Horan-McCoy Nugget bonzer spitfire….

Not one of mine, but something about this design just screams – “try me!”

Its from the ProBox fins site/blog and the templates (board and fins) are pure McCoy/Horan, with a little reverse Campbell Bros thrown in.

The reverse (to norm) foil is meant to be the lowest drag option, which is why this is a more common shape on boats now than swept back like a conventional surfboard fin.

I had the best barrels of my life on my McCoy Nugget in both Indo and the Caribbean. I guess I may have to make a version in the very near future, add the EVO vortex bottom, foil up a spitfire fin… find some decent waves to try it in – watch this space…

What year am I going back to with this one Phil?

Quiver for sale...

Having a bit of a clean out so the following boards are up for grabs... from near to far...

• Ocean Magic 7'0" diamond tail, shaped by Nigel Semmens with bonzer TS EVO3 fins. Lovely retro board that Nigel and I collaborated on for medium to large surf with glide and fluidity as the objective. Despite having taken it out at several of Cornwall's larger surf spots this board is in As-New condition; resin tint on bottom, spray on deck, glossed and polished, and hardly a heel impression. Collectable... £300
• Rockit 7'4" Pintail 5 fin by underground legend Phil Clifford. Great travel board as the 5 fin set up will go in anything. I took this board to SE Oz  and then onto the Mentawais. 6oz glass job and As-New condition. Collectable... £250
• Campbell Bros 6'6" POD Bonzer 5 SOLD- 2007 Malcolm Campbell glassed at Ocean Magic... showing some battle scars but still the perfect introduction to bonzers... best roundhouse cutback board ever - (until I came up with the FreakFish). Collectable...£350 for a piece of surfing history.
• Jim Banks 6'10 thruster Indo-special shaped for my trips to Sumatra. A special board with special memories of some of the best barrels of my life. Comes with Speed Fins including a spare set of fronts... another collectable (my garage just isn't big enough) in beautiful condition, no dings just a few dents... £255
• Rockit 7'4" pintail thruster SOLD I had shaped by Phil for my time in the Caribbean. This board lost out to Hurricane Mitch and shows it, but it is still a magic board and ideal for someone who would like a reliable gun that they can play on or just a cheap board that will go in just about anything... if it doesn't sell I'll probably knock the fins off  it as they are worth the money alone, (from C-Fins with carbon inlays)...

Gurus get geeky

Phil: “I think you have to click on the button thingy with a clocky thing in a square”

Malcolm: “I should just pick up the phone…"

Malcolm Campbell and Phil Clifford 5.30pm 15/09/09 attempting to get emails off the Ocean Magic PC…

SupaGlide – looking very promising

Well i decided to try out that tri-hull I had always wanted to on my new mid length model, the Supa Glide. 8’2” x 21 1/16” x 2 5/8”… the board cut beautifully under the watchful eye of Phil Clifford at Ocean Magic. Shaping it tonight… very excited about this one.

 

Jamnesia

Heard from an old friend today, Miss Dotty, she used to take care of me when I lived on that blessed isle. This pic, me one morning before the suit went on, surfing one of my Phil Clifford Rockit 5 fins, 6’6” x 19 1/8” x 2 3/8”; 1997, Zoo before the hurricane destroyed it…

Good times – big up to the Jamaican crew.

Sure Forms

I am going through some old boxes of the surf magazines I bought when I was kid and came across this classic design article with a section on bonzers in Surfer Magazine, November 1977 Volume 18 Number 4. I remember the article vividly and being fascinated by the concept… but along came the twin fin, and then Simon Anderson with the thruster, before I moved onto Phil Clifford’s 5 fins. It would take 30 years and the influence of Tim Elsner and Steve Jacobi on the island of Simeulu to finally sate my curiosity.

Now I’m hooked. Thanks guys.

  

Phil Clifford – blame him…

The shady looking character on the left is the infamous shaper Phil Clifford of Rockit Surfboards… whatever you think of what I'm doing board wise – blame him… he started it LOL.

PS For those who are curious it is 1979 and that is Tad Ciastula of Vitamin Sea in the middle and Chris Jones (CJ) on the right, all clutching some Bronzed Aussies single fins.

Debate with a guru…

I was chatting to Phil Clifford of Rockit Surfboards at the OM Surfboard Factory the other day and we were discussing my latest board (for me) – nicknamed the FreakFish… it’s a bonzer 4 fin with what I am calling the “EVO4” set-up and a complex concave bottom…

We were shooting the breeze about the purpose of surfing; Phil was saying ultimately it was all about high performance and speed, speed to do manoeuvres and go different places on the wave… I agreed with much of what he was saying but something didn’t sit comfortably. For me it has always been less about speed and performance and more about sensations, experimenting and trying new things, often prompted by trying different boards (like keel fin McCoy Nuggets, Cinqo 5 fins, and most recently Bonzers) most of which do not sit comfortably in the conventional performance bracket.

As if to make the point this morning I was gliding through a flat spot on a chest high onshore sloppy wave at my local beach on my Malcolm Campbell 6’6” POD… I’d moved forward to trim (where the thruster kids would have slapped, flapped, pumped and jumped about as the wave died under them)… and truly relished in the quiet effortless glide that carried me through, and then as the wave started to reform… I stepped back, dropped in to the section, bottom turned and smacked that lip like a good little thruster-kid of the 80s.

Ride and glide.