Benjamin Choi

“At the start of my masters program at the University of Toronto, I was looking for an activity where I could meet new people. I joined the New College dragon boat team, and in my first couple of years, I met people who would eventually become lifelong friends. After we graduated, we formed the New Dragons Racing Club, and many of us are still teammates to this day. We are each other’s buddies and confidants.  We are each other’s best men and maids of honour. Believe it or not, we have quite a number of married couples that met on the team. And soon, we will be each other’s babysitters. I also met my own better half through dragon boat, so I can confidently say there is no other activity in my life that has rewarded me with so much.

Five years ago, NDRC competed at Club Crew World Championships (CCWCs) in Italy. While we were proud of our hard-fought bronze, we realized we had a lot of work to do to beat the world’s best crews. This was especially true for our Open crew, which did not qualify for a single grand final.

Fast-forward four years to the 2018 CCWCs in Hungary. By that time, we had established ourselves as one of the top Open crews in Canada, but we were nevertheless the underdogs to our local rivals, the Outer Harbour Hounds. They lined up alongside us in the 200m grand final, along with teams from Germany, Canada, and the Czech Republic. The gun went off, and on every stroke we could feel ourselves pulling away from the field. We crossed the line, realized we had won, and let out the loudest cheer – a single bellow of joy, surprise and relief to express countless days, months and years of hard work. This is a moment that none of us will ever forget."

[Benjamin Choi (Toronto, ON, Canada & Hong Kong), assistant coach/paddler on New Dragons Racing Club & Premier Canadian national team, head coach of New College Dragon Boat Team.]

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