About us

OUR STORY

“I was 19, broke, unemployed and sold my girlfriend’s canopy for drug money… so I thought I better sew her a new one!” What a sentence! What a story. This describes NZ Aerosports’ (now JYRO) humble yet outrageous beginnings, in the words of our founder himself, Paul “Jyro” Martyn.

Our company started with one man with the wildest of spirits and a true blue sky dream. A renegade. In the time that he ran this company, he pushed everything he had to its limits. We miss him – and we always will. 

JYRO is the next generation of NZ Aerosports. It honours our founder, of course, because it was the name we all knew him by.  But JYRO the re-brand also marks the start of a new chapter. Our next jump. Read about our rebrand to JYRO here…

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Our Factory

From getting a paratrooper toy from his Mum, watching parachutes at the DZ as a 6yo, jumping off the wharf with a parachute made from bedsheets, doing his first jump at 16, sewing his first canopy on a borrowed sewing machine at 19, and starting to sell canopies out of a garage in 1986 – Jyro had an undying love for the sky. That passion took him from that garage, to the original graffiti covered Sussex Street beer garden, all the way to today’s factory – a once-office-space transformed into a factory full of plants, history, love and life. Our address has changed many times over the years, but our vibe has not. It is the birthplace of many of our greatest ideas – and all of our worst ones. It’s there that we design and make the canopies that take you right to the edge of your world. Because that’s where the Fuck Yeah! moments live.

Founder

PAUL ‘Jyro’ MARTyn

Self-proclaimed omnipotent dictator Jyro was the life and soul of JYRO (previously NZ Aerosports). He was a quirky, eccentric genius, with a scientific eye and an artistic, romantic heart. He passed away in 2017, but his legacy remains at the core of who we are. His motto: don’t fuck up, have a phat time, be the best. We keep pushing hard like Jyro did – because as he would say, there’s fun to be had.

our People

Luci

Director

luci@jyro.com

Jen

Head of Customer WOW!

jen@jyro.com

Attila

Big Boss

info@jyro.com

Matt

Sales Monkey

sales@jyro.com

Julien

Scientific Parachute Maestro

julien@jyro.com

Beedo

Dealer Sales Monkey

beedo@jyro.com

Richie

Production Head Honcho

richie@jyro.com

Yan

Canopy Fixer-Upperer

support@jyro.com

Shan

Director of Awesomeness

marketing@jyro.com

Stewy

Test Jumper, Video Editor & Athlete Manager

stewy@jyro.com

Snelly

Product Development & Test Jumper

snelly@jyro.com

Kamal Fernando

Production Supervisor

Kovi Mongelli

Facility Development Manager

Samba

Machinist

Lynne

Machinist Training Manager

Renuka

Machinist

Arlo

Parachute Rigger

Alex “MR.O600”

Parachute Rigger

Helga

Machinist

Appy Sandhu

Chief of Random Jobs

Kaur

Machinist

Kate Wemyss

Miss Money Bags

accounts@nzaerosports.com

Maria

Parachute Rigger

Dons

Machinist

Prabhath (Mali)

Parachute Rigger

Pae

Machinist

Yannie

Machinist

Ashley

Machinist

Saman

Machinist

Xaos

Quality Controller

Our History

2023

JYRO Rebrand: Back to the Future

As legend has it, Icarus was always meant to fall. 

And after everything, it was time for a refresh! We wanted to communicate our authenticity and our history, but show the new us. So we went back to the future, with JYRO – the rebrand. 

NZ Aerosports and Icarus Canopies are now, simply, JYRO. And we are more us than ever.

2022

What’s happening now and where to next?

As we began 2022 the ongoing affects of Covid-19 remained. With multiple lockdowns happening since the first one back in March of 2020, we worked hard to bring our lead times down and press forward with R&D. Our goal is always to be the innovators of the industry and this didn’t change despite the position we and many other companies found ourselves in. Luci grew into a leader her dad Jyro would be proud of and together with the shareholders ensured JYRO (previously NZ Aerosports) had a future to look forward to. Onward and upward into our new normal.

