ABOUT US

As featured in the February 2020 (Issue 01, Volume 03) of the Longzhou newsletter… the official newsletter of the International Dragon Boat Federation (IDBF).

Written by Marianne Tai

True North Paddling Club (TNPC) is one of the newest Canadian dragon boat clubs formed in 2019. Hailing from the city of Toronto, TNPC is comprised of six different crews rich in history and includes some of the oldest teams in the country. A majority of the crews are coached by Chris Edwards who is a multiple national and international champion in sprint canoe. Apart from taking some of his competitive teams to local and international wins, he is also a Canadian Senior A National Team Coach and Program Director who has produced gold medal victories at the IDBF World Nations Championships. The growth of TNPC crews is indicative of his passion for the sport and his athletes as a full-time coach.

Our competitive Premier and Senior TNPC teams will be heading to France in August to compete at the 12thIDBF Club Crew World Championships.True North Senior Women (TNSW): Formerly known as Outer Harbour Senior Women and Toronto Women, TNSW is Toronto's world-class dragon boat team for women 39+ years of age. Founded in 2003,they are a competitive team of high-performance female athletes committed to competing from local to international competitions. This team are no strangers to international wins as they have podiumed at six Club Crew World Championships including a clean sweep in Italy in 2014 and have been producing senior national team athletes since inception.

True North Premier Women (TNPW): Formerly known as Outer Harbour Premier Women and Toronto Women, TNPW are a group of female athletes and dedicated paddlers who have been training together and welcoming new members since 2004. As one of the top Premier Women’s crews in Canada, they have produced numerous national team athletes for Team Canada and were silver medallists at the 11th IDBF Club Crew World Championships in Szeged.

True North Hammerheads: Founded in 1995, Hammerheads is a Premier Division dragon boat team that has been around for over 20 years and one of the oldest teams in Canada. Year after year, they have shown an A-level performance overcoming challenges and obstacles that stood in its way, to winning local and national championships. This team is dedicated to competing at the highest level and will be competing in their first Club Crew World Championships.

True North SLP Premier Open: Founded in 2019, SLP is the newest competitive crew comprising of high-performancemembers from Leviathan and Hammerheads. Their hard work and dedication has earned them a berth tocompete in France after placing 2nd in the Premier A Open category at the 2019 Canadian National Championships.

TNPC would not be complete without our following high-performing Recreational and University crews:Leviathan:

True North Leviathan (formerly Ship Storm DBC) was founded by a group of community-level paddlers in 2015. This team has achieved considerable success in the last four years. They hope to further push theenvelope and make further waves in the community by not only exhibiting their competitive crews, but also a reational-development team to complement the club and develop athletes from the very beginning of their journey.

University of Toronto (UofT) Engineering Iron Dragons: U of T Iron Dragons was formed in 1997 to introduce the exciting sport of dragon boat to the Skule™ community. The main focus of the club is to encourage a healthylifestyle for engineering students. It provides an environment that builds teamwork, communication, and friendship that reaches far beyond the edges of dragon boating. The team is mainly comprised of U of Tengineering students, but students of all programs and faculties are welcomed. They are also primarilymanaged by engineering students and coached by engineering alumni.

With teams that range from the university, recreational, premier and senior level, TNPC provides the community a family of dragon boat teams to any interested members who want to learn to paddle, loves the sport or wishes to advance their paddling career. Paddling out of Sunnyside Paddling Club, TNPC is hoping to become an avenue where dragon boat paddlers can bring their passion to further grow the sport in the country.