Nam Nguyen, of Canada, skates in the men's free skating event at Skate Canada International in Lethbridge, Alta., on Oct. 31, 2015. It hasn't been an easy season for Nam Nguyen. He's going through another growth spurt that has thrown his skating slightly off-kilter. He's feeling the pressure of defending his Canadian title against a field that once again includes Patrick Chan. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward

It hasn't been an easy season for Nam Nguyen.

He's going through another growth spurt that has thrown his skating slightly off-kilter. He's feeling the pressure of defending his Canadian title against a field that once again includes Patrick Chan. There have been days, the 17-year-old says, where he's wanted to quit.

But Nguyen draws on resilience learned from his father Sony, who was among the hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese refugees who fled by boat to escape the country's Communist tyranny in the 1970s and '80s.

"He's so brave," Nguyen said of his dad. "I'm very happy that he's my father, he's taught me to become very strong.

"Sometimes he'll compare my problems to his problems and that will make my problems look like nothing," he added, laughing.

Sony Nguyen made the harrowing 500-kilometre trek to Malaysia in 1987, one of 149 people stuffed into a boat just 10 metres long. There was no room to walk. They sat, legs stacked upon one another like kindling, holding on while the rough South China Sea knocked them about.

They were attacked by pirates who took their food, water and belongings and what little money they had. The pirates raped several of the female passengers before leaving them adrift with nothing.

They were eventually rescued by a passing freighter, and taken to the Pulao Bidong refugee camp in Malaysia.

"At that time I said, 'Yes, we are alive,'" Sony said. "When I escaped my country, we had to realize we leave or we could die. It was very frightening ... right up until I put my foot down in Malaysia."

Sony lived in the refugee camp for nearly a year before a Canadian sponsored him to move to Ottawa. Nguyen would send for Nam's mom Thu, a doctor in Vietnam, a year later.

"It was very difficult," said Nguyen, a computer scientist in Toronto. "Life, it's not easy, but we have to stand up and move on and fight for it. And that's what Nam has been trained for."

Nam and his dad were gripped by recent images of Syrian refugees, and their own harrowing escapes. Because Toronto's Jewish community came to the aid of the Vietnamese years ago, Nam recently spoke at the Holy Blossom Temple to ask the two communities to work together to support Syrian refugees.

"I feel really, really sorry for those people," Sony said. "They have been through what I went through, they sacrificed their families and their lives to come to Canada ... I told Nam, 'That's what dad has been through.' Nam is very proud of the family."

Sony enrolled Nam in hockey at the age of four. The two are big Vancouver Canucks fans. He started figure skating at five, and quit hockey at eight when he won the Canadian juvenile figure skating title.

Nam has captured a national title at every age group and won the world junior championships in 2014. He was fifth at the world senior championships last spring.

He's the defending champion this week at the Canadian figure skating championships in Halifax. Sitting in a lounge at the Toronto Cricket, Skating and Curling Club after a recent practice, Nam said his season has been a tough one.

"Sometimes I have a bad day ... and I'll be like, 'I just want to quit, not continue this sport anymore,'" he said.

One issue is his growth. He recently grew about six inches in a year, and figures he's grown another four since last spring.

"You go from a young man to a man and it's not so much the height, but your shoulders get broader ... just a different kind of weight," said his coach Brian Orser. "It's always an adjustment. But when he gets through this (growth spurt), it's full steam ahead."

Nam said he's also feeling the pressure of expectations after reeling off one solid season after another. Things have normally come easy. This season, they're not.

"It's like a game going on in my head, especially in training," Nam said. "Some days are good, some days are awful. Actually most are awful really. I'll have the odd really good day, but so far this season have been very challenging in terms of mental ... it's like a war zone going on."

Nam said he's buoyed by the other skaters who train under Orser at the Cricket Club, including Olympic champion Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan and world champion Javier Fernandez of Spain.

Coming off a bad practice earlier that day, Nam said he'd received kind words from Canadian pairs team Dylan Moscovitch and Lubov Iliushechkina.

"It was so awful, it was really, really bad. But they came up and gave me words of advice, 'Relax, this is just a sport, it shouldn't consume my entire life.' They made me laugh. The next session went much better."

Chan, meanwhile, will look to reclaim his Canadian title. The eight-time national champion and three-time world champion took last season off to ponder his future in the sport.

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