discuss: quad v thruster quantified

Yeah, that is a summation of a long winded attempt at an explanation or observation I made off looking at Tyler knox's bonzer surfing compaired to his thruster surfing. The board hugs turn tighter than normal, thus slowing down and exaggerating everything he is doing...

From a style perspective, I think it looks pretty sick. Old school even. It was just an observation. I know people that love bonzers... this is all just a discussion, especially for those of us that are relatively unfamiliar with them.

If bonzers suit your style. Bam, ride one. If quads are your thing. Bam, do it up... We all have different styles, strengths and weaknesses. At the end of the day we all want to ride the boards that give to our strengths.

 

I said when I mentioned the Knox video, that I have seen him surf in person before, on a thruster and I have watched countless clips of video of him over the years. So, with being very familiar with his typical style, pace and turning, I thought that I could make a "decent" assumption off of what I saw. Because it was one surfer, a professional who rode thrusters on tour and comparing that video clip to what we have seen from him in the past. I think its hard to judge any surfer, no matter how good they are on how they ride a bonzer, if you have nothing to compare it to... I am sure there are thousands of guys out ripping on bonzers, but we can't really make a comparison of their fin setups unless we can see them surfing both.

 

Here is an older video of Tyler knox surfing around San Diego on his thrusters. IMO, you still see the same style, power and turns you see in the bonzer video, but to me, everything he does in the video seems more effortless and faster. He tails comes through each turn, he released better and he is getting a quicker, more vertical attack with a simple ankle tweak instead of burying all that energy into each turn. He still illustrates the same power, but to me its just a little more effortless looking style wise.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKW2JEr8jQs

 

Holy crap how can you take so much time to reply with these lengthy responses?

 

im guessing a bonzer is a 5 fin?

the fins really have nothing to do with big power hacks.guys were doing them on single fins,guys are doing them on thrusters,and now slater does em with quads.quads give u more speed,less resistance in the tail because of no middle fin.

all I have to say about the "cant make a turn like that on a thruster conspiracy"andy fuking irons,is all I have to say.go check any of his clips,he always rode a thruster,watch how little board is in the water when he bottom turns,the board is damn near vertical to the ocean surface

 

gotta say i'm loving all the "this is all just talk, esp. for those not familiar w/ the bonzer, but the bonzer doesn't work b/c i had one & it sucked. for me. personally. 25 years ago. so it's a crap design" **** going on on this thread.

****, i bet i could find dozens of guys who rode some of the first thrusters & hated 'em & wrote the design off for the same reason. same goes for quads.
my point being: if you haven't ridden one recently, or ever, then you have no business talking about it. that goes for thrusters, bonzers, quads, singles, twins, or what have you. they've all been refined & tweaking & improved upon since their initial development. i'm one of prob. very few on here who has ridden all of the above w/in the last 5 years & in my own personal opinion, bonzers work the best for me in every type of wave i've come across. at the end of the day, i don't need videos of pros riding the design to validate my choice of surfboard. i will, however, continue to correct the uneducated masses who insist on denigrating something they know nothing about.

 

can be 3 or 5 fin.

 

The "bonzer" is more the shape, and the bottom channels that go along with the fins, than just the amount of fins. Throw all 5 fins in your quad/thruster that has 5 fin boxes and you're basically just riding a 5 finned board.

That being said i've never ridden a bonzer. Would love to give one a try. Single fins are fun as can be, and will greatly improve your "rail to rail" game if you're riding it right. (Watch the Bruce Movie and he shreds one apart.) Throwing the side fins and channeling for added drive would be a speed machine!!! Gets me excited to try one just talking bout it!

The clip from the movie "Shelter" is some good bonzer footage. Along with "Sprout".

 

For me shortboards=quads, its the only way i can surf.

 

This conversation never set out to be anti-bonzer. No one is questioning your choice of boards or fins. But with the rational you are using, we may as well shut this site down. If you havent surfed pipe, don't mention it. If you aren't a pro, don't speak on the ASP. If you don't live in Nova Scotia, don't say you don't like cold water... etc. etc.

