The 2004 dragon boat season brought significant changes for the New Dragons. Under the leadership of Jean-Guy LeBlanc, the New Dragons made a giant leap from being a midlevel university team to securing a position among the top ranked university teams in Eastern Canada. Showing consistently competitive performance against university rivals, silver metals were secured at both the Pickering and Toronto festivals, and the team took home the Education Cup at the Great White North Dragon Boat Challenge.

The end of this successful season would be bittersweet. It would be the last season for many New Dragons paddlers, including veterans such as Elaine, Laura, Sebastian and Jean-Guy, many of whom had paddled with the New Dragons since its very beginning. Yet these and other paddlers would leave behind a love for the team that would quickly be adopted by a new generation of New Dragons paddlers.