By 1977, we were still out in Saticoy building boards. Shaper and glasser, Stan Fujii was now running the factory. Working out of the factory at the time were visionary Surf Ski pioneer Merve Larson and ex-Australian Nation Champ Richard Harvey. Duncan and I learned a lot from these guys. Richard had stopped in Ventura in the fall of ’76 and ran into an incredible run of waves. He ended up staying through the winter. We became good friends and he invited us to visit him in Australia. While we were in Sydney, we stopped by the Shane Factory. They were building the Jim Pollard Fluid Foils there. We had seen film of Cole Smith ripping on these radical single fins so we knew that bottom design worked well.
When we returned home we integrated the Fluid Foil design with the Bonzer. We named the new creation the Bonzer Light Vehicle, as in the speed of light. This new aspect of bottom design opened areas of further exploration and experimentation in the evolution of the Bonzer. One extremely successful foray was an MR style twin fin with a Bonzer Light Vehicle bottom. We named it the Alpha-Omega model, and only made one. To this day the secret of the Alpha-Omega lies in suspended animation to be discovered by twin fin lovers around the world.
Russ Short – Mexico ’77
