Malcolm Campbell seems about as humble as a person can be. Cultured and soft-spoken, you’ll notice that he doesn’t just wait for his turn to speak. He listens and absorbs - rare for someone with so much to teach, double rare for someone in the surfboard industry. Malcolm and his brother Duncan are shaper-designers whose pioneering fin system and bottom contours, in both three and five-fin varieties, have earned them a core of devoted converts. The following photos and captions demonstrate a few examples of their design, the bonzer.
THE REAL THREEThe three-fin bonzer pre-dated the thruster by over a decade, something many surfing historians forget. Around the same time Bob McTavish was sawing the tails off anything over nine foot long, the Campbell brothers were innocently embarking on something that would become an all-consuming passion, not to mention a lifetime of work. This particular board looks back at the first era, and incorporates some of the design elements of the original bonzer into a futuristic three-fin. This is not to say that the bonzer is a retrospective design - high-performance versions are at the cutting edge of surfing, a fact often overlooked by the media.
EB5The Elevated-wing is a radical piece of design created by the Campbell Brothers and Max McDonald. Originally designed for use on longboards, the E-wing is now a central feature of the Octa-fish, the type of bonzer pictured. The E-wing is typical of the Campbell’s constant quest to refine and expand their designs. This board was made in Newquay by Malcolm in 2007, on a shaping trip to the old country organised by Guy of House of Bonzer.
EARLY BONZERThis bonzer is from the mid/late 1970s, and was not shaped by the Campbell brothers. It was part of a treasure trove unearthed in a garage in Australia. The board had exaggerated bottom contours, clearly shaped under the impression that deeper channels would lead to increased speed. In fact, the magic of the bonzer is all in the subtlety, and pushing the channels too far results in a stiffening up of the design.
BLUE BONZER 5This 8-shot sequence shows the 5-fin bonzer, or Bonzer 5. The bonzer 5 was created in 1982, and has remained fairly underground ever since, despite growing interest in California and on the north shore. Several top professional surfers are bonzer converts; the ‘bonzer underground’ range from big-wave chargers through to performance longboarders - the design is effective on any shape of board, in any size of wave. One thing the bonzer 5 screams is speed. Water flowing under the board is compressed through the concaves and fins, giving a unique projection.
BONZER NESTA Mini-quiver of Campbell brothers bonzers. From left to right: 7’3’’ Egg, 6’3’’ Octafish, 6’6’’ Vintage, 7’6’’ Egg. These boards are suitable for a vast spectrum of waves, each one really comes to life in certain conditions, but they are very versatile.
CAMPBELL BROTHERS LOGOSThe bonzer has suffered at the hands of a surfing mainstream that is very exclusivist - trumpeting what is ‘right’ and condemning anything else. The Campbell Brothers and their bonzer genuinely deserve greater recognition in history, not to mention an increasing prominence in the future of surfing. These two logos are the hallmarks of a genuine bonzer.
Read more at:
http://www.bonzer5.com/
Submitted By
Dan Crockett on the 20th July 2007.
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