Relief that the shade provides has dramatically reduced staff turnover and eliminated "three o'clock burnout" according to one car wash owner.

The sun was blazing. Kids were running around bareheaded. And there wasn't a scrap of shade.

"He said, 'Why don't all these kids have hats on?' " recalled Joe McKenna, an Orlando native who has spent most of the past two decades Down Under. "And I told him, 'It's not made compulsory here, the way it is in Australia.'"

For McKenna and Maranta, the way Orlando-area residents are routinely exposed to the sun's ultraviolet rays is unthinkable -- and an unbelievable business opportunity.

In Australia, which has the highest skin-cancer rate in the world, sun protection has become a way of life. Schoolchildren are prohibited from playing outside without hats. And most playgrounds at parks, schools and day-care centers -- along with many commercial outdoor areas, such as parking lots -- are covered with swooping cloth structures that Aussies call "shade sails."

When McKenna, 41, a Bishop Moore High School graduate, decided to move back to Florida several years ago to be near relatives, he and Maranta set up Sky Shades USA in Longwood. They brought in Australian-born golfer Greg Norman as a partner, imported several other Australians with experience designing and engineering shade sails, and prepared to strike it rich in what they figured would become a multibillion-dollar U.S. industry.

Three years later, however, it isn't yet clear whether shade sails -- also called tension structures -- are the next boom business or are destined to remain a niche industry.

Sky Shades is on track to do $6 million in sales this year, with projects that include coverings in downtown Orlando's Wall Street Plaza and structures for a resort in Dubai, McKenna said. The Longwood company also has 42 distributorships nationwide.

Here in Florida, all the ingredients for success seem to be in place. After all, this is the Sunshine State.

One in five Americans will develop skin cancer in their lifetime, and one American dies every hour from the disease. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., urge people to wear sunscreen and protective clothing -- and to stay in the shade during the peak UV hours of the day.

As a result, the desire for shade is growing. And Sky Shades is catching the wave. But the company is not expanding quite as quickly as its owners had expected.

"People don't understand shade structures yet," McKenna said. "So it's a huge education process we go through. It's a very developed industry worldwide, but it's in its infancy here."

Shade sails differ from conventional, frame-supported awnings in that they harness tension to keep them aloft. They can be anchored to the sides of buildings, can be built with holes in the middle to accommodate trees or other obstacles, and can stretch over an area as small as a backyard patio or as large as a sports stadium.

Alan Bayman, a playground-equipment manufacturer for 14 years, switched to the shade industry three years ago.

Since then, his Shade Systems Inc. of Pompano Beach has doubled in size every year and now does "many millions" in sales annually, he said.

To accommodate its growth, Shade Systems is moving to Ocala, where it is building a $3 million, 50,000 square-foot plant off Interstate 75. The eight-acre headquarters site has plenty of room for expansion, Bayman said.

He said the shade industry has been helped by advances in technology that make the fabrics more durable and the structures more wind-resistant. Like Sky Shades', Shade Systems' structures meet international building codes and can be engineered to withstand hurricane-force winds.

Bayman's company has also developed a system that allows owners to retract a structure's fabric to prepare for severe weather.

Still, he mainly targets public rather than private markets. Municipalities and federal agencies tend to be savvier about tension structures and more willing to pay for shade, he said.

Other markets are more of an uphill battle. That includes schools, though Bayman expects that to change. He frequently gets calls from "PTA moms," but said tension structures generally are too expensive -- his average sale is $10,000 -- to be funded by bake sales. With a few exceptions, cash-strapped Florida school districts have shown little interest in shade so far.

Expense also rules out the general residential market. And few businesses see shade as an investment that might benefit their bottom line, he said.

Bayman said car washes and dealerships are the most receptive to paying for shade.

In Orlando, that's true for Jeff Bonynge, who hired Sky Shades to cover 11,000 square feet at his Images Auto Spa.

He said the relief from the heat that the shade provides has dramatically reduced his staff turnover and eliminated what he calls "three o'clock burnout," improving productivity. The shade sails also have raised the profile of his car wash, he said, making it stand out amid the busy East Colonial Drive business corridor.

"It's probably some of the best money that I've ever spent. It pays for itself every day," Bonynge said.

Nick Franze feels the same way about the mobile structure Sky Shades built at his driving range in Oviedo. He says it cost $75,000.

Customers come to Tee It Up more frequently and stay on the range longer because the l8-by-120-foot covering provides protection from sun and rain, he said.

Shade structures can reduce the air temperature by 15 degrees, according to Bayman, of Shade Systems.

That's one reason Amanda March, director of All Saints School in Winter Park, likes the Sky Shades canopy the school installed over a playground a few years ago. Protecting her students from UV rays is another.

But she also likes the structure's appearance. She said it's one of the first things new parents remark on when they tour the school.

"It looks so beautiful. It's very aesthetically pleasing," she said.

Michelle Sahlin, managing director of the Professional Awning Manufacturers Association, said tension structures can make a striking addition to traditional architecture. But she said not everyone sees them that way.

"They work as sculpture in front of a building," she said. "Awnings as a shade device and as a device for making a building attractive is more mature in Europe than here. Part if it has to do with just consumer and architectural awareness of these types of structures."

Bill Potter, parks-and-recreation manager for Orange County, is a big proponent of tension structures.

But how they look isn't his top priority. He just wants people to use his parks.

When Potter took the reins of the department six years ago, he toured his new domain. And he noticed that parks and play fields with shade were heavily used, while those without shade frequently were as empty as a desert.

He began a push for shade. All the county's new parks are now built with shade structures and old parks are being retrofitted as they are renovated, he said.

The county also has begun building canopies over seating areas at its play fields.

"It [providing shade structures] is not perceived as a 'need to,' it's a 'nice to.' We're looking at it as a 'need to.' You're only getting half the job done if you put the swing or the teeter-totter out in the blazing sun," Potter said. "They're a little pricey, but to me they're as important as the slide or the climb or whatever."

McKenna and Maranta, both experienced entrepreneurs, are convinced shade structures will become as big a business here as they are Down Under.

Australia, with a population a bit bigger than Florida's, has more than 1,000 shade-sail companies. Sky Shades says their U.S. competitors number fewer than three dozen.

Bayman, of Shade Systems, thinks he's onto something big, too.

"It's kind of unlimited," he said of the industry. "I don't think that anyone really knows what the potential is.