Web Objective.

mckeesurf.com has been created to give an insight into some of the creative works of one of the worlds most obscured sports related designer talents.

Some of Mckee's concepts and products are already a way of life for many sports enthusiasts and associated industries alike.

What drives designer inventors to battle the inquisitions, endless obstacles and the negativity of the sceptics?

Why improve on something when it is already adequate for the masses?

Obsession or dedication?

Financial reward and fame?

Maybe the moral obligation to share with others the fruit of a creative mind?

The answers are irrelevant when you realise that a designer inventor's goals are usually far from selfish. Where often, witnessing smiling faces is the only reward.

We hope you all can find some benefit from having visited this site…

Bruce Mckee web info.

Originally from Sydney Australia, Bruce McKee has been one of Europe's leading shaper designers for the past twelve years.

Bruce grew up on Bungan Headland with a tubular reef break for his backyard, situated between Newport Beach to the north, and Bungan to the south. To the west the waterway called Pittwater, a site of many an aquatic vehicle test.

This area enabled Bruce to become involved in design and production of many aquatic sports products.

At the age of 22, Bruce, together with partner Mitchell Ross, launched the sport of Ski-boarding or Skurfing, later Wake-boarding, with the worlds first production wakeboard named the` Mcski´, later named `SSS´ and ` Wakesnake´. The roto-moulded plastic design was then launch in the USA in 1983 under the name` Surfski´, and the rest is history.

Bruce also an active windsurfer, designed and created one of Australia's biggest selling and ageless designs (the`Capricorn´) for the` Bombora´ brand of rotationally moulded sailboards.

Always eager to expand his design knowledge, Mckee also designed wave-skis for the then three time world champion John Christianson, producing the `Christo´ range. Prior to that he also worked for the innovative `Raider Skis´, where he designed paddle-boards, wave-skis, rescue-craft and a large assortment of aquatic products, apart from making his own brand of surfboards under the `Rock Pool´ label.

Once a competitor in Australian national water-ski slalom championships and a currently qualified professional snow ski instructor (title achieved at age 20), Bruce considers these experiences combined with the aforementioned, to be vital in his understanding of Hydrodynamics and expertise in high performance aquatic sports product design and manufacture.

Having shaped, from catamarans to water-skis , Long boards and guns, to every type of short board, Bruce is a world renowned ‘all round' shaper, with an eye for precision and many a moulded design credited to his name.

Mckee's influences on surfboard design have primarily come from his home area. Bruce was also shaper for `KC´, `Daniels´, `Liquid Lips´ and `Darby´ surfboards and was surrounded by some of Australia's best known shapers and manufacturers such as `Aloha´, `Insight´, `Energy´ and `Hot Buttered´ to name a few.

Bruce regularly returns to his native Australia to catch up on the current Aussie designs and is also a frequent visitor to Hawaii where he likes to test out his `guns´(surfboards built for catching big waves).

In Hawaii and elsewhere Bruce has supplied many shapers with updates of one of his ongoing interests, an alternative surfboard fin combination, to add variety and new life to a stagnant design pool. Bruce is a renowned `gun´ specialist and is the guy they call when the North Atlantic lows start to crank.

For the last 11 years Bruce has shaped boards for a majority of the top pros of the WCT & WQS. He regularly shapes for Sunny Garcia and has had success with riders such as Kaipo Jaquias, John Shimooka, Ross Williams, Johnny Boy Gomes, Kobi & Sunny Aberton, Kurt Nyholm, Occy, Kate Skarret , Russell Winter, Tom Carroll, Tom Curren, Andy Irons, Neko Padaratz, Steve Clements, Dane Ward, Paul Parkes and a long list of past and present competitors.

Also no less important are a large group of European competitors but thanks go to Dani Garcia for a long and helpful relationship in the development of alternative surfboard designs, his M4 Quattro fin & M5 multifin system( the formulas to which will be revealed in this web site).

