2007 was a year in which many new film and still images developed that demonstrated the contemporary performance capabilities of the Bonzer. One of the nicer surprises was provided by Rob Machado. He had taken a 5’11’’ five fin we had made him on a trip to Chile. The board was made a couple of years earlier and we weren’t even sure he was using it. Then one day he stopped by and graciously gave Duncan some great footage of him going full tilt at a left point. It was a joy to see the board being put to the test. Additional stoke came from some film of Makala and Daniel Jones. They had been putting in some serious time on their Bonzers, and taking time to fine tune the shapes in order to fit their needs. Mick Fanning and Nathan Hedge ordered a couple of boards, and Mick showed up in the viewfinder for a couple of cool shots a V-land. Both the guys reported back that the boards went well.
In Fall, the Bonzer short film, Mothership, put together by Duncan, premiered at the New York Surf Film Festival. Previously in May the Mendocino Film Festival screened Shaping The Industry, a short documentary about Malcolm, made by Arianna Pilram. The films were well received on both coasts. We were also well represented in Patrick Trefez’s wonderfully interesting film Thread. He used some of our vintage film in a Campbell Brothers section, and some contemporary footage of Taylor Knox on his Bonzer at Sunset Beach, for his section. Tom Carroll, is also seen riding a Bonzer on a couple of waves in Tahiti.
In the midst of the appearance of all this celluloid, I made his annual pilgrimage to England, where he was summarily locked up in Nigel Semens’ Ocean Magic factory. My keeper, and Bonzer cohort, Guy Penwarden does allow for food and drink now and again. Seriously though, the boards are going well in England. The quality is great, and Guy keeps the Bonzer flame burning bright.
2007 culminated with the opening of the Bonzer Front adjacent to Café Haleiwa. The grand opening was a real happening. There was a large crowd, with some North Shore luminaries in attendance, Primo Beer supplied the suds, and Fuel TV covered the whole affair. The strong presence of good will and the prospect of having a Bonzer flagship on the North would surely send waves of energy into the new year.
In May of 2008 we partnered up with Luke Short, of LSD Surfboards in Yamba , to be the Campbell Brothers licensee in Australia. A mutual friend, Jon Patton, linked us up and brought one chapter of the Bonzer full circle. That chapter began with our early Australian influences, Wayne Lynch, Nat Young and others, then naming our new design the Bonzer, and now finally 38 years later building boards in Australia. One of the cool spin offs of the first shaping trip to OZ was that later in the year one of the boards ended up in the hands of Joel Fitzgerald. His dad Terry was also a big influence on us in our younger days. Joel took the board to New Zealand and got some great surf on it. The news through the grapevine was that he really liked the board. Small events keep dreams alive.
In summer I decided to conjure up a bit of energy from the Bonzer days of yore by remaking Duncan’s classic 6’6’’ magenta board for his birthday. It must have worked because at the October Sacred Craft show Duncan had a nice reunion with Bing. It had been a very long time since the three of us were together. Adding to the reunion was the recent release of the Bing book written by Paul Holmes. We were floored as to the amount of pages that were dedicated to covering us and the Bonzer. It was great to catch up a bit, and thank Bing once again for giving us our start in the surf industry.
