Mckenzie Bowden, 25, might be the man for our troubled surfing times. A dancer of imagination, a high kung fu kicker of note, a man as comfortable behind the decks as he is on the tools. A surfer of rare talent and style. A blue-collar, working-class Gen Z, with 35k instagram followers. A heart of gold, with cultural sensitivity anda jawline that could cut diamonds. A storied gypsy with a hippy upbringing that has allowed his mix of work ethic, talent, and quirkiness to stand out in the varied surf hubs of Whangamatā, Torquay, and the Gold Coast.
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McKenzie Bowden is just back from his mate’s tattoo shop with fresh ink. “I got some strawberries because I’m sweet like a strawberry, and a genie bottle with a little traditional flower poking out. Because life’s a juxtaposition, and we all wish for mystery. Oh, and because it was just a funny, silly thing to do, we filmed it.”
The Kiwi-born, Gold Coast natural-footer hasn’t been afraid to put his noggin above the comedy parapet. In being largely successful, he joins a cast of pro-surfers that you could count on one hand. His parodies of surf and surf-adjacent stereotypes have gained traction with a broad audience in and out of the surf world.While sometimes tackling subjects like race, peer pressure, and social media anxiety, they generally just make you smile.
“He wants to make them funny, but also have some type of meaning behind them,” says younger brother, surfer, model, and skit co-star Tanē (pronounced Tah-nay). “I mean as much as he always is the funniest guy in the room,Macca is a caring, smart dude, and he tries to twangle those aspects of his personality together in those skits.”McKenzie spent his first four years in Taupō, a beautiful, remote town on the north-eastern shore of Lake Taupō, in the central NorthIsland. “By all accounts we had a treehouse, overlooking the river. Dad was a singer-song-writer and mum ran a swimming school, but they’ve always led a hippy, gypsy life, and decided to move to Australia to see what was possible there.”His parents Drew and Heidi moved to Sorrento on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula. His dad worked as a landscape designer by day and gigged at night, with his mum looking after McKenzie and the toddler Tanē. The family stayed in Victoria for eight years. It was here that his dad discovered a love for surfing, even if the boys’ sporting diet was a typical Victorian staple of AFL and cricket. “I basically just compiled a horrendous list of injuries, and quickly worked out that land-based contact sport wasn’t for me,” laughs Bowden.
Aged 12, the parents made the decision to move back to New Zealand. Original plans to travel overseas to Hawaii and Canada were shelved when they settled in Whangamatā, on the North Island’s Coromandel Peninsula. “It was such a little cult surf town and so straightaway we met a bunch of the crew,” recallsMcKenzie. “Mum home schooled us, and we lived right there on the ocean. It was a mini-paradise and me and Tanē, who were always joined at the hip, fell in love with surfing.”
Both brothers had a natural gift for the sport and soon hit the junior competition circuit. In2012, MacKenzie in the Under 16s and Tanēin the under 12’s claimed their first Billabong Grom Series wins, on the same day.
“Dad bought a bus, and we’d go off every summer to travel around the whole country and just camp, and do the comps,” says Macca. “Dad would go play gigs at night and we’d watch them at the pubs and then comeback. We’d surf and then cook potatoes and fish on the fire on the beach. It was nice and earthy. We’ve just constantly travelled around, that’s been my whole life.”
When McKenzie was 17 the family moved again, back to Australia. Life in a tiny New Zealand town didn’t offer a whole lot of opportunities and the Bowdens weren’t ones for staying in the one place, for too long. This time they posted up in Jan Juc and plugged into yet another one of the country’s famous surf hubs.
“It wasn’t always easy. At 17, the hormones are kicking in and you’re moving around different countries and different places trying to fit in trying to do school, figuring out who you are and what your identity is,” said McKenzie. “So that’s a weird sort of thing to navigate as a young person as you tried to figure out what to do with your life.”
The brothers, with their obvious surfing ability, took quickly to Bells, and in turn, were taken in. “They like a bit of fresh blood inTorquay,” laughs McKenzie. They became friends and surfing sparring partners with Vicco’s best surfers like Cahill Bell-Warren and Cody Robinson. Bowden joined his dad on the tools, worked at the Bird Rock Cafe, which his cousin owned, and funded his trips to junior competitions and surf missions. A lot of those trips were to the Gold Coast, where McKenzie quickly formed enduring friendships. Like every aspiring pro, the pathway of the QS and CT seemed the only viable option.
