Adventure Landing - Jacksonville Beach, FL

Adventure Landing was a Jacksonville Beach, FL entertainment center & amusement park that once housed a unique Rock-afire Explosion. The show from Adventure Landing is best known for the odd stage setup, custom themed costumes, and how the animatronics survived and are currently in the hands of several collectors.

History / Background

Adventure Landing was founded by Hank Woodburn, a man with over 20 years of experience working with and franchising miniature golf courses. In 1994, he purchased 18 acres of land in Jacksonville Beach to start his own entertainment center, similar to the ones he had franchised from other companies. The location was huge and in addtion to mini golf the park also had water slides, go karts, and an indoor portion with arcade games, a food court, and a Rock-afire Explosion show. The Rock-afire was installed upon the business' 1995 opening, and was purchased directly from Creative Engineering.

The show was installed in the food court portion of Adventure Landing. Due to the pirate theming of the food court, most of the Rock-afire animatronics were adorned in custom pirate attire, such as Looney Bird being green resembling a parrot, along with custom backdrops and a custom organ. Not only this, but due to the layout not being able to fit a standard 3 stage setup, the different stages were spread out a bit, with Billy Bob being 15 feet high right above the ordering counter, and Rolfe and Earl being located on a small stage next to the gift shop. David "Billy Bob" Irvin, a former CEI employee and local with vast experience working on animatronics, most likely did the customizations. Another unique feature was the show selector which featured circle shaped buttons in addition the typical square buttons.

In 2003, a large remodel was done to the interior of the park. This led to the show being removed, which had already fallen into disrepair a couple years prior. The show was purchased by Billy Bob Irvin, who was contacted by the owner and offered the show. He moved it into storage for years before eventually selling it to a collector, Jack Turner. From there, the characters were sold to other Rock-afire Explosion collectors.

Hank Woodburn went on to open more Adventure Landing locations, rebranding some of his existing golf course entertainment centers he had franchised from competitors. In October 2025, Adventure Landing Jacksonville Beach would close abruptly with little warning. Other locations are still open to this day.

Information & Details

Adventure Landing
1944 Beach Blvd.
Jacksonville Beach, FL 32250

Fate of the show: Owned by various collectors