The Bluewater 360 was born from a light bulb moment by the inventor, Jim McQuade, some eight years ago whilst fishing in his Quintrex 510 Top Ender some 60 kilometres off his hometown of Cairns, Queensland, Australia.

He was drifting in 70 meters of water, bottom fishing, with his rod in the standard plastic flush mount rod holder (which is in just about every fishing boat) and the direction the current was flowing created an awkward bend of the rod and the direction that the line was running, was not ideal.

 Jim asked the question of himself; ‘If only I could move that?’ Hence, the idea was born and the Bluewater 360 Flush Mount Rotating Rod Holder was created.

Inventor of the Bluewater 360, Jim has always been trying to come up with something new. Jim has been a Contractor and had businesses in the Civil Construction Industry for some 35 years. Jim currently resides in Cairns, Queensland, Australia, and has been a keen fisherman and boating enthusiast all his life.

All of the time this was staring him in the face and he never realised that it could be a change for the future. Jim has worked tirelessly on the project believing in the need to improve and evolve the common flush mount rod holder and solve some problems associated with it.

Jim holds the position of Managing Director and Product Development for Exploding Fish (Oceania) Pty Ltd.

Resides: Cairns

Scot Farley from F.3 Industrial Design has been an Industrial Engineer for the past 20 years.  He studied at the Queensland University of Technology and has a Bachelor and Post-Graduate in Industrial Design.  Scot has managed his own business, http://www.f3id.com, which he established in 2002, and has worked on many projects to date.  Scot has been involved with the Evolution 360 project for the past 24 months and has been a huge inspiration and mentor for Jim and the Team at Exploding Fish®.

 His passionate, positive and professional outlook is infectious, and bringing the Rod Holder into reality through hard and tireless hours is something Scot has and still enjoys (I think!).  But that’s Scot; his extensive knowledge of materials and design and his ability to listen and understand the needs of the client is why the Evolution 360 came to fruition from an idea.  Scot would love a dollar for every time Jim rang and said, hey mate, I won’t hold you up, I know you’re probably busy…and an hour or so later!!  That’s him, always ready to listen and give you his honest opinion.

 Jim and the Team have built an ongoing business relationship and we would personally recommend Scot at for your next product design project.