Mckee has been with the `Pukas´ company for 12 years as the resident or `in house´ shaper. There he also produced shapes for the `Town & Country´ team amongst other brands but has now joined forces with the SPO cooperative to give a fresh look to the surfboard designs of tomorrow.

Skurfing History

Many years ago in the Seventies I remember looking through the latest edition of the famous ‘Tracks' magazine where I came across the article about ‘Skurfing'. I was at that time a fortunate youth who surfed and water-skied, lucky to be in a water-sport loving family and apart from the water-skis, also got behind the boat with the odd surfboard or we rode whatever we found that could give us some fun.

I was just one of countless kids around the globe doing the same thing, but, the first authentic ‘Skurfers' were ‘Kiwis'.

The ‘Tracks' magazine showed guys who had already mastered a concept, who laid over big body-horizontal arcs on keel-finned specialised objects that they called ‘Skurf-boards' .The riders were Kevin Jarrett and Allan Byrne and they were showing the world a challenging new sport.

Later at age 19, having just come back from a season in the Australian alps at Thredbo, I, while working for ‘Darby' surfboards, was fortunate to be with the lads when we borrowed an authentic ‘Hot Stuff' ‘Skurf-board' from Allan Byrne. As fate had it I was the only one who could get out of the water on it, but we were all pumped on the idea of this newfound concept and were all talking of seeing a future for it.

The winter came and I passed another season in the snowfields, but kept thinking of this new concept and wanted to be part of the action. On my return to Queensland, to my dismay I was greeted with a certain run-around as to my participation in the project and was fed some information intended to lead me to believe that the concept was all sewn up and protected; in other words ‘No Trespassing'. Darby already had some nice T-shirts with the name ‘Skurfer' printed up, and this was four years before the name appeared in the USA (but with a new face claiming responsibility for the product).

In between the ski-season I was also working in Sydney with ‘Raider-Skis', the leading brand of custom shaped and moulded fibreglass wave-skis in the world at the time, so after not feeling the right vibe in Queensland I decided to try and launch the ‘Skurfing' concept in Sydney. With my experience with moulded products I was going to propose to Raider the manufacture of the boards there. I mentioned the idea to the then Australian Champion ‘Mick Petrie' who suggested that I join up with him and that the best material to make the boards with would be roto-moulded polyethylene plastic.

Unfortunately Mick was a bit tied up financially and couldn't proceed but he was a great help in forming a direction in how to go about setting up the project for manufacture. We did the basic research visiting the sports-stores and ski shops to get a reaction and the reaction was mixed.

Mick pulled out and an old friend ‘Mitchell Ross' came to the rescue and became my partner in the business which we called ‘Ski-Boards Australia' and the board was called the ‘Mcski'. We even had a television station backing us financially at the time with whom we accumulated more modifications to the product and more debts.

We had started manufacture at ‘Rotadyne Plastics' and later moved to ‘Bombora Sailboards'.

With the TV station shortly pulling out and the debts finally being eliminated we proceeded to move forward with the sales and marketing side of the business. We had distributors in each state. We were present at many boat shows, and I did the odd demonstration at the odd water-ski meeting. We made videos, were on TV sports and news shows and the next step was try to tie the product up in the USA and the rest of the world.

We had patents on the concept which mainly only tied up the foot-binding system and to my dismay, the simplified version of my plate binding design, or the one we didn't patent, is exactly what is currently in use today.

The fact of being too advanced in the foot binding design for the initial market state, ended being part of the reason for our demise in our contract with our eventual licensee in the USA.

Our ‘Mcski' ‘ski-board' as we called it at the time and soon after named ‘SSS' ski-board was (after negotiating with five of the USA's biggest water-ski companies) manufactured under licence by the Wellington Puritane company's ‘Medallist' Water-Ski division. They renamed the board ‘Surf-Ski' probably not realising that in Australia this is the name for another concept altogether ( tried to tell them ..but..).

