The Northern Novas, the Yukon’s only synchronized swimming club, hosted their Winter Water Show Sunday at the Canada Games Centre. The show was the last for the Northern Novas before the new year.

“This is our last event of the year,” said Northern Novas president Keith Maguire.

“We decided to hold a winter water show to conclude our 2018 season and prepare for the 2019 season starting in January.”

The water show was an opportunity for the swimmers to show off their skills and perform for their family and friends.

“This is the first chance that everyone gets to see them perform,” said Maguire. “All the things they have been practising since September, it was just a great opportunity for everyone to come and have a look.”

The Northern Novas will have a busy competition schedule outside of the territory in the new year.

“This year our differing groups are going to various competitions,” said Maguire.

“It’s a Canada Games year, so we will be having two of our soloists go to the Games. Some of our duets are preparing for national qualifiers. And some of our other athletes are preparing for other competitions in B.C. and regionals.”

The chance to perform in front of a crowd is, according to Maguire, important for the athletes so they can get accustomed to the competition atmosphere.

“This is an opportunity for the kids to perform before we travel,” said Maguire. “It gives them the chance to perform in front of a crowd and get a feel for it and I think they did great. All these kinds of different practices are really important for the kids to get ready for when they compete Outside. So many people showed up to cheer them on so they can get that atmosphere.”

Aura-Lea Harper is a Northern Nova coach and said that the synchronized swimmers began their routines earlier this year.

“Usually we are not this far ahead in our routines so we are doing awesome so far,” said Harper. “Usually we don’t start making the routines until December, and most of them are up to 2:30, so their routines have to be 2:30, and up to three minutes.”

The club used a different training program this year to get the swimmers ready for the upcoming competition season.

“We did a different training plan this year. We trained all summer so they were already ready to go in September when we started,” said Harper. “Usually we condition from September to November, and then we start routines. But this year they were already conditioned so we started routines right away.”

Because of the Canada Winter Games and other earlier competitions the club had to build routines earlier in the season. Harper says that usually the swimmers do not start competitions in April or May.

Harper says the swimmers are progressing well in their routines and that they are doing awesome this year.

The crowd which was seated along the side of the CGC swimming pool were treated to a variety of routines.

The show started with Christmas duets. Christmas music filled the air as the two swimmers showed off their routines they have been practising to much applause.

After the Christmas duets, there was a group routine, which had four swimmers performing together. The group performance was followed by two duet routines and three solo routines.

The Northern Novas will next host a water show in April.