MORE than 50 people tried their luck at the Victorian Panning Championships in Bendigo at the weekend with Ballan farmer Ian Binks winning the title.Mr Binks said his panning philosophy was “slow and steady wins the race”.A gold panning competition involves competitors getting a bucket of sand and trying to find a certain amount of gold pieces in the fastest time.“A lot of people try to go too fast,” Mr Binks said.“You don’t have to go flat out, you’ve got to make sure you’ve got all your pieces.“Sometimes the tortoise wins.”The 66-year-old is a veteran gold panner.“I competed in the first gold panning championships at Sovereign Hill in 1995 and I’ve competed every year since,” he said.“But it came as a bit of surprise to bump off some of these younger ones.”Event organiser and Victorian Gold Panning Association secretary Geoff Strang said there was a large contingent of juniors competing at Central Deborah Gold Mine on Sunday.“There’s more and more younger people, some of them kids under 16, who are really red hot into it,” he said.“Their dads or granddads are teaching them to pan and they are getting in and competing and they are winning.“It’s the sort of thing where grandparents and kids can compete together.”It’s certainly a family affair for the Binks clan. Mr Binks competes regularly against his son, and his grandson was placed third in the under-12 section on Sunday.“Once it gets in your blood it does become a bit of an addiction, this gold seeking,” Mr Binks said.“I’ve got a few pieces over the year detecting, I got a nice piece this year of two ounces.“But I haven’t found my retirement nugget yet.”As part of his prize Mr Binks will compete in New Zealand at the National Gold Panning Championships next year.