2021

Another Tiny World Record

In 2006 Luigi Cani landed a JVX 37, it was the smallest canopy every landed making it an “unofficial” world record. Then in 2014 an “official” Guinness world record was set by Ernesto Gainza, landing a JVX 35 and beating the previous record. In 2020 Luigi decided he was going to beat it again and in January 2021 after meticulous training on slightly larger canopies (still considered beach towels), he did just that and landed a SLeia 34. Although considered “unofficial” to some, it’s official in our eyes and that’s good enough for us, not to mention all of the canopies used are made right here in NZ!

2020

Moving time

In November of 2020 a new era began. Due to the continued growth of the company and the financial pressure that Covid-19 had created, it was time to start our next chapter. From a boujee office space in central Auckland to a larger more practical space further south, we had found the place we would call home for years to come. It might not be close to all the fancy bars but the beer fridge still works and the place is equipped to make the worlds best canopies (we might be a little biased). The move began in November and was complete by Christmas – but we are constantly adding unique little touches to our home space.

2020

The great Global weather hold

It was late March and we were keeping an eye on the unfolding global situation Covid-19, but before we knew it, like most of the world, New Zealand was put into a strict lockdown. We had a fire sale on our stock canopies, shipped every order we could in our remaining days of freedom and finally migrated back to our homes not knowing for how long. While our office staff set up their home offices (also known as a laptop in bed) and learned all about zoom meetings, our factory staff enjoyed same extra family time which maybe at some points was a little too much extra. Production ceased and plans were being made for when the doors could finally open again. When this did happen and we came out of hibernation 2 months later, production kicked back into gear but it was clear that things would never quite be the same and there would be more challenges to come…

2020

Jyro Boogie 2

This time around it was time to move the boogie to a new DZ and even a new country. From the 13th to the 17th of February, Skydive Oz in Moruya hosted JYRO Boogie 2. With more coaches and more participants, the stage was set for this thing to be kicked into another gear and it most definitely was. Amazing jumps, awesome people and of course a party Jyro would have been proud of, or at least we think so, the details are a little fuzzy… Where to next you say? We’ll let you know when the dust has settled from the epicness that was Jyro Boogie 2, might be a couple of years…

2019

Release the Kraken

On the 25th of July and after only a few minor delays (cough, cough) the wait was finally over, our very first wingsuit specific canopy was released. No longer a mythical beast, the JYRO Kraken is packed full of new technology and innovation to give it the amazing on heading buttery soft openings that we know the bird people love. Not to mention this beast can be taken on slick jumps…how good!

2018

Jyro Boogie 1

Between the 1st and the 4th of March the first ever JYRO boogie took place at Skydive Auckland, created to celebrate the legend and everything he stood for. World class load organisers from all over the world were in charge of keeping the stoke high in the sky, while others made sure night time load organising was taken care of. The boogie ended with everyone coming together remembering Jyro and partying like it was the last day on earth – this we know he would have been proud of and also probably would have been the last man standing.

2018

Sleia takes the stage

In January of 2018 Leia, our beloved princess, got a make over and become a sky shredding heavy metal goddess. Full sail material and a modified line trim. The canopy that no one asked for but we delivered carved up the sky like it was no ones business. While SLeia was a hit, she burnt bright but brief as she was a limited release to 69 canopies…but you never know, she might make a glorious return in the future.

2017

The start of the great Icabus demo tour

In 2017 a brave young man by the name of Rilee set off on the first official JYRO (previously NZ Aerosports) demo tour of the USA. With a big old RV stickered up to the nines, he powered through what was a blur of jumping, meeting amazing people, enjoying a beer or 2, recovering and repeating. The following year the demo tour was expanded to Europe, with our very own testie Chris Stewart taking the reins. The boys spread the word of JYRO all while having a blast, even if they can’t remember every amazing moment…

2017

Who’s steering the ship now?!

After Jyro passed away, the company was handed to Luci, his daughter. The new shareholders are now Luci, Attila, Richie, and Julien. We work well as a team and continue to work towards Jyro’s vision and values,  all while adding our own spices to the mix.

