Twin brothers with a love of the beach are behind a successful outdoor experience company based at St Andrews.
Guy and Jamie McKenzie started Blown Away back in 2007 with just a handful of land yachts – and have now told the Courier about their latest expansion plans.
Prior to the venture, the pair were studying sports development and coaching at college and freelanced for some of the major outdoor activity providers in Scotland as coaches for activities such as white-water rafting, kayaking, canoeing and quad biking.
Passion for outdoor sports
Guy said: “Before we left college, we knew we wanted to have our own business in the outdoor activity sector.
“With the encouragement/push from our parents, support from the Prince’s Scottish Youth Business Trust and guidance from our local Business Gateway, we bought six land yachts, an old Land Rover and we set up Blown Away.
“As we love outdoor sports and spending time at the beach it was a no brainer – we knew we had to be based there.
“We had realised that a big chunk of the outdoor experience market was fairly well catered for so we had to offer something unique to Scotland to grab a share of that business – and we decided it had to be on the glorious West Sands beach of St Andrews.
“We knew we had an exhilarating product that most people hadn’t done before and over time, our confidence grew and so did our business.”
Blown Away catering for adrenalin junkies
In addition to land yachting, Blown Away now has a surf school, and its offering also takes in kayaking and paddleboarding.
The pair said their customers include international visitors to St Andrews as well as Scots who live close by.
Jamie said: “Our customers are very varied from thrill seekers and adrenalin junkies right down to holidaymakers walking along the beach and see us running land yachts and think they would like to try it for themselves.
“It works from six-year-olds in a twin land yacht along with an adult, to our oldest customer who was 86 and had it on his bucket list having watched land yachts running on a beach in France.
“We are busy through the summer, but the beauty of land yachting is theoretically it is an all year round sport.
“Our water season stretches long into the year thanks to our clients’ enthusiasm and good wet suits.”
Future plans for business
Blown Away’s crew numbers have grown with the business, and it now has instructors who were on sessions as juniors and are now grown-up qualified coaches.
Asked how the operation is performing currently, Guy replied: “We are happy with how our business is running and see the market almost returning to pre-Covid levels.
“There is a definite increase in corporate bookings this year, particularly through the local resort hotels in the area.
“We are hoping for a busy summer with good weather to bring visitors to St Andrews.”
So what has been the secret of Blown Away’s success?
Jamie said: “Being positive, enthusiastic, friendly, professional ,offering fun activities in a relaxed, safe environment so that our clients have a good time.
“We aim to expand our water activities by developing our junior surf programme Beach Rats for younger children and to create a more advanced level for our older kids who have been with us for a while.
“Wellbeing and lifestyle is becoming an important part of our portfolio and this summer will be offering beach yoga and retreats in conjunction with local suppliers.
“We have also developed new corporate packages for the conference and incentive market and have created indoor and outdoor mobile Scottish crazy golf courses available for hire.”
