Mick Mackie, an incredible innovator who has carved a living from foam and resin for the last 30 years in New South Wales, Australia. Mick makes some pretty unusual looking surfboards, drawing inspiration for several of his outlines from snow-surfing, a proto version of snowboarding. Snow-surfing uses a fish-tailed board, with familiar surfboard nose shape, but includes an in-swept, concave tail outline, making it look even more fish-like.”Sidecut Fish” design lets the rail dig deeper and engage more sharply against the water surface during a turn, which gives the turn a smaller radius and more bite. Shop the latest sidecut fish shapes to hit our shelves!
Board Talk with Mick Mackie
Mick has been designing and refining his sidecut fish over the past 20 years. The sidecut allows you to follow the natural arc of a turn with added bite and hold. This is achieved by having more rail in the water, as the sidecut engages and bites through the turn. Exactly the same concept as the arc you will see a snowboard make – simple yet effective. This sidecut is a design you will see many surfboard shapers around the world now adopt, with more and more shapers understanding and utilising the unique qualities in the concept.
“I have been developing my fish designs over the past 18 years or so, out of a deep personal feeling for this beautiful shape. The fish can be blended into many variations, which I am still customising for each personal order, by hand. There have been a few people I have had as major influences while developing this shape. The first is Steve Lis who without we would have not had this great outline. Many thanks to him for his intuition in first developing the fish. Skip Frye was integral in the fish resurgence as he shaped a couple for Derek Hynd in the early nineties shown in Andrew Kidman’s film Litmus. This set forth the revival of the fish and many other ideas and ideals within surfing culture. The snowsurf genius of Dimitrije Milovich was very influential for me in as far as the sidecut I use throughout the tail section of my fish. The further influence of snowsurfing came through in some of my flextail designs of which George Greenough also greatly influenced. I would not be where I am at today without first acknowledging these four major designers. Many thanks for their visions My fish today are a mix of traditional and modern concepts from outline to profiles to fin choice.”
7’10 x 22 5/8 x 3 ¼
Sidecut Long Fish Futures Twin Keel
The Mick Mackie Sidecut long fish is designed to glide and trim on smaller waves yet still be able to draw nice clean carves on larger walls. With keeled fins it gives great drive for smooth classic lines. Seven ounce volan patches provide great strength to the glassing as well.
7’0 x 20 ½ x 3
Classic Pin Single Fin with 10” fin box
This is basically a typical single fin design from around the 1976-1979 period. Designed to surf smooth and be able to draw clean lines and turns from your surfing. Shaped from the original seventies blanks it is as close to that classic period style of board as possible. Seven ounce volan patches provide great strength to the glassing as well.
6’11 x 20 x 2 7/8
Sidecut Swallowtail/ Mini Gun Futures quad
This Mick Mackie surfboard is a new hybrid I have come up with that sits somewhere between a classic single fin mixed with modern sidecut curves to provide resistance free turning, coupled with a quad fin set up to add that bit of zing to the performance of the board. A narrower outline will set well in larger well shaped waves. Seven ounce volan patches provide great strength to the glassing as well.