2017

A Legend signs off

Shortly after the 2017 PIA Symposium, Jyro passed away. It’s been incredibly hard on us as a company and individually – all of us considered him a close personal friend. He left a legacy of canopy design that’s worked its way throughout the market, and will last for a very very long time. Our job is to continue on in his footsteps and honour his legacy.
Our mission statement is still Jyro’s:
DON’T KILL ANYBODY.
STAY OUT OF THE SHIT.
HAVE A PHAT TIME.
MAKE SOME MONEY.
CONQUER THE WORLD.

2016

Going Solo

Following many years of dissatisfaction with the working agreement with CIMSA, an inability to collect royalties owed but not paid, and failed negotiations – in 2016 NZ Aerosports (now JYRO) cancelled CIMSA’s rights to sell, make or market Icarus Canopies (now JYRO canopies). JYRO is now the only place that can make our original range of parachutes, including the Safire 2 and Safire 3, Crossfire 2 and Crossfire 3, and Tandem canopy. Of course break ups get messy, and now CIMSA has opened another company named ‘Icarus World’ and release a new range of canopies “S-fire and X-fire” that sound mighty bloody familiar to our Safire and Crossfire products. We’re sure its unintentional…. cheeky bastards. Oh well.

2010

Summer of Love – Birth of the hyper-performance wing

In 2010, a young French skydiver with an aerospace engineer’s degree came to NZ for a holiday, visited the factory and – as happens more often than not – left with a job making linesets. It didn’t take long for Jyro to realise who he had, and Julien never made another lineset. Between Julien’s technical knowledge and high tech computational design processes, and Jyro’s passion for design and uncanny intuition for canopy characteristics, the infamous ‘Summer of Love’ prototyping fest was embarked on. This culminated in a wing leagues better than anything else being made at the time – Petra. Petra still holds all major Canopy Piloting records – fending off newer entrants to the ‘hyper performance’ market.

2007

Last of the old school

After that there were upgrades and performance enhancements to our range, and Jyro developed and released the JFX and JVX, pushing the existing crossbraced designs even further. There hadn’t been anything groundbreaking for a while however…

 

1999

Icarus World(wide)

In 1999 NZ Aerosports (now JYRO) was growing in notoriety, and demand quickly outstripped Jyro and his small team’s capacity. In response, he signed licensing agreements with CIMSA in Spain, and Precision in the US – more people than ever were now able to jump Icarus Canopies (now JYRO canopies)! Precision later left and came out with their own versions of these designs.

1995

Leading the change

In the late 80s PD brought out the Excalibur canopy showcasing a brand new construction method – the tri-brace (now ubiquitously known as ‘crossbraced’). Jyro knew that this was a big step forward, and wanted to combine this with another exciting new piece of technology – ZP fabric. Many, many prototypes followed, but while they flew hotter than ever, the openings weren’t good enough for the market. Jyro and the team just about went crazy and broke trying to make it work, but then…..

NZ Aerosports (now JYRO) released the Mk 1 Icarus EXTreme in 1995, the first ZP crossbraced canopy on the market, and high performance canopies changed forever. In 1997, the upgraded FX (Fucking eXtreme) was released featuring the closed nose seen on all HP canopies these days. 2 Years later the PD Velocity was released based on the same format – the industry leader Jyro took inspiration from was now looking to him! Because he was a cheeky bastard, Jyro released the first crossbraced 9 cell – the VX – on the very same day.

1990

ICARUS

In the early 90s Jyro changed his brand name to “Icarus Canopies” – and in ‘94 NZ Aerosports (now JYRO) became an incorporated company.

1985

The beginning of something great

Jyro started to make skydiving parachutes under the name “Icarus by JYRO” in 1985. The first canopies were a few Pegasus copies for friends, then Jyro began gradually elevating the performance levels of the designs of the day.

1980

Who’s Paul?

Early 80s – Paul Martyn is a young man in love with skydiving, and completely broke. He starts to make log books, jump suits, and other gear – anything to fund his jumping. Along the way he picks up a nickname – JYRO for ‘Jump Your Ring Out’. No one really calls him Paul ever again.

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