it right.
in my world that tail rocker is neutral - neither high nor low. The nose rocker is low and if its a late kick I’m thinking the entry might be very low. I realise you were aiming for the look of the Shelter boards.
there was some discussion on the value of measuring nose rocker at the one foot from the nose mark from John Mellor, Dennis Ryder and myself here http://www2.swaylocks.com/forums/rocker-measurements#comment-1358689
Yorky, could you get us the nose rocker measurement one foot down?
Cool Mrj I’m away for a couple of days so catch ya when I get back…Hows this, I got 4 orders for them this avo alone lol, classic + $400 on my factory direct price. Round and Around it goes…Iv’e got a wild idea for my next Sways Project, I’ll test it them post it in all the steps after the test. Not a bonzer, But kind of bonzer instired-with the side fins anyway. Different thread, a while off but.
cheers