Medallist were supplied with the moulds and parts and I personally did some fine tuning of the foaming jigs at their ‘Sun Products' plastics division in Atlanta, Georgia. I was then present at the launch at Chicago's ‘IMTEC' boat show along with videos and associated propaganda.

At the Chicago show I met ‘Tony Finn' who had plans to be the ‘Surf-Ski's' Californian representative, but through a twist of fate, ended being the face behind the name of the ‘Skurfer' brand who launched the following year in the USA manufactured by ‘Aiken Products'. The manufacturer had a small ‘kiwi' for his logo which explains the connection.

Contracts and agreements.. made to be broken, as far as some companies are concerned.. well we all learn the hard way. ‘Skurfer' became the competition and our company decided that instead of pushing the product that they would enter into a price war. “Cut the overheads” they decided so we in Australia were eliminated. Darby and company basically faced they same fate as us at the hands of Tony Finn, but of a different nature. Just more sad stories of USA –Australian relations. If they can crush you, they will.

The Australian market took a while to get moving and being a country that glamorises whatever is imported, only when the US brands started entering did the sales really start to kick off. Australia is a difficult market to launch anything due to its reduced population and distance between cities in such a big country.

I toyed with the idea of trying to manufacture with someone a surf stance version of a trick-ski (what ended up appearing years later as the current ‘wakeboards') but the thought of trying to tie up an Australian manufacturer (who wouldn't try to take the idea for themselves) became a mission that I gave up after the first steps.

I had ideas of trying a relaunch in the USA with a different model and different name but our race was run.

We sold the Australian company for pennies and the Mcski's new name ‘WakeSnake' was adopted by the new owners.

‘WakeSnakes' can still be seen today in the odd cable-ski park around Australia.

Wake-Boarding today is one of the world's fastest growing water-sports, but in the beginning there were those that could see no future for it..

Imagine that…

Mission Quattro and McKee M5 Multisystem

Sometimes there are some things that must be revealed.

Many people would know about a project of mine that I've been dedicated to on and off for time unmemorable which has seen mixed success in its progress and an unrelenting enthusiasm in its destiny. The enthusiasm of others hasn't always been directed to a destiny of it's success I must admit, but destiny has a way of guiding itself in the end.

Many have been the names that have added their opinions and advice as to what should be the outcome and use of ‘Mission Quattro' and many have helped by trying or testing one of the test boards or even making or ordering one or more for themselves.

So what is a ‘Quattro'?; It's a surfboard with one more fin than the acknowledged

standard fin quantity of three. All say its faster and has more fluidity, drive and security than a three-fin. But actually it's much more than that as it's a concept that rocks the stability and established order of hierarchies of the worlds manufacturers, surfers and shapers. Why is this? ; because apart from the fact that three fins work wonderfully, there are very few shapers of surfboards out there who would want to see someone apart from themselves come out with a viable alternative to the norm, the three fin surfboard. They would want to be the first but then again no would want to be the first to stick their neck out to face potential ridicule from their peers and the opposition. A'Catch-22' situation. The same situation faces the surfers who don't dare risk losing support from sponsors by using something widely regarded as unfashionable in the world of surfing. The manufacturers and surf magazines prefer to sit on the fence or ignore the concept but there's always a hard nut out there like me who just keeps on going while there's still a whiff of a chance.

It must be said though that there are a few courageous surfer-shapers that have been a great help in the past by collaborating, making and testing their own versions of the ‘Quattro'. Names such as Ned McMann, Glen Minami, Gordon Hanson, Brian Bulkley and Pat Rawson. They all have their own stories to tell.

One surfer-shaper, California's ‘Jeff Clarke' has taken his own trajectory with four-fins and is one of the world's most respected big-wave riders and known for his prowess at ‘Mavericks' where he rides his own version four-fin ‘guns' and ‘tow-in' boards.

