How long have you been with Eastern Sirens?

I joined ES back in January 2023, so have been with the club over 1 ½ years now.

What inspired you to join Artistic Swimming?                                                            

I think I’ve always been attracted to artistic sports like Rhythmic Gymnastics and Synchronised Swimming (now called Artistic Swimming), I remember in years past trying to catch a glimpse of the Rhythmic or Synchro competitions during the Olympics TV coverage. This was pre internet days and was the only way you could really catch these sports in action, but it would only ever be the tiniest fraction. I think they thought Australians weren’t interested to watch those sports but were happy to cover more boring sports! In 2000 when the Sydney Olympics were on, I decided to buy a ticket to a few different sports including Synchro. I enjoyed it, but I knew that Synchro was a female only sport, so I certainly didn’t ever consider the idea of trying it myself at that point.

In 2016 I became interested in Mermaid Swimming (swimming with a mermaid tail), after seeing some footage on the internet and soon became absolutely hooked. I loved the freedom of being able to swim underwater in any direction and I loved working on improving my breath hold which is a necessary part of Mermaid Swimming. I also took up freediving classes around the same time as this, and I remember one time our freediving club had training at the Victoria University pool where there was some synchro classes also running. I was intrigued and remember thinking as I left the pool that night I should have gone up to the teacher and asked about classes, because I was interested! But I was too scared and I didn’t!

It wasn’t until several years later when I came across a post of someone doing an “underwater ballet” routine in one of the Mermaid Facebook groups I was part of at the time that it renewed my interest in synchro. I was just amazed at how controlled and graceful the swimmer was and how she had such perfect control in the water!! I soon found out that she was a synchronised swimmer, and with encouragement from some of the members of the group I decided to  look into classes! I quickly found Eastern Sirens who not only had classes for Masters but on the website they were actively encouraging guys to join! I knew this would be perfect for me so I joined!    

Why do you like most about Artistic Swimming or the Eastern Sirens?

The lure for me, as I already said above, is I really admire the way experienced synchro swimmers have such perfect control in the water, I want to be able to do that! Initially I took it up to supplement my mermaiding and freediving skills but I also really like learning all the many different skiills and then working to improve them so that you can eventually put them in a routine. Eastern Sirens is a great club for me because they are so accepting of us older folk (I’m 46) and the fact that I am male! While there hasn’t been many guys joining the club, earlier in the year we did have a come and try day for guys, and one of the dads of one the swimmers came along, he loved it and has now joined the club! I think a lot of guys are probably scared off by the fact that the sport is so female dominant, so hopefully me being at the club can act as a role model to show that other guys can join in too.

 Your Journey so far, what are some highlights and what are some challenges you’ve faced?

I started with ES back in January 2023, originally doing just one recreational class per week, but I soon found I wanted to progress more quickly, and asked if I could join in on the competitive masters classes in order to do 3 classes a week. From the very start I felt very inadequate compared to the other experienced masters swimmers, there was so much that I knew I needed to catch up on. So on top of my weekly training I would try to do at least one extra practice session a week in my own time at my local gym pool to work on all the skills that I knew needed improvement. It was so funny because everyone else in the pool would be doing normal things like laps, and here’s me doing all sorts of weird looking synchro things! I definitely stood out but I guess I’m used to being different with all my other crazy activities I do!

The extra training helped, but I still felt that I am not progressing as fast as I imagined I would. After a year and a half of training I still don’t feel ready to be able to do competitions, although truth be told my goal has never been to actually compete, I just wanted to be better and to be able to do routines. I think I’ve learnt to accept that for me, I am just going to progress more slowly than other people.

One of the biggest challenges I’ve faced that has affected my rate of improvement is I seem to struggle with floating, which makes it hard to execute some movements properly. I’m told that this is something that other guys struggle with as well (as we don’t generally float as well as females), though I probably do also need to do a lot more work on my core! The other thing I have also struggled with at times is the cardio required in the warm up section of class. We would often be asked to do a minimum of 8 laps of swimming and then a further several laps of synchro skills and then eggbeater laps etc. Before I started synchro, doing just one 25 meter lap would be enough to tire me out, little lone doing 8! Even though I had done extensive training in Mermaid swimming and freediving, which did help to improve my breath hold and cardio to a minor degree, I found that this didn’t really translate to having better cardio in lap swimming. And I certainly wasn’t used to being out of breath and then having to go underwater for an extended period straight after, as freediving tends to emphasise only diving when you are completely calm and relaxed. So this too has been a new challenge for me.

 Thoughts on men being able to now compete in the sport and represented at Olympic level?

It’s exciting news and I think it will be quite interesting to see what could happen with having some men on a team. Men obviously have some strengths that women don’t have, in terms of having a lot more power and strength in their upper body, so we might see more spectacular lifts and tricks particularly in the new acro section, plus there is so much possibility with more interesting duets now that mixed duets are possible, I think a male and a female can tell a whole lot of different stories that you can’t tell with just two females.

I was a little disappointed that no countries this year decided to include a male in any of their teams, since 2024 in Paris was the first year that mixed teams were allowed. It would have been the perfect opportunity to showcase to the public what is possible and hopefully inspire other boys and men to try synchro. I do sort of understand why perhaps some teams were not willing to take the risk this time though, it’s just such a super competitive sport and each team wants to get the absolute best result ,and having a guy on their team is sort of an unknown. It may help them win but it may also not, so I guess they played it conservatively and decided not to include any guys on their team. I think attitudes will shift on this over time, it’s just going to be a slow process because it’s still such a new change to the sport that people are still adjusting.  

What are you excited for as artistic swimming evolves?

I think one of the most exciting new developments in recent years is the introduction of the acro division, which is a division that focuses almost entirely on pulling off spectacular gymnastic based flips and tricks. I think when the viewing public who’ve never really seen synchro before or only know it as the Esther Williams type water ballet sport, this is going to really wow them and get their attention. I think it will attract a whole new genre of people to the sport, those who come from a gymnastic background rather than the typical synchro athlete who comes from a swimming background. When you think about it, it’s quite a significant branch away from the traditional synchro routine, and judging from what we’re already seeing in such a short time that this discipline has been out there, there is so much possibility for new innovation and spectacular tricks!