MILES Wood has come home with gold from the North American Blokart Championship, in California, at Lake Ivanpah.
Mr Wood has only been involved in the sport – described as sailing on land – for three years, before representing Australia at the championships.
Lake Ivanpah is a State of California Dry Lake, which is dedicated to land sailing, and is world famous for performance land sailing.
Teams from all over America participate, including Oregon, New England, Wisconsin and Texas, as well as Canada, Mexico, and Australia.
“It’s one of the fastest growing family sports in Australia,” Mr Wood said.
“In North America, there was a 12-year-old, 14-year-old and a 16-year-old racing, and there were guys that were 70-years-old racing, so it’s a very wide-ranging sport.”
The Whitsunday Blokart Club is hoping to grow in numbers by holding a ‘Come and Try Day’ at Conway Beach, on a future date to be advised.
This is an opportunity for people genuinely interested in learning about the sport, and joining the club, to have a go at it, with professional and experienced club members present to help teach technique and answer questions.
The Whitsunday Blokart Club is one of the fastest growing blokart clubs in Australia, and has received support from Whitsunday Regional Council, the Anchor Bar and Night Owl, since forming.
Mr Wood is one the club’s founders and is vice president of the Australian Blokart Association.
He is passionate about showing more people in the region how fun the sport is and said the sport was easy to pick up and he encouraged people of all experience levels to join up.
“It’s like sailing, nobody is born knowing how to sail but the sport is very easy and there’s techniques and stuff that we can show you that make it really easy and fun,” he said.
“All the members are really happy to help new people, as the sport grows, we all grow with it. The instruction and tips are very forthcoming, and we enjoy putting a smile on a dial for people.”
Blokart is fairly new sport, having been invented in New Zealand, in 1999, by Paul Beckett, who had a background in hang gliding and land sailing and wanted to create a wind-powered sport that was fun and fast on land.