Some very famous and open minded professional surfers have ridden and loved past and current versions of the ‘Quattro'. Those that have seen the video ‘Search 2' will have unknowingly been watching Tom Curren ride a ‘Mckee Quattro' on all of the biggest waves at Jeffery's Bay. Tom Carroll currently rides his own fin versions for the current ‘M4 formula' and is shown in this site testing out a Mckee shaped 8' 2” M4 at Sunset Beach. Mark Occilupo also loved an old version of the M4 and hopefully now will have the possibility to try a new version shaped by whoever he desires.

So, where does the conditioning of the mind come from where others, who have never even tried one, screw their noses up as the sound of the words “four-fin” reaches their ear?. Well this was installed shortly after the introduction of the ‘Thruster' and at a time when a four-fin was just a ‘Twin-fin' with two small stabilisers on the back. Unfortunately there had been a very discriminatory macho element that entered into the surfing industry. The surfboard types became a symbol of your grade of macho, a machometer you might say.

What we carry under our arms to the waters edge can reflect our soul (they like to have us think). Everything can have its turn at being fashionable, even open-mindedness, so bit by bit, alternatives to the sacred cows are led to the water to mix with the herd. Times change.

My story of ‘Mission Quattro' would be too long for the patience of the readers so in short I will say that I am revealing the formula for the ‘Mckee-Quattro' and ‘Mckee-Multisystem. 'in an attempt to open up the market. I'd like to make it easier for those who might want to test one out and those who would be interested in manufacturing some, without having to go through twenty or so years of trial and error and struggle as I have. If everyone has the info we're all on par.

I have only just scratched the surface in the variety of fin options that can be chosen with this system if you count asymmetrical mixes and the like.

I must stress to people that they will receive the most negative remarks imaginable from those who have never even tried one and these are all based on common reactions to anything new and unknown. The ‘Inquisition' is alive and well, so seek the logic and you shall be rewarded.

As every three fin functions differently so do the ‘Quattros'.

There are a multitude of options that should be chosen depending on your weight, surfing level, place that you choose to ride one and weight category.

Remember that as in sporting products, for example; snow-skis, a slalom-ski designed for a certain level of skier and type of course is not designed for a beginner. One needs to have a certain level of expertise even to be able to initiate the first turn. There are skis for experts and skis for the masses. The same applies to surfboards. It's easy to lay blame on a product because of your inability to adapt to a product's needs to make it perform best for you. Of course the easy way is to adapt the product to yourself if you can, so choosing the right size fins first is the key .

So explore the options if you have the time and the desire. Some have never got off a single fin and some will never fly while they can walk, but each to their own. My objective has been to show that yes there are more options to increase your fun and performance in the surf and the public has a right to know these options so they have freedom of choice.

The fin models and brand chosen as references are chosen due to their size, area and flex. Other brands may have similar types so ask your local fin expert to help you find a mix that will be comparable and suitable for you.

The ‘M5 Multifin' system means that its more difficult to find an excuse for not trying a ‘Quattro' as it has a ‘Thruster' built in and many other fin mixes that are possible with this concept. I call it ‘The System of Truth'.

“And the weight difference” you say. Minimal, besides ‘Quattro' is like having a bigger motor.

For travellers, losing a fin is less of a drama. There's always a mix that keeps you in the water.

I'd like to thank all those who have tried one in the past for their feedback and most importantly the negative. Without it would be harder to know what not to do.

The ball is in your court.

Snow Skiing

Old movies with Tyrolean alpine scenes , the crackle of log fires on a frosty winters night, snow capped mountains sprinkled with. pine trees embracing a deep blue sky. Its very difficult not to be drawn to the beauty of one of nature's wonderlands and luckily for me I grew up in a country where we had one.

Introduced to Australia's Snowy Mountains at age twelve and placed in the old leather ski-boots and plastic over-pants on the slopes of ‘Smiggin's Hole'(New South Wales) was one of the best ideas that my parents ever had. After a few runs down the old platter tow, I was hooked for life.

