Hank Woodburn has an entertaining job in more ways than one.
The founder and longtime president of Adventure Holdings LLC, the parent company of Adventure Landing, has made a career of creating affordable family entertainment throughout the United States.
He started during college with Putt-Putt Golf Courses of America and was hired after graduating, before beginning his corporate career of taking established venues and improving them.
“I got a lot of self-satisfaction from meeting and greeting guests and doing projects,” Woodburn said.
He joined Putt-Putt full-time after college in 1971, coming to Jacksonville in 1994. He improved the former Putt-Putt courses on Beach Boulevard and Blanding Boulevard, adding arcades, go-karts, batting cages and water parks.
Also in 1994, he acquired land and developed the Adventure Landing water park in Jacksonville Beach. It opened in 1995, followed by developing the Blanding property into an Adventure Landing, although without the water features.
With 17 parks in Florida, Texas, North Carolina and New York along with 908 employees, Woodburn calls himself “more of a cheerleader” than the day-to-day operations leader. He leaves that to his management team.
Instead, he travels to find ways to improve the product and keep up with industry trends.
“New rides, new slides, new games,” he said of his participation in trade shows.
He has plans for parks in Wichita, Kan., and Cincinnati. A new water park in St. Augustine also is a possibility.
At the Jacksonville Beach park, Woodburn has plans for bumper boats and a new water slide, which will feature a naming contest in the coming months.
The busiest time of the year is now, in the middle of a 100-day stretch during the hot summer months when school is out.
“It’s generally pretty crowded,” he said. “But, it’s a lot of fun.”
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