By Stephanie Ip, The Province
Surrey’s Darcy Hinds was climbing the Grouse Grind in early August when he came across a young boy who had apparently sprained his ankle and was stranded halfway.
Hinds — who has often completed the Grind while wearing training weights — offered to help by piggybacking the kid the remainder of the hike.
“Everyone was messaging me and saying, ‘Good job,’” Hinds said of the resulting media coverage.
At the time, Hinds had said carrying the young boy up the Grind was not a challenging feat, as he’d been working out vigorously, both for his job as a stunt man and in hopes of qualifying to compete in boxing at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
Then in November, Hinds finally took his first solid step toward achieving that dream. He competed in the 2015 Western Canadian Boxing Championships at North Vancouver’s Griffins Boxing Club.
Hinds won three fights back to back and was crowned “the best in the west,” winning gold in the 75 KG category.
In early December, Hinds took another step by flying to Montreal for a chance to unseat the current reigning national champion.
“I knew going into Montreal that I’d have to knock out the champion or win in a major, major way,” Hinds said. “The odds are stacked against not just me but everybody (who goes up against the champ).”
Unfortunately, the match went to a decision and Hinds lost — but it didn’t leave him defeated.
“I fell in love with boxing and I’ve been doing it for a long time so I’m not going to stop,” Hinds said. “I’m in amazing shape, I feel great and I’m excited to turn pro.”
While Hinds won’t be headed to the Olympics, he will continue to train and hopefully make his professional boxing debut sometime in early 2016.
The training will also help with his continued stunt work. Most recently, Hinds was on set playing an FBI agent in “Second Chances,” a show set to debut in January.
“It’s an amazing career and it’s full of really talented men and women with talents so different from boxing,” Hinds said.
“Every time I go to set, it’s an honour just to work with them and see them work. I’m still learning and hopefully one day, I’ll get to a level where I can do some of the things they can do.”
