Bonzer stuff from 1989
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I stumbled across this interview and ad with Malcolm Campbell and Campbell Brothers Bonzers (and Max McDonald too!) in a 1989 issue of Breakout magazine, which is the year I started riding 5 fin Bonzers (age 19).
By The Psycho Spear!
From Peter St Pierre’s Instgram @tapedoff
“Cleaning out the loft found this sailboard from the 80’s. We won the speed trials at the Ponds with it. Shaped by Dan Van Zanten ridden by Jeff King. That thing was so fun to ride at the Ponds high wind and smooth water.
Its 12′ long, we never used any other measurements. We needed to make a big board because we knew the wind would be flukey with lots of holes due to weather conditions. We had five guys in the shaping room trying to agree on a outline. The blank had so many lines drawn on it you couldn’t see anything so I grabbed a role of tape and just pulled a line. Jeff said that’s it, so we cut that side out flipped the bone and drew the other side. Done deal. The European contingent with all their high tech composite boards were laughing at us when I took it off my car. But Jeff shut them up by winning the event.”
Case Study Surfboard #3: 6’5″ e-wing Bonzer5
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| Malcolm Campbell shaped this 5 fin Bonzer surfboard for Peter St Pierre in 1989/1990, during the early days of the Campbell Brothers/Moonlight Glassing relationship. |
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| Note this logo features the template of the original Bonzer siderunner fins. |
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| Logos were BIG back then! |
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| Dims: 6’5″ x 19 7/8″ x 2 7/8″ with 11 1/2″ nose and 15″ tail. |
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| The airbrush has that cool Future Primitive handpainted vibe that was popular at the time. |
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| Features: beak nose, red glass-on siderunners by Jack Jensen and the radical Elevated Wing (e-wing) invented by Mac McDonald and adopted to good use by Malcolm Campbell. When these boards first started showing up in production sander Kenny Mann nearly had a heart attack. |
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| I think the story on this is that Jimmy Jazz chunked the route job for the box because the old jig wouldn’t fit on the deep double concaves properly, so it got a little logo art to cover the repair. |
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| The rails are thick with a hard edge. I had ridden this board several times in my 20’s when I weighed 135 lbs and it was always too much foam for me. It paddled great and surfed loose when my back foot was behind the e-wing. I actually softened up the edge with some 400 grit recently. Now that I am over 40 and 155 lbs+ I am stoked to ride this again. |
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| The first time I saw the e-wing I was struck by how beautifully futuristic it looked and was really impressed with Malcolm’s detailed shaping skills. Gary Stuber did a great job figuring out how to glass them too. The e-wing loosens up the tail without making it wiggly waggly. And it gives it highline lift down the line, and excellent control in cutbacks. |
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| Back then leashes didn’t have rail savers, looks like the string pulled thru the tail on a big day. |
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| Airbrusher Peter St Pierre was probably airbrushing some boards for Eric “Bird” Huffman at the time and decided use the leftover paint for his board. |
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| Great tail outline. |
This is a good, solid surfboard ready to paddle over the ledge, stay steady under your feet and carve up sections. Not too many people had seen 5 fin Bonzers around San Diego county at the time and it always got a lot of attention in the parking lot, on the beach and in the lineup.
Choice Rocket
6’9″ x 19 1/2″ x 2 1/2″
This one walked into the shop the other day.
Shaped by Rich Pavel under his Choice label and glassed at Moonlight Glassing in the early 1990’s late 1980’s.
Interesting that it was originally marked as aquad twinzer.
Performance rocker. This board gives the vibe it’s seen a few good days of surf.
Ghost traction pad images are always cool.
Interesting that it was originally marked as a
Performance rocker. This board gives the vibe it’s seen a few good days of surf.
Ghost traction pad images are always cool.
Lots of patina but mostly watertight. Needs some TLC.
Looking forward to riding it soon!
*UPDATE: Shaper Rich Pavel posted the following comment,
J. P.
It was the late 80’s. Think of the explosive “Potz” Twinzers & The renound Glenn Minami – of Blue Hawaii fame.
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Rich here from OZ. Hanging in the shaping bays down under with the likes of Neil Purchase Jr. and the retired Neil Purchase Sr. We are going over an anthology of design. Have been speaking a lot of many designs not the least of which is the board you have there. Keep that thing for sure. One of the few design experiments we compiled that Jeff Ching rode. Ching borrowed one off of Stevie Lis thru Chioce Studios at the time and shralped the thing in solid winter conditions. Need to reference it when I return. That board was a custom commissioned and built expressly for Davey Hall. Davey, a professional (an exceptional exercise fitness physiology specialist) trainer had a few of those made. Built as Twinzers, ala Martin Potter via Laguna Canyon originally. Big story on that series of design
BLAZING BOARDS & BEYOND
Surfy Surfy is stoked to be stocked up on DVD’s of Chris Bystrom’s classic 1980’s Blazing Boards films.
Featuring all your favorite 80’s surf heros like Curren, Occy, Potter, Kong and Ronnie Burns.
Epic soundtracks by The Untouchables and Hoodoo Gurus and other rocking bands before music got all emo and sad.
Buy: Blazing Boards
Buy: Beyond Blazing Boards
Buy: Blazing Boards, Beyond Blazing Boards & Blazing Longboards 3 pack (save $10!)
Yew!
New/Old
Moonlight had a customer in the 1980’s who ordered a rad 7’6″ egg under the Rip Curl label. He surfed it to death and recently showed up and ordered a copy.
The original Rip Curl logos are long gone but some old school Moonlight logos were located in an old dusty folder.
This is the nice thing about the same crew of guys working at the same factory since 1979, you can get get new/old stuff.
Shape then and now: Mike Slingerland
Airbrushing then and now: Peter St Pierre
Glassing then and now: Gary Stuber
Sanding then and now: Kenny Mann
Polish gloss then and now: Mark Donnellon.