My Grandmother who lived in Europe as a girl, new the secret passageways of the Palace de Versailles in France and to my astonishment, upon arriving there, also spoke perfect French, well it sounded like it to me. My sister and I were treated to the trip of a lifetime during our school years. We went to Austria and Switzerland, through the Dolomites in Italy and even went up a cable-car in Chamonix France where we watched as the skiers commenced their endless decent down to the valley floor where they appeared as ant-like specks in the miniature toy-like village.

A school excursion to New Zealand's South Island with our geography teacher, where we skied Mt Hutt, sealed my love for the sport which would be the eventual reason for my move to Europe, first stop Chamonix.

Earlier on in Australia I spent a few seasons at Thredbo New South Wales where I loved to ski the bumps and powder, race gates and compete in the alternative events such as aerials and ballet. After two seasons thought I'd try my luck at getting my Instructors Certificate. Out of eighty participants fifteen passed. I fortunately was one of the lucky ones and for me it was one of the first times I'd ever had what you'd call an outer mind experience. It happened several times during a ski off which is a situation where you have a big audience watching as you have your turn in showing your moves as you descend the slope. The adrenaline is pumping and for some reason your conscious mind takes a back seat in your body. Its as if your body has become robotic and that you are watching it from a foot behind and above your head. The only way to control my body for me was to pre-program it or go over the body motions in my head while trying to slow my heart and breathing rate before the decent. It worked, so off I skied while watching my body go through the motions perfectly as if there were no actual conscious thought to control it. I was pre-programmed. I proved to myself the need for this preparation when they surprised me by reversing the ski-off order and thus the robot went out of control. Needless to say the old autopilot kept me on my feet, luckily for me considering that we were on a bump run. I'm sure this happens to most of us in moments of extreme pressure. I just fluked a bit of control, great sportspeople master it.

After a short stint as an Instructor in Australia I found myself involved in the launch of the ‘Mcski' wake-board. Also during this time while mixing summer work at ‘Bombora Sailboards' I worked for many winter seasons in Australian snow-ski shops as a salesman, boot-fitter, ski-technician and repair man. It would not be till nine years later that I was led to the French alps where I worked as a video cameraman who made tourist and ski-correctional videos, apart from being the tour bus driver and ski-guide.

I still go to the ski-slopes when I can and mix the snow-boarding(hard and soft boot) with the skiing. Winters a beach.

Wave Skis

Sydney Australia is a playground for all water sport enthusiasts and for those with free time on their hands it offers such a huge range of conditions that you will find an abundant amount of strange surf-craft to be ridden and experimented with.

Living in such a privileged part of the world I had access to all the toys and having an enquiring mind, the hydrodynamics of each aquatic related object was always an interest to me.

Out of High School and having just come back from a few months working on a prawn-trawler in far north Australia and a season in the Australian alps, the opportunity arose to work with Roger Shackleton, an innovative Englishman and terrific person. It was with him at ‘Raider Skis' that I learned the craft of mould making and had hands on experience shaping custom orders for a variety of objects apart from wave-skis including paddle race boards and rescue craft.

Fashionable work it wasn't, according to those of the surfing inquisition and basically something to be scorned upon for allowing the growth of a product used by a dubious bunch of characters classed as ‘kooks' by the majority of the surfing population.

I liked to call them ‘goat boaters' and they really didn't care what you called them, as they, like everyone, loved to catch a few waves when they could and on what they wanted. There were and are ‘some' that abuse the fact that the object that is used to propel them onto the waves, slicing air and water (a paddle) is a daunting weapon when in the wrong hands, but this type of person generally is instantly reprimanded by other associate ‘goat boaters' for giving them a bad name and causing animosity in the water otherwise the laws of the jungle prevail.

Competitiveness abounds in the Australian surf but a set of rules have been established to allow all types of surfers to be able to catch waves at the multitude of surf spots though sometimes if you're the black sheep of the pack you just have to suffer the discrimination.

