80 Years of Adam Ambroziak (and the Story Behind Karratha Adventure Sports)

This month, my dad turned 80, which feels slightly unbelievable seems I only took over 5 years ago.

You might know him as the “one armed bandit,” or "Allen" or just Adam, but to me he's dad, and he's got a few stories.

Dad was born in Germany just after the war. His parents were both prisoners of war — my grandfather a Polish soldier and my grandmother a nurse. They ended up in a forced labour camp and, like many families of that time, lost more children than anyone should ever have to. The first child to survive was Dad, and as devout Catholics, naming him Adam felt fitting — the first son. WHAT A BEGINNING!

The Ambroziak's eventually made their way to Margaret River, back when it was a very different place to what people know now. Dad grew up there, and if there was a sport available, he played it — rugby, cricket, tennis, AFL. Outside of that, he was surfing, free diving, fishing for marron, and generally finding any excuse to be outdoors. His first business venture was selling rabbit pelts he’d shot with a .22, which feels like a pretty strong early indicator of how things were going to go.

After school, he built roads, he was on alot of the main roads crews working the Yarloop and South West towns in the 1960s. He worked his way north. Thanks to strong chemistry grades, he found his way into the sciences, but not without a challenge. At some point (and yes, the full story is still tightly guarded), Dad lost his hand. As you can imagine, that made getting a job difficult. So he adapted, he kept his stump in his pocket during interviews and worked for a week before anyone realised. When he eventually turned up with a wooden arm/claw, it turned out to be surprisingly useful, particularly around a Bunsen burner. Soon enough his repuation proceeded him and he could get a job by a handshake (no pun intended).

There was a stint in the NT where he bought a boat and dove for crayfish, selling them to local restaurants, and used that money to buy and develop land in Geraldton. He’s never really been someone to do just one thing at a time.

Somewhere in between all of that, he also managed to become an exceptional shot. Over the years he picked up a collection of firearms trophies, including state championship titles, and had a habit of quietly outperforming people who probably didn’t expect it. I’ve seen the trophies — there are a lot of them. He’s even been known to impress Americans with how quickly he could strip down a Glock, which feels like a very Dad way of making an impression. 

By around 1979, he landed in Karratha working as a chemist with Dampier Salt. But if you know him, you’ll know that work was really just what happened between dives. On his days off, he was in the water more than out of it. Diving one-handed is apparently easier than reeling in a fish one-handed, although neither seemed to slow him down much. He was a very good shot, both in and out of the water. 

The beginning of Karratha Adventure Sports wasn’t a polished retail launch. When the owner of Andrews & Sons left town, Dad bought a dive compressor, set it up in a sea container in the LIA, and started filling dive tanks and selling tackle. No big fit-out, no grand opening — just knowledge, gear, and word of mouth.

By 1981, he’d quit his day job and gone all in, running Karratha Dive & Sporting Goods and a local dive school out of the early shopping centre. By 1985, he’d moved into Sharpe Ave, and in May 1990, the business officially became Karratha Adventure Sports.

Not long after that came one of the toughest periods the town has seen. In the early 90s, a major project shut down almost overnight and Karratha took a hit. Businesses closed, people left, and things got tight quickly. Karratha Adventure Sports was close to being one of the businesses that didn’t make it.

Mum and Dad worked relentlessly through those years. Paying down creditors, managing loans with sky-high interest rates, and trying to keep the doors open while the town emptied around them. It wasn’t glamorous, and there were no guarantees. But they stuck it out, and over time, the business didn’t just survive — it recovered and grew.

These days, one of the most common things we hear is how much the store has changed. And it has. We’ve updated systems, expanded ranges, and kept evolving with the town. But the core of it is still the same as when it started — helping people get out there, whether that’s fishing, camping, diving, or just giving something new a go.

Dad might be retired, but he’s still in town, still dropping into the shop, and still managing to know more than most of us. Some locals still call him “the one-armed bandit” (don’t even ask), which probably tells you everything you need to know about both him and this town.

Eighty years is a big milestone. From a childhood shaped by war, to Margaret River, to diving for crays, to a sea container business in the LIA, to what Karratha Adventure Sports is today — it’s a pretty remarkable journey.

If you’ve got a story about Dad, a tip he gave you, or a memory from the shop over the years, we’d love to hear it next time you’re in.