Inspiration From Innovation: Noah’s New 2+1
- Cord Surfboards
- Apr 8
- 3 min read
We recently made a Bonzer-inspired 2+1 with a Cord twist for teamrider Noah Lane. But, what is a Bonzer?
These days you’ll see folks carrying boards with all sorts of different fin configurations down the beach at your local break. But it wasn’t that long ago that choice and surf culture norms were a lot narrower: if it was long it had one fin, and if it was short it had three; maybe two. But then, every now and then, you’d see a Bonzer.
The Bonzer was developed by Californian brothers Malcolm and Duncan Campbell and is widely credited as being the first three-fin surfboard design, predating Simon Anderson’s Thruster by a solid decade. Coming in three and five fin flavours, the design combines a deep single to double concave with two long and shallow keel-shaped side fins pointed almost directly to the nose, just ahead of a 6 ½” to 8” centre fin. The five-fin version breaks the long keel side fins into two nub fins on either side.
The idea was to improve the speed, control and responsiveness of shortboards, all of which were still single fins, in the immediate aftermath of the Shortboard Revolution. At the tail end of 1970 the teenage brothers (Malcolm was 18 and Duncan 15) designed and shaped the first iteration of the Bonzer with three fins, and by 1972 they had refined the combination of fins and bottom contours to what we now call the Bonzer, and licensed the design to Bing Surfboards.
The bottom mechanics of the Bonzer direct water through the fins to retain speed and energy, and the side fins are set to enable easy rail-to rail transitions and provide enough additional lateral resistance to allow the size of the central fin to be reduced. The overall effect is fast, drawn-out surfing and the ability to carve broader arcing turns. It was revolutionary surfing in the early years of the shortboard, but the design never truly caught on and was eclipsed by the arrival of the twin fin, and then the Thruster, despite its high performance merits and advocates.
Cord’s founders visited California frequently through the early and mid 1970s, and Humphrey and Chops had many lifelong friends there. Chops was always intrigued by innovative surfboard designs (just take a look at his Platypus model!) and experimented with Bonzers. After making this board for Noah, whilst climbing around in the attic to photograph it, we found one of his old templates for a Bonzer egg, with his notes scribbled all over it.
Noah is a surfer who’s always keen to get on new feelings, and to experiment with his surfboards. He’s also one of the many surfers who watched Taylor Knox’s infamous “Green Bonzer” section in Chris Malloy and Taylor Steele’s 2001 film Shelter, and had their curiosity piqued.
Noah’s new board is inspired by that board, but : 6’5” with a diamond tail, set up as a 2+1 with deep double concaves running between the fins. It’s not a true Bonzer because it doesn’t feature the long, low keel fins and Noah instead rides it with two side bites, but there’s definitely a hat tip to that iconic bottom configuration and fin combination. With a nod to the design’s 1970s references, the bottom has a tie-die style orange resin tint vortex.
"It’s a lot of fun! I really like that 2+1 fin set-up because it feels like you can surf off the tail and off your back foot with a lot of control. The little side bites and the bottom concaves give it a lot of squirt and speed where you wouldn’t normally get it with that single fin and side bites fin set-up.”
With 65 years of history designing and making innovative surfboards, if there’s a feeling that you’re chasing or a design that you’re interested in experiencing, give us a call at Cord.
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