With the end of an era approaching in Isle of Wight synchronized skating, iowskaters has been trawling through the video vaults to look at how far the discipline has progressed. The clip presented here is a practice session at Ryde for the Lee Valley Synchronized Skating Opens on 19 November 2005. iowskaters has chosen a practice session because it shows the individual skaters clearly, allowing today’s generation to identify them even though the technology of the time is fuzzy.

November 2005 was a landmark month for the Wight Diamonds. All the members passed the novice synchro test on Sunday 6 November, meaning they were of a high enough level to take part in the British Synchro Championships in January 2006. Synchro tests, of course, are now a thing of the past, with team members required to have specific levels in field moves.

The Diamonds also had to compete at the Lee Valley Synchronized Skating Opens on Saturday 19 November in order to qualify for the championships. The team would face their bête noire of those early years: Gosport, the club that regularly came on top in Solent friendly competitions. And again, they would finish behind them.