Whatever works for you, works for you. I just think that if bonzer is your choice of boards, you MUST agree or admit to the fact that there is only a small bonzer following with regards to the surfing masses as a whole. So, inquiring minds want to know more about it. It's not like it's a secret. And the assumption would be, to most of us, that a board and fin design that came BEFORE thursters and quads and is so little-recognized these days, must have been passed in the fast lane for some reason. Why is that? All some of us have to compare to is watching a familiar guy on a thurster and then on a bonzer.

How can you educate us on the bonzer if we don't have threads like this? Call a spade a spade if everything people are asking and saying is wrong, but I would say the same about some comments made about the bonzer, and how a thurster wouldn't be capable of doing certain things.

We have all agreed that quads excel in certain situations, thrusters excel in certain as well as bonzers... that is the debate here... just all around surfing. the versatility of a design and it's application in the everyday wave world that we all live in. What to ride on these incredibly well groomed east coast beach breaks.

 

Boredom and too much time at work. Its a cycle, sometimes I miss out on checking this site for weeks, sometimes I find myself wasting time daily, on an epic scale.

 

if you have never ridden a bonzer in a good wave, for a whole session because it takes a bit to get used how it rides, then you should. It really is something.

when i rode a channel bottom thruster for the first time i saw the benefit. same thing with quads.

the first time i took a bonzer out and everytime after on every wave i get on the thing, i paddle back out saying holy ****. the speed is that unreal. Where the channel bottom thruster seems to keep all the speed through a turn. The bonzer seems to increase speed through a turn. Like when down hill skate boarding and the ride feels like you are on the verge of "oh no this might be too fast". the whole ride on the bonzer feels like that. Every time.

the shape i have and the size of the board keeps me from surfing it in on smaller days. Its for the bigger better swells. but i am really amped on getting on a smaller wave board set up as a bonzer. just to see how it feels

 

See, now I want to play with a bonzer... I guess i would need waves first, but that's what I'm talking about. I guess I won't really know until I try.

 

Bet if Simon won Bells/Pipe on a bonzer there would be a lot more people riding those bad boys...

However, back to the thread...wish the study included an assessment of other different quad fin placements--while I like small boards with more rail oriented quad placement...the McKee set-up for me is a must...with the right fin set-up you get the best of both worlds (quad/thruster).

 

NJ,

Are the 3 fins foiled or flat and thin?

 

this is exactly what i was getting at. you won't know until you try, so go try one. but how can you talk about how a design or shape rides unless you've tried one?
this thread may not have been intended as anti bonzer, but garbanzo's initial post about it most certainly had that tone, as did his second.

as for why the bonzer was "passed in the fast lane" has been repeatedly addressed by malcolm & duncan campbell-they are too difficult for most shapers, who are trying to crank out board upon board, to bother w/. they've talked about how, in the early '70s, they sent surfer mag an article w/ pictures & diagrams of their concept in action. they sent it back w/out so much as a "thanks for playing". that's when they took the idea to bing, who, along w/ mike eaton, put some of their team riders, including russ short, on them & put it into production as a stock board. it was around 1975 (i think?) that ian cairns won a contest or 2 in hawaii on one. eventually the twin fin thing came back around in the form of mark richards, followed by the thruster, & interest faded.
so it's not that it didn't work for the type of surfing people wanted to do at the time, it was too complicated for the mass production board builders to cope w/ at the time.

 

both the 3 & the 5 are like thruster or quad front fins, flat on the inside, foiled on the outer.

 

I never been on more than 3 fins,but I seen a lot of footage from the lost movie 5x5 redux,they ride a bunch of crazy fin set ups looks awesome,it looks like u can hit some mean turns with them,throwing lots of spray.Shannon eischedet(something like that)? was riding a crazy looking 6 or 7 fin,cant remember but he was doing some amazing stuff on it

 

about the Bonzers

I'm with you on the 6 channels, I'm surprised we don't see them as much anymore. Apparently they don't work as well when the waves are NOT glassy. I think its a glasser/sander conspiracy to keep 6 channel boards away