(Prince Albert Pikes Artistic Swimming/Facebook)

By Logan Lehmann

Making a splash

P.A. Pikes sees numbers nearly double during 2023/24 season

May 2, 2024 | 1:30 PM

The Prince Albert Pikes Artistic Swimming Club wrapped up another year in the pool last weekend, closing out a season full of highlights and memories with their annual year-end Watershow and fun swim.

Among the many successful moments for the club this season was seeing nearly double the enrollment from a year ago, growing from 18 swimmers to 31 and four coaches to seven.

Pikes Treasurer Nicole Galbraith said that the spike in registrations was because of the lengthy CUPE strike and parents needing a program for their kids to learn how to swim.

“Swimming lessons were cancelled, and we actually had to turn parents away because we couldn’t accommodate any more kids,” she explained. “We had a lot of parents wanting to get their kids in swimming and we have a three to one ratio for every coach, so most of our groups have nine kids for three coaches and I believe that’s more than what the City of P.A. even offers.”

She added that they could take more kids because the Pikes offer artistic swimming and another program called AquaGO!, a nationwide grassroots foundation program for artistic swimming in Canada.

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The program can be used by the Club to test the swimmers’ fundamentals, similar to what the Lifesaving Society does.

Galbraith said that what the club hopes to do with this new group is continue working with them in the AquaGO! program to further develop their skills in artistic swimming.

Looking back at the season, the Pikes participated in many competitions which included a pair of Provincial competitions in Saskatoon where the club’s final placement ranged between first and fifth place in various skill levels and age groups.

With the new Arena & Aquatics Recreation Centre expected to be complete by the end of this year, Galbraith is excited at the thought of having competitions in Prince Albert as early as this year but thinks they won’t be competing in the new pool until the following season.

“I’ve attended board meetings where [Saskatchewan Artistic Swimming] is always looking for clubs to host events because they’re always in Saskatoon or Regina,” she said. “We let them know that if we’re in the new pool in February, unfortunately, that’s not going to be enough time for us to host an event but we’re hoping that November 2025 we can start hosting.”

The Prince Albert Pikes are now off for the summer but begin their next season in September.

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loganc.lehmann@pattisonmedia.com