Due to the Surf Life Saving clubs of Australia wave-skis have a long history and come in many different forms. Some for racing, some for rescue and others for wave riding manoeuvres and performance.

At ‘Raider Skis' I was privileged to be able to make skis for the first Australian performance-ski Champ ‘Mick Petrie' and then after for three times World Champ ‘John Christianson' who ended up forming his own brand ‘Christo' wave-skis. John use to ride his wave-skis in powerful conditions while hardcore surfers watched with jaws agape as John sometimes launched up to three meters out of the water in an aerial re-entry or got spat out of a ‘Winki-Pop' tube´(a gnarly reef tube) at Fairy Bower, Manly which he dominates.

Pretty unique fellow is John.

John Christianson is a former Australian Kayak Champion, who being multitalented also is an excellent surfboard rider and snow skier. As seemed natural to me for the way John is, the first time we snow-skied together he rode a mono-ski.

I wasn't a wave-ski rider but occasionally would have a go when there wasn't the chance of hurting anybody except myself. Pretty frustrating contraption I thought. Wave-skis for me offered another interesting design puzzle to be solved in the vast realm of hydrodynamics. One can use the experience gained in learning the dynamics of the function of one water-sport concept or object and use it to translate another.

We all get caught up in what's cool, in ‘vogue' or hip, but I prefer to avoid the politics and marketing influenced segregative mentalities, that is until I have to use them myself to launch a new concept.

Windsurfing

I was not even a teenager when I was first shown a photo of this strange new contraption that was a mix between surfboard and sailboard. The man who showed me the photo was father of my then best friend Clinton Rose, Peter. Peter Rose was the man who taught Australia's first World Surfing Champ ‘Midget Farrelly' how to surf and the man who taught me but I missed out on the compete part of the instruction.

While on one of our first surf-safaris Peter Rose explained to me how people have trouble opening their minds to accept that something can be result of linking two distinct worlds of enthusiasts such as the surfing world and the sailing world. These ideas generally conceived by someone who knows no frontiers.. For the purists the idea was heresy and wouldn't get any support from their part so it took nearly fifteen years before it finally broke down the barriers and became accepted as its own world, the one known as ‘Wind-Surfing'.

While out one day on a friends boat with a group for a picnic I was offered a go on one of the original ‘Windsurfer' brand windsurfers. Obsessed with the idea of dominating the beast, the hours turned into minutes before I finally returned the board to the tune of “time to head back, Oh by the way, lunch was nice!”. Some just don't know when to give up I suppose.

Due to the manufacture of my ‘Mcski' wakeboard at the ‘Bombora' sailboard factory it was there that I was surrounded by some amazing technology. Giant rocking ovens which baked new roto-moulded windsurfers, a foam injection room where the injection machine was constructed of parts from submarine's gearbox and many tools and gismos needed for the construction of these mass produced items.

I quickly became absorbed in the sport as I commenced work in the factory to back up my basically part time involvement with the ‘Mcski' business due to its slow growth.

While there I designed a few models, one of which (the Capricorn) became so popular that it was Australia's biggest selling sailboard in its first year of production and was kept in production for over twelve years.(maybe still going ..have to check)

My passion in the sailboard design world was to make step-hulled craft (hydroplane) sailboards of various combinations, directed at slalom and the high-speed time trial type section of the sport. This is something which I have postponed due to my moving to Europe and being distracted by my involvement in the surfboard industry.

Along with my brother I also have a desire to make a second catamaran of the same nature due to our first successful test runs of an earlier design in the mid-eighties.

Windsurfing suffered a decline after it's boom years in the early eighties but there are still many die-hard enthusiasts in what had been regarded as a fairly elitist sport due to the ongoing expenses of keeping up with the ever evolving technology in sail and hull design etc.

Now the new craze is ‘Kite-surfing'. I wonder if Peter Powell* had imagined how far his concept would reach.

* Peter Powell developed a twin stringed kite that could be made to do aerobatic tricks and mass marketed the concept with great success.