My name is Niki van Sprang and I am a (former) TopRow Amsterdam instructor and current Dutch National Team Member (Heavyweight men’s double). In this new rubric I catch up with former teammates from my time at the University of California Berkeley. Today we start with Morgan Hellen. When I first arrived in America Morgan often had to act and translator and English teacher as I was still struggling with the new language. What followed were for years in which we never raced a race without each other with as highlights a National Championship in 2016 and a Royal Henley regatta victory in 2015. Now I’m curious what he has been up to since.

We are less than a week from this year’s Harlem River Classic, a fundraising regatta in support of Row New York — a NYC-based nonprofit organization that combines rowing and academic support to help middle and high school students attending some of our city’s most under-resourced schools realize their full potential.

After the “Learn to Row 1 course” our boat liked the rowing so much that we decided to carry on together. Well the same crew minus one (who moved to Germany but pledged to carry on at Rhine Canals). We wanted to keep to our weekday evening slot and Top row was very accommodating. Even though they had not been planning to schedule a course at this time, when they realized we had a group of three, they just made it happen for us.