Andrew is one of two general managers at Sunnyside Paddling Club. His focus is to apply his business background in finance, risk management and customer experience to ensure that Sunnyside is customer focused, constantly challenging the status quo and operations are run efficiently, effectively and sustainably.

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He has paddled and coached dragon boats for over 14 years. Of all the paddle sport disciplines he loves the sport of dragon boating the most because of the camaraderie and the feeling of 20+ people working towards a singular purpose. He also enjoys the alignment of the fitness requirements to be a top-performing paddling athlete and being healthy (great paddling athletes have great power to weight ratios and look great! which is healthy!).

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In his spare time, he enjoys portage camping, volleyball, training in the gym and bubble tea and eating all you can eat sushi.

Khanh first discovered his passion for dragon boat in 2002 through the University of Toronto New College Dragon Boat club. During his under graduate years he was able to compliment his studies at U of T in Kinesiology with program development for the New College Dragon Boat team. Over the last 16 years he has continued to be involved in the sport - as a paddler and an active leader, with various teams and clubs within the GTA. His major achievements in the sport include racing at two CCWCs, in Hong Kong, China and Szeged, Hungary and accomplishing Dragon Boat Canada Level II coaching certification. 

 

Combining his educational background as a Strength Coach and Athletic Therapist and his experience in the sport, he’s able to develop programs for athletes that are more research based. He is honored and humbled to take on this new position with the club and is excited to be working with the community to provide continued services at Sunnyside Paddling Club.

Louis is a passionate competitor, team captain, coach and advocate for dragonboat, outrigger canoe and other paddle sports.  He has been active year-round in paddle sports and off-season training for over 10 years.  His experience includes local and international competitions in Hungary and China.

 

He believes that paddle sports in Canada need to be encouraged from the grass roots level for all ages.  Through the strong development and support of community-based recreational as well youth and university programs, he believes that paddle sports will continue to grow and thrive.  This In turn feeds competitive programs to compete and succeed at International levels.

 

For more than 2 years he has been working to re-establish Sunnyside Paddle Club as the premier paddling facility in the GTA.   His goals are simple: continued financial stability; increasing club membership, instilling a sense of ownership and community; and diversify our programs & services to facilitate a broader range a paddle sports.

Marianne has bee competing competitively since 2007 with the True North Premier Women and Hammerheads and have been on the Canadian Premier National Team since 2015 as a pre-selected and selected athlete. She has held executive positions within her club for over 10 years, and is a big believer in supporting and growing the sport as well as the athletes. Having grown teams and clients for most of her career, this experience has translated into how she has helped her club teams expand. With SPC being her new paddling home, she is honored to be on the SPC board to help elevate the club in the community. In recent years, she has expanded her social network immensely in the paddling community locally as well as internationally. With her connections and ambassadorship (eg: Oddball Apparel Ambassador, TrainLikeAKing Ambassador), she hopes to bring SPC to the forefront in our paddling ecosystem.

 

In her spare time, she enjoys reading, cooking new recipes and is an avid traveler - especially to places with big bodies of water to paddle in. 

Paddling is her lifestyle, and not just a hobby. Apart from Hong Kong, Hawaii and Australia, she hopes to one day add New Zealand, Tahiti and California in her paddling bucket list. 

Benjamin’s involvement in paddle sports began in 2006 when he joined the University of Toronto New College dragon boat team.  Since then, he has represented Canada on the Premier National dragon boat team, coached the National U24 Open crew, and contributed to the New Dragons Racing Club earning multiple World Club Crew titles as an athlete, executive member, and coach.

 

Benjamin also competes in outrigger racing and dabbles in other paddling disciplines for fun.  He has seen firsthand the remarkable impact that paddle sports can have on people’s lives, including its physical health benefits and its ability to form life-long social connections.  As a board member, he aims to ensure Sunnyside continues to be a safe, fun, inclusive and accessible paddling hub for the GTA.  He is also spearheading the Sunnyside Race Series, which will provide the community with more opportunities to compete in single-person boats and paddle boards.

Shirley has a passion for paddling and has been paddling dragon boat out of Sunnyside for over 12 years, and more recently in outrigger canoe and stand up paddle board.  She is currently on the Executive Team of her competitive dragon boat team, New Dragons Racing Club, as Crew Manager and owner of an outrigger canoe and stand up paddle board. Her dream is to see SPC attract capital investment and grow into a multi-disciplinary paddling community hub, bringing together participants from all ages and abilities and for different types of watercraft. All this would support our competitive programs to continue to succeed at the international level.

Shirley is a Chartered Financial Analyst and brings over 20 years of municipal finance experience in the areas of development finance, capital funding, project management, community engagement, financial planning, corporate financial strategy and policy and has successfully led many high profile inter disciplinary corporate strategic initiatives.

Chris has paddled and coached the JETAA Fighting Carps since 2008. This team briefly relocated to another club during the 2017 high water, and they learned the true value of the location, facilities, and services that SPC is able to offer.

Chris joined the SPC BoD as an interim member in late 2018 holding the position of Secretary, so that his business experience in the areas of project management, business cases, operations, and change management could help weigh in on the various possibilities and solutions to keep the club from insolvency.

As a member of the SPC BoD, Chris will represent the interests of the smaller teams that are more social in nature and generally practice less than 20 times in a season. He has seen how social teams can bring new paddlers to the club and the sport, and then introduce them to more competitive teams as their skills, confidence, and interest increase.