To celebrate his 84th birthday on Saturday Lars Winberg retired after running Launceston's Paddy Pallin store for 35 years.
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Mr Winberg and his partner Jenny Cusick established the Paddy Pallin store in Launceston in 1984 at its first location in St John Street.
"A friend of ours ran Paddy Pallin; I used to go skiing with him in Perisher. They asked me if I'd like to set up a franchise for them," he said.
At the time they lived in Sydney, with Mr Winberg working in engineering and Ms Cusick a school teacher.
"We said let's try it for three years."
Of course the rest is is history, with the couple enjoying their Launceston business and the opportunities to explore the state, and the world, through their adventure equipment businesses.
The business moved to its George Street location after another move in between and has stayed there ever since, now serving two generations of adventure seekers.
They set up the Tasmanian Expeditions equipment hire company and, later, Lightweight Traveller alongside Paddy Pallin.
"We've had a lot of good, old customers from day one," Mr Winberg said.
"When we first started it was hard-core bushwalking ... now the bushwalkers has more or less merged with adventure travellers."
Paddy Pallin Launceston will continue to operate under Ms Cusick's management, although she is not certain Mr Winberg can actually stay away.
"You see he has unofficially retired eight times. This time he's trying to make it official," she said.
Mr Winberg is confident it will stick the time.
"This is it. I'm 84."