Ex-QS surfer and respected surf coach Samba Mann was pivotal around this stage. As President of the D’Bah Boardriders, he welcomed both brothers into the fold. Mackenzie also stayed a this place and Samba took him to teams and junior events and training camps up and down the coast.
“McKenzie was super talented and had a really good style, but in heats he would never hit the levels that his free surfing was at,” saysMann. Maybe he didn’t have the mongrel in him, his brother perhaps did, but he didn’t.But his quirky, fun character always shone through. And he was always up to something, that’s the way he is.”
McKenzie was sponsored by RVCA and between the ages of 18 and 20 hit a few of the QS events in Oz and Indo but failed to nudge any dials. The dream of becoming a pro-surfer on tour was fading. And if it was a story that had been played out on the Gold Coast a thousand times before, it didn’t make it any easier to swallow. The Gold Coast vortex has swallowed far more talented surfers than Bowden.
Spending half his time on the Gold Coast, away from his brother and folks didn’t help.Dangling both the warm weather and wave carrot, he convinced the rest of the family to move north. “We’d always moved as a pack and made decisions together. We’ve always supported each other. That’s what I’ve sort of stood by and it’s led me to where and who I am today,” he said.
“He always smoothed those moves for me and has always been there when I need him,” saysTanē. “He’s just the life of the party and even when you are tired, or done, he’s still therein the room making everyone laugh and feel good. I’ve had that energy in my room my whole life.”
His parents moved up to a Burleigh Heads apartment when he was around 20. He flipped burgers, poured beers at restaurants and clubs, and worked on the tools with his dad to make ends meet. Eventually, he spent a year working as a cement renderer, which is where the Instagram clips first started.
“It was really hard yakka, but I was working for this big Italian family who were incredible,” he said. “We had so many laughs and we’d dance around and film funny stuff on the worksite and people just found it slightly amusing. Look, I understand the social media dopamine effect of people liking it, but we’ve only ever done them to have fun ourselves.”
In 2018 his surfing profile received another bump when a wave he caught at Kirra during the Cyclone Gita swell went viral. “That double-up drainer was probably the best wave of the season, and we all know who gets the best one because they are all on tape,” said Mann. “But he’s one of those guys, like Asher Pacey, that just seems to be a magnet for those dream waves.”
It was Asher Pacey who was involved in another pivotal transition for Bowden. On aRVCA boat trip with Pacey, Ari Browne and Jay Davies, Bowden’s best board was an Eric Arakawa he’d bought for 40 bucks from a local cash converter. Pacey had just moved to Album, and McKenzie borrowed his twin fins and asymmetric every chance he could.
“I saw Krooky and AP looking like wizard fairies just sliding around getting barrelled, high lining and larrying and just dancing with the wave on these fun boards, and that was just what I wanted to do. I just wanted togo fast and smooth and look pretty.”
Having ridden those types of alternative craft ever since, his surfing ticks those boxes.That combination, aided and abetted by his consistently, and genuinely funny, Insta posts (his handle: Performance art theatre,Cosmic tree hugger) has seen him carve a unique niche in the surfing world. Last year Quiksilver signed him up to be, well, to be himself.
It’s opened further opportunities to show-case his stylish surfing and unique personality. With a new long-term(ish) partner, his parents moving from Burleigh to the Byron Bay Hills to live off-grid, and his brother and his million-dollar chin currently strolling the catwalks of London, the pack might have finally started to split. It’s time to forge his own path.
I want to travel more, get creative, surf great waves, surround myself with good people, and keep learning,” he says. “I just want to chase and create good, cutesy, friendly, vibes.”“I’ll tell ya a story about my bro that you can finish with though he won’t like it,” says Tanē.“One day in the surf when we were groms he did a shit and threw it at me. I was so fucken angry, and then somehow, he had me laughing almost immediately. I’m not sure if there’s a metaphor for life in there or not, but for me, that’s the example that sums him up the best.”
