"That is fine but when you get in the water to do the stuff you find it's a lot harder than they think," she says, seeing the humour with the nose pegs but emphasising it's an essential device to ensure they don't take in water while upside down in the pool.
But it's no laughing matter to do handstands under water without touching the bottom while holding one's breath or perform a split while suspended below a diving platform.
Burns became adjudicator not long after the turn of this century. She was a New Zealand development squad member as a synchronised swimmer before becoming national coach shortly after the Kiwis failed to qualify for the 2000 Sydney Olympics after she moved to Auckland.
She took the sport as far as she could but also spent quality time with mates to enhance her enjoyment.
"I'm a really technical person so I think as a judge it's a really good thing as well so that's why I went into coaching."
Burns didn't need a second invite as judge because she saw it as an ideal way to stay in the sport she loves.
"I really enjoyed the sport and I wanted to give something back to it."
With a 15-member panel of judges - five each for execution of routines, impression and degree of difficulty - the goal is for them to be as consistent as possible in rating from 1 to 10 on their cards.
"Sometimes it can be point something [marks] between first and second because there's no discussion between the judges."
The highest and lowest marks are scratched to post an average score.
Parent body Fina has a structure for judges, from G, B to A grade which opens the door to world championships, Commonwealth Games and Olympics.
"It's all been a process for me but I guess the benefits are I'm the only judge at Oceania level."
In the Olympic year, Fina tries to cover every continent and Burns has come up trumps.
"It's taken me a wee while and I've had a child," she says of 4-year-old daughter Grace, born in the year she got her Fina A accreditation.
She has no qualms about the Zika virus after assurances from a Rio judge she met in Canada recently to be sensible in applying sunscreen that will be available at all pools. The NZ Olympic Committee's assurances also reaffirmed that.
"I'd love to go to a few more [Olympics]. My husband's keen for me to go to Tokyo," she says of the kindergarten teacher, mindful their daughter will be older by then too.
Synchronised swimming has taken Burns to all continents except Africa. "So going to South America is kind of exciting."
With no clubs in the Bay she travels to Tauranga to judge twice a year. While it'll be nice to have a club in the Bay her research reveals there has been one here previously.
Because the family frequented Mt Maunganui beach, her parents, Jim, a former Waikato rugby representative, and Jenny Carroll, took Burns and older brother Grant Carroll, a former New Zealand rower who is an administrator in the sport in Blenheim, for swimming lessons early.
"It was an important skill to have and both of us were good at it so we picked it up pretty early."
Boredom started kicking in with swimming at 10 but while lap training at Te Rapa pool one day, she finished her set to look across to see synchronised swimmers going through their routines at the diving platform.
"My swim coach said to me to go across and give it a go and I've never looked back since."
Ballet, jazz, you name it, Burns danced her heart out so the marriage of the two disciplines were not a case of if but when.
"Synchro is heavily swim based so I knew how to move in water and picked it up naturally quickly.
"Sing and dance were my two favourite things and, yes, I loved the training because it had so much variety."
While growing up in Dunedin, the former Queen's High School pupil enjoyed the coaching of the late Duncan Laing, the former mentor of double Olympic gold medallist Danyon Loader, from 5am before gym sessions beckoned. Flexibility training followed before they returned to the pool for another two hours in the afternoons.
While she did 2-3 hours on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays before Saturday's two-hour stint, the elite girls used to train "full on" almost every day.
"We also do what we call land drills, which is doing movements to music on land," she says, adding knowing music to every count and beat was imperative.
Grace is hard to pull out of the backyard pool at home in summer but Burns is taking a wait-and-see approach on whether her daughter will follow in her aquatic steps.
"I'd like to see her give it a go but I don't want to be one of those overbearing parents. I just kind of want to let her go for it."
Burns is indebted to the Prime Minister's Scholarship for preparation and travel to Rio since she took up judging.
