A GoFundMe campaign has launched that aims to raise $2,500 to help a Kingstonian street luger travel to Argentina to represent Canada in the World Skate Games. Nick Kamink for Team Canada Street Luge says it’s not that different from ice luge.
“We’re on the road, and on wheels instead of blades. You negotiate the track as quick as you can without crashing…We ride an alumnium, sometimes steel carbon, board," says Kamink.
Kamink says in street luge you sit two inches off the ground:
According to Kamink, the record speed in street luge is close to 168 km/hr or just over 100 miles/hr.
“When you’re on your board going down a hill and you’re coming up on 110 to 120 km/hr, you get a bit of a sense of tunnel vision, the world around you is irrelevant…You’re just focused on getting down that hill,” says Kamink.
Kamink says this is the first time he and his teammate Kolby Parks will be travelling outside of North America.
“It’s super exciting, I haven’t done too much racing beyond Canada and The United States... In a championship race, the top two racers were deemed to be the representatives for Canada, me and my teammate Kolby won that, so we were chosen to represent Canada down in San Juan. Me and Kolby grew up together, we went to elementary and high school together,'' says Kamink.
Kamink built his first board in a high school shop class, and has been involved in street luge for over 20 years.
"It was unique, it was exciting, it wasn’t that expensive, you could make your own board, it was very little maintenance. Where else can you lay down on a board and cruise around at 120 km/hr? It’s definitely worth the rush,” says Kamink
Kamink’s former employer Atkinson Home Hardware is sponsoring the GoFundMe campaign, and has already donated $300.
“They’ve got really good staff over there who are willing to help...They jumped all over it. They’re kind of spearheading the whole thing,” says Kamink.
The street luge events are scheduled for Nov. 8-12 in San Juan. Kamink says he hopes to raise the funds by the beginning of November.
Listen to the full CFRC interview with Nick Kamink below: