Anthony suited up for a jump post IPO day. Photos: Supplied.
Skydive Australia may have grown from a six-seater Cessna 206 and one drop zone in Wollongong to the world’s largest skydiving company with 12 zones nationally during the past 25 years, but it’s a spectacular sunset jump during the business’s humble start that is still founder Anthony Boucaut’s highlight.
Anthony was on holidays in Mexico with future partner Tamahra Prowse when they decided to do a jump with a skydive company landing on the beach in Playa Del Carmen.
“We took off on a dusty Mexican dirt strip in a plane that seemed held together by an incredible amount of duct tape, had more instruments missing than present in the dash and hired parachutes that looked like they were last used in 1942 over Berlin,” he said, laughing.
“But we survived it and I thought I’ll bring that idea back home to Wollongong.”
Anthony started the company then known as Skydive The Beach in 1999 while at university.
While he appreciated it had greater risks than most businesses, having to take out a small bank loan the year prior “certainly wasn’t a deterrent”.
“I was young, bulletproof, believed in the vision and wanted to share the thrill of freefall with everyone,” he said.
“It seemed like a large loan at the time and bought six tandem parachutes, a small Cessna 206 and a little HiAce eight-seater bus that ran on more oil than fuel.
“No-one ever thought we’d be graduating to multiple 54-seat busses running customers between Sydney and Wollongong 15 years later.”
Always set on North Wollongong being the landing site, he enlisted Tamahra to put together the development application in a process that took more than a year and was hard-fought.
“Having never run a business before and not having worked in one – I’d served seven years in the military and then uni – running your own business and dealing with customers and staff was quite a shock,” he said, laughing.
“I made all the mistakes in the book you can make, and also invented a few new chapters.”
However, he looks back on those days with fondness.
“Tamahra and I were young, jumping out of planes and living the dream, so it was great fun,” he said.
“We were skydiving, flying, packing parachutes, filming people, meeting amazing people from all over the world and wearing the many hats required of a small business owner.
“Getting past the initial challenge of being located in Wollongong and people saying it would never work was like a red flag to a bull.
“I knew Wollongong was the perfect location and the naysayers drove me to make it work.”
For all the success it’s achieved since, his highlight lies in those early days.
“Doing a sunset jump over Wollongong with Tamahra in the early days; I think it was on day two or three after opening and we did a jump together with a couple of friends,” he said.
“The sun was setting over the escarpment, the lights were just starting to come on around Wollongong highlighting the shoreline, the ocean was crystal clear, flat and a dark green – it was amazing and spectacular – and we were just falling into sunset.”
Anthony said the company grew substantially, reaching 18 skydive sites across Australia and New Zealand.
He said the business had now overseen two million parachute descents since inception with “an impressive safety record”.
“We had one main competitor and I saw the opportunity to buy those guys out,” he said.
“So around 2014 I got the idea of listing the company on the ASX to raise the capital to do that.
“We did a highly successful IPO in 2015 gaining 60 per cent on listing day. This was the first adventure tourism company ever listed on the stock exchange.
“That’s an impressive feat for a once small skydiving company based in Wollongong and operating out of the old Stuart Park changerooms and toilet block.”
He said they also completed a number of successful acquisitions of New Zealand parachuting businesses in 2016 and rode high on the share price.
They also added aviation maintenance, a marine division, Queensland adventure experiences and ballooning.
However, the ride hasn’t always been smooth.
Shortly after 4 pm on listing day, when the exchange closed, a tragic incident occurred in Byron Bay that sadly resulted in the loss of two skydivers.
“What was supposed to be a celebration day was cut short and exposed me to the challenges of being a public company and a reminder of the risks,” he said.
He said the other event was an unplanned extended period out of the business in late 2017 to 2018.
“I was overseas buying aircraft at the time, and contracted that damn Japanese encephalitis from a mosquito bite,” he said.
He spent a four-month stint in Wollongong Hospital and then long-term rehabilitation recovery in Lawrence Hargrave Private Hospital regaining his speech, memory, cognitive skills and balance.
“That was a real lowlight for the business and me personally. Unfortunately, I didn’t return with the same drive and determination,” he said.
“I was lucky enough to have people to step up and take over roles and I’m eternally grateful to Anthony Ritter who took over the CEO role at the time.”
Anthony is now back involved as a board member and still the largest shareholder, but hasn’t flown or jumped since.
He said other challenges were seeing the reduction in tourist numbers during COVID.
“We went from a growing, busy business with good free cashflow to a business that was just humbled by the whole COVID ordeal,” he said.
“It’s disappointing when you see the business you founded being incredibly busy and staff doing really well out of it to almost being on your hands and knees selling off whatever you can to stay afloat.”
He said they were now at 60 per cent of pre-COVID numbers in skydiving, as tourism numbers continued to return.
“Life’s full of challenges and we’ve been through them before,” he said.
“We’ve had all sorts of challenges along the journey, but I’m a great believer persistence will always get you out the other side.”
He said much thanks was owed not only to those in the Illawarra and beyond who had played a “vital role and helped shape the business” over 25 years, but also to Tamahra who was an integral part of the business’s success.
Learn more about Skydive Australia.
Loading ...
