The RNF TWINZER ‘96er The latest incarnation of our definitive fish design, the RNF ’96—enhanced with our TWINZER+ fin cluster. Based off the RNF-’96, a 2021 re-vamped version of our original 5’5” Round Nose Fish (developed 30 years ago), it’s been our best-selling board of the past five years and arguably the best-selling “fish” model of all time. The TWINZER ‘96er combines all the proven performance design details of the RNF-’96 with the added grip, control, and drive of the TWINZER+ fin cluster. All are descendants of the original hand-shaped boards, first ridden by teenaged Chris Ward and Cory Lopez 30 years ago and documented in the seminal surf flick 5’5” x 19 1/4—together making an indelible mark on the surfing universe. The Roots of the TWINZER+ The impetus for the TWINZER+ has been building for over 25 years. It goes back to 1999 and the Rusty Surfboards “C5 Challenge”—a surfing/shaper competition at our home break, Lower Trestles. Rusty had been creating and selling his own take on the Twinzer, using small canard fins strategically positioned on tri-fin/thruster boards. Thus the namesake “C-5,” because of the five-fin setup. The C5 Challenge invited shapers and surfers to enter as teams, and “challenged” us to build boards using Rusty’s formula: five fins, with the forward Twinzer-esque canards being the unique element. We entered with Dino Andino and Shea Lopez on boards I shaped following Rusty’s C5 fin cluster. Dino made the final and finished as runner-up (to Jay Larson/Doc Surfboards). It was close, but we felt good about the boards we built and the performance. A year later, in 2000, the event moved to Rusty’s home break, Blacks Beach in San Diego. We entered again—this time with Dean Randazzo. Dean ended up taking the win (and a $10,000 check for each of us) on our five-fin canard “Twinzer” version of Rusty’s C-5 design. We were stoked and intrigued, but Rusty had developed and owned the concept, so we didn’t pursue it further. Even with competitive success, I never really thought of adding it to our fish designs… for nearly 20 years. Fast Forward 20 Years During the early Covid chaos of summer 2020, while trolling IG, I followed the feed of longtime Rusty Surfboards production shaper Stu Kenson. I couldn’t help but be enamored with the relentless run of boards he was building with Twinzer setups. Intrigued again, I reached out to Stu and expressed interest in developing one of my own. I wanted to track down Will Jobson—the man universally acknowledged as the inventor of the Twinzer concept—to use his exact specs and officially license it from him. I wanted to do it right, with authenticity. Give credit to the inventor and toss him some money for his idea. With Stu and others trying to help, we attempted to reach Will, but never got a response. Once again, I lost interest and moved on. In the five years since, we’ve seen a lot of creative smaller-scale builders developing Twinzer boards. Beautiful backyard and boutique boards popping up all over IG. Even some excellent surfing being done on them. The development of the Twinzer concept has been building back up from the underground. Once again, my curiosity was piqued.
