Bro, Do You Even Bonzer?

While they’ve enjoyed a loyal underground following since fixing the first standardized side fins to their teenage sleds in late-’60s Ventura County, the Campbell Brothers, Malcolm and Duncan, have seen their original Bonzer Concepts thoroughly revisited and reconsidered this last decade.

(See: the Campbell Brothers x Channel Islands collaborations the last two years, and their Stab In The Dark entry.) 

Everyone from Dane Reynolds to Joel Tudor to Alex Knost have drank deeply from the Campbell Brothers kool-aid, applying and adopting the versatile three- and five-fin designs to modern high performance shortboards as well as ’70s pintail outlines. And perhaps none so much as Taylor Knox, who after stepping away from tour after nearly two decades pushing standard Merrick thrusters, committed himself to following his curiosity around the designs, and pushing them to their performance limit. 

“I thought, instead of looking at these boards as a funky, “retro” design, why don’t I order a couple… really put some time into these boards,” Taylor says in Wi5, the 12-minute documentary from filmmaker Sam Moody, looking at Taylor’s decade’s-long love affair with the designs. “I’d have people come up and say, Oh, cool, you have a Bonzer… but those things don’t really work in shitty waves, or whatever? But I know you’ve never ridden one, so what the fuck do you know?”

Enjoy the film above, which sees Taylor fanning out on a few Bonzer variations, in Hawaii, California, and a few of his favorite spots south of the border.

And tell us, have you had The Bonzer Experience?