The Faces Behind Rowing BC

The Faces Behind Rowing BC- YORK LANGERFELD

In his own words:

My introduction to rowing was in my final year of completing high school in Germany. It was enough for me to catch the bug and want to take it up once I moved back to Calgary. Calgary had a very small club at the time so the only option in my age range was to learn to row a 1x. While I started rowing as a good way to stay active, I had a coach that tapped into my more competitive nature. This eventually resulted in me making the National Team.

As for my involvement on the Board, I have always tried to become active in the various sports my family was involved in. Once I retired in Victoria (which was always my end goal in order to get back to rowing myself!) I made a point of attending the Rowing BC Annual General Meetings. This spurred my interest in seeing how I might be able to contribute to the growth and improvement of the sport we all love. In particular, I was interested in the growth of the competitions we host in our province. 

I have been very fortunate to have a group of people working together on our Competition Review Task Force. We have a particular focus on how we can continue to make strides in the various events we host in the province. We’ve seen some good initiatives come out of our meetings. We are still finding ways to fine-tune our schedule and some of our events, always keeping in mind the needs of our partners who host them.

The things that fills up my non-rowing life are our grandchildren. They live just up island in Parksville which makes it possible for us to visit them quite often. We also like to travel. With our son being on the National Team, we have combined multiple trips around his various events where we’ve had the great benefit of meeting and hanging out with other parents. Much of my life outside the of board does seem to tie into the sport of rowing, as I am able to row myself most mornings as well as coach for the University of Victoria.