Everything you need to know to become a real-life mermaid for a day or for a lifetime
A Queensland family’s attempt to see wild manatees turned into an unexpected opportunity to become mythological creatures instead.
Lifestyle
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The little girl’s high-pitched squeal broke the silent beach air.
“My mummy’s a mermaid!” she shrieked in delight.
Having donned a mask and snorkel, along with a specially-made monofin and mermaid skin, mum Audrey was now trying to swim around in the transparent, spring-fed water.
Maisey soon also delighted in becoming a ‘real-life’ mermaid, splashing around with her mum in the shallows after being helped into her into her own colourful, tiny tail to celebrate her fifth birthday.
The pair were the only others in our one hour “Try Mermaid” experience one sunny day on the banks of Crystal River, in the town of the same name, on the west-central coast of Florida, in the US.
Run by Birds Underwater Dive Centre’s mermaid instructor Kayla O’Donnell, 26, the introductory course gives people a taste of what it could be like to be a real-life mythical creature.
“It brings a lot of childhood fantasies to life and people just think that’s neat to be like a mythical creature in the water,” Kayla said.
“Mermaiding has become bigger and bigger over the years.
“When I was a kid this was not a thing, but I think it’s very trendy to be a mermaid. People think it’s a fun and different way of exploring the environment.”
Sporting wetsuits, my 14-year-old daughter and I were next to don colourful fish tails.
While the fit teenager hopped into hers with ease, swished her tail and quickly swam off to explore the river, I was not as confident upon seeing my ‘mertail’, which looked about five sizes too small.
Kayla, also known as Mermaid Kay, assured me the costume would fit – and she was right.
Once I secured my feet into the rigid plastic Lindin monofin sewn inside the bottom of the material, it was a matter of pulling (and tugging, in my case), the stretchy material up to my waist.
A monofin is a large, single fin that looks similar to a mermaid’s fluke.
Unlike regular flippers, your feet are enclosed or strapped in together, ensuring you are only able to swim by using the dolphin kicking technique.
Mask and snorkel in place, I sat on the sand in the shallow water before wriggling my way into the deeper, crystal-clear water of the spring-fed inlet.
The Crystal River, which empties into the Gulf of Mexico, comprises a network of interconnected springs that sprout from a massive underground freshwater reservoir called the Floridian Aquifer.
Working out the correct kicking rhythm needed to be able to move very far or fast was a bit more challenging than I anticipated.
Part of the reason was because I was busy trying to capture underwater photos and videos of my daughter on my GoPro Hero 12 Black camera.
Once I handed the GoPro over to Leia, who gracefully dived down deep to record bubbles from one of the natural springs, I was able to fully embrace the technique needed to move through the water.
Finally, a childlike joy engulfed me and memories of pretending to be a mermaid, sans tail, in a pool as a child suddenly returned.
Happy to escape reality for a while, I started diving and swimming underwater and did not want the experience to end.
Becoming a temporary mermaid became the unexpected highlight of our day following an unsuccessful manatee boat tour earlier that morning.
My husband Tom and I had wanted to take Leia and her brother, Jonah, 11, to the