One of Western Australia’s most beautiful beaches will come alive with the sounds of beach water polo this summer when Bunbury Water Polo club brings the sport to Australia’s south west.

The club has been trialling a portable water polo field and goals from Packaworld International at its indoor training sessions and plans to use them over the summer at nearby Koombana Bay. The scenic Bay is known for its wildlife, including pods of bottlenose dolphins that frequent the area daily.

​Club president Alice Luscombe says at least four of this year’s regular Tuesday evening senior competition matches will be played by twilight at Koombana Bay from mid-October.

Young Aucklanders have growing aspirations to put New Zealand handball on the world stage. To develop their skills in the Olympic sport, they are using innovative portable goals that allow them to train where and when they want to. 

Over the past year, Auckland Region Handball has purchased 10 portable Handball Packagoals from New Zealand sport innovations company Packaworld International for use at open days and to support a youth development programme in Auckland schools.

Auckland Region Handball Vice President Qassim Helal says the fast-growing sport is immensely popular overseas and provides opportunities for young New Zealand players that more established sports such as rugby and cricket cannot.

A project to improve the durability and accessibility of Packaworld’s best-selling inflatable bocce ball court has been announced as a finalist in this year’s Wellington Gold Awards.

The project – one of six finalists in the ‘Innovation Gold’ category – saw the introduction of new materials and an improved manufacturing technique for Packaworld’s Competition Packabocce courts. It also resulted in a re-imagining of the court’s disabled access gate to ensure players in wheelchairs could enter and exit the playing area more easily.

Packaworld Chief Executive Peter Roberts said it was an honour to see the bocce court project gaining recognition in his hometown of Wellington.

Packaworld has bolstered its East Asia team with the appointment of Alfred Xie as sales manager for the region.

Mr Xie has worked in the sports industry for the past five years and brings strong experience in sales, marketing and product development.

Packaworld Chief Executive Peter Roberts said the appointment would improve Packaworld’s ability to bring portable sporting solutions to customers in China and across all of East Asia.

"Demand for our portable sports solutions is growing rapidly in Asia so its fantastic to have Alfred on board. Our Packabocce courts are proving particularly popular and are now used in bars, on cruise ships and by many Special Olympics clubs as part of their bocce ball programmes."

​Mr Xie is based in Shanghai and is a fluent Chinese speaker. Mr Roberts said his communication skills and “can do” attitude would ensure Packaworld continued to provide exceptional service to East Asian customers.

Portable courts making bocce ball more accessible around the world were used last week to host the next generation of bocce ball stars at the Special Olympics Ontario Invitational Youth Games in Canada.

More than 2,000 student athletes from around the world descended on Toronto for the four-day event, which ran from 14-17 May.

The bocce ball competition was held at the University of Toronto’s St George Campus, where more than 240 young athletes competed for gold on 10 inflatable Packabocce courts.

The innovative courts feature a lightweight but durable design that makes them easier to transport, set up and store than bocce ball courts made out of wood or PVC piping.

A blind Hamilton man is on a mission to grow the sport of goalball, aided by a world-first inflatable goal developed by innovative sports gear company Packaworld International.

Steve Donnelly is the captain of Waikato Goalball Club and well known within the blind and low vision community for his sporting exploits as a New Zealand BlindCaps cricket player.

The 47-year old is keen to raise awareness of goalball – a popular sport at the Paralympics – but has struggled to introduce people to the sport because of a lack of local facilities with goals.

But that is about to change. Waikato Goalball Club received a boost on Saturday when they used the new Goalball Packagoals for the first time at one of their training sessions at Melville Community Hall in Hamilton, New Zealand.

It will soon be easier than ever before for Australians to get hold of high-quality portable sports equipment, thanks to an agreement between Packaworld International and Sydney warehousing and logistics business ACR Supply Partners.

The agreement will see Packaworld products stored on-shore in Sydney and shipped to Australian addresses direct from the ACR Supply Partners’ warehouse. As a result, shipping costs for Australians will be lower and delivery will be quicker.

“We’re on a mission to help bring the joy of sport to the more people,” says Packaworld Chief Executive Peter Roberts.

“The past year has seen an increase in sales and interest in what we are doing, especially in the sport of water polo, so we’ve decided to make a bigger commitment to Australia. Storing our products in-country will make it easier than ever for Australian sports organisations, clubs and families to buy portable Packaworld sports equipment.”

New full-sized portable rugby posts that can be transported in the trunk of a car and set up in minutes could help grow the sport of rugby across North America.

That’s according to Fort Lauderdale Ruckus Rugby Club President Matthew Wells, who introduced world-first inflatable Rugby Packaposts at the club’s first home U19 10-a-side women’s tournament in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, last month.

Mr Wells said the club had initially planned to use conventional steel rugby posts for the tournament but discovered at the last minute that some of the components they required were missing.

“Fortunately, I had gotten hold of a pair of full-sized Rugby Packaposts after seeing them at the USA National Rugby Development Summit in Denver last year. I brought them to the field in the back of my jeep, set them up in 10 minutes each, and they performed perfectly.”