Bonzer 5 Fin Proposal

[rodndtube]

Robert Moynier sent this to me by way of Malcom Campbell. Attached are photos of the a 3-fin Eaton bonzer paipo board. The prospective customer had requested a 5-fin bonzer, 4'3" x 21" x ?". He asked me to post the photos and I will let him comment further.

Robert commented, "Mike Eaton is a well revered shaper who was instrumental in helping Malcolm develop his shaping skills starting way back in 73' with Bing Surfboards. Eaton shaped the first (Bing) Bonzers ridden by Jeff Hackman, PT, Ian Cairns and others in those early days. He has continued to shape Bonzers all these years under his own label.. a true believer..and here is a paipo/bellyboard from I know not when."

[Uncle Grumpy]

That looks like Fun City.
The board is ALL Bonzer! Cool. Way Cool.

[ClanB]

Wow very cool looking board. I have been thibking of a Bonzer type bellyboard.

[soulglider]

these deep concave bonzers dont work to well in small surf. mike made me a couple of boards a while back. one with deep conc's like the one pictured. it was really cool but needed big surf. the other was with shallower conc's more like the bonzers of today, itt worked well if you like going straight, which most of the paipo guys here like. if you like snap turns, roller coasters and sharp cutback turning, off the lips etc., i would suggest something else. but, you never know until you try, i say get one made and go, its the journey not the dream that makes life fun.

[mrmike]

you got it tim. the wood you sold me is almost ready to go I will send pic in a few days.
you know what they say" the happiness people are not the ones that have everything but the people that make everthing out of what they have."

[dr robert]

Well,there are Bonzers,and then there are "Bonzers".

Eaton's boards are his measured take on the design and differ from the Campbell Bros. boards in fairly significant ways..noticably on the depth of concaves, and the size, flex, and template of the center fin and runners.

I've never ridden one of the Eaton's boards..typically he was making fun and longboards..he made a ton of em' over the years.

Soulglider, I don't know what you rode that leads you to your conclusions, but the description of how Bonzer (Campbell Bros.) paipo's may ride bears zero resemblance to my experience.

On the other hand, I've got the only 2 Bonzer paipo's ever shaped by Malcolm C.(based on the Wally Froiseth/Theisz design) so their capabilities and riding characteristics are not well known or defined to say the least..sufficient to note that from my perspective they do everything it sounds like you like to do,plus ( and thank God for this), they really fly in small waves.

Would love for you to check it out for yourself someday..I'm always up for others to ride my boards/trade boards and see what happens..had a bit of that at the San Simeon paipo gathering ( small waves? yeah,we had plenty)

When/if Malcolm shapes a new one for the owner of the Eaton board, I'll post up some pic's..should be interesting.

[soulglider]

Never mentioned c's bonzers. I lnow all about them though. Knee boarded them back in the day. My mentions were about mikes bonzer, from mikes mouth aboutmikes boards. I try not to surf with other paipo guys. I dont surf crowds anymorebut, when I do, rarely, its on! Ride what you wanthave fun ridng or ride something else. I ride my own boards now, I find the intuition in a planer wil lout shape any standup shaper guy.maybe not as pretty but work, for me, the way iwant. enjoy your bonzer, oll enjoy my displacies. O, reread my last sentence of my last post and enjoy.

[rodndtube]

The comment about most paipo guys here liking to go straight struck me as kind of odd. That might be true of many of the woodies but usually isn't the case with the foam/fiberglass paipo riders from what I have observed. Maybe the same could said about wood vs. foam riders preferences for small waves vs. larger wavers based solely on the photos I have seen posted here and elsewhere. It doesn't really matter It is about the style and wave types that any given person enjoys riding. For example, some of the boards that might be favored in the Central California point breaks probably would not be the boards of choice for riding in typical sand bar breaks, or atypical ones such as Ocean Beach, SF, CA.

The question I had was about Mike's shallow vice deep channeled bonzers. Is this Mr. Mike? No, I guess it is Mike Eaton.

[Poobah]

So the Eaton in the photo is a kneeboard...right? And perhaps with more nose kick than a lot of us would want. Squishing it down to a 43" length is an interesting problem. Do you scale down the length of the bonzer pockets? Scale down the fins, too? Or do you take the length out of the nose...maybe even a blunt nose?

[rodndtube]

Poobah, to the best of my knowledge and understanding the Eaton bonzer was designed as a paipo board. It also appears to be roughly the length or the proposed board. I'm not sure how Malcolm will address some of the bonzer elements of the board. As noted above the customer has requested 4'3" x 21" (thickness not addressed). The only other specifications requested by the customer was a tail width of 19 inches (12" from the tip of the tail) and a pod width of 13 inches.

The nose kick in the above photo is more than I would want but different people ride their boards differently and in different wave conditions. Despite requesting 5 fin slots we have no idea what kind of fin arrangement will be used in practice nor the size of the fins. I can only speak for myself in saying, as I did above, that I would have a preference for relatively small profile side fins and a much smaller profile center fin than the one in the above photo. At least with fin boxes there exists the opportunity to easily experiment.

Dr. Robert has some experience with riding bonzer paipos designed and built by Malcolm Campbell, so that experience baseline can be drawn upon.

[dr robert]

Yo Rod and Poobah, don't know what the board will turn out like as (of yesterday) Malcolm hadn't spoken to the owner of the Eaton board..he did receive an order from him via Moonlight Glassing showing he wanted a 4'3", 5 fin Bonzer paipo, but that may change during discussions.

Regarding the 5 fin setup..it'll be exactly the same as on my 5 ft paipo (refer over to the interview section w/the interview I did , along with Malcolm, that includes the spec's on both the 5ft board and the 4'6' board including the dimensions of the runners and center fins..I wouldn't expect any variation there).Also there are pics of the board's both on land and water in Rods report on the S.Simeon gathering in the "Your Wave" section

I suspect the template for the new one will be close to my 4'6",but that's up to the owner.

Poobah, yeah, you scale the concaves to the length of the board..same ratio for any length, variable somewhat in depth of concave depending on board thickness but thats about it,unless the customer has something else in mind that makes sense to the shaper.

If you're ever in Leucadia, drop by the Surfy Surfy shop..they usually have plenty of C. Bros bonzers, and from time to time, some of Gary Hanels Bonzers too.
J.P St.Pierre runs that shop, and his dad,Peter, is Moonlight Glassing.

They both are very knowledgeable about Bonzers and Malcolms shaping work..

[Poobah]

My mistake...I thought they were trying to go all the way down to 43", but it's really 4'3". It does make me wonder though. How small can you make a bonzer? A cubit bonzer?

[rodndtube]

You could apply bonzer principles to a wave craft as small as a hand plane? Not that it would be highly differential from a Harry-inspired hand plane or many other hand plane, but the question you pose, Poobah, is would it work?

[rodndtube]

From Robert Moynier:
Here's the 4' 2" Bonzer paipo Malcolm shaped based (somewhat) on that Eaton paipo I sent through a while back.

As you can see, the template has been tweaked a bit..Malcolm especially used the nose template from my boards to give this thing less curve and more of a "Froiseth" feel to the design.

Looks like an improvement over the Eaton to me..but in any case, a good looking board.

It's getting glassed now, and they'll send pic's when finished.

[krusher74]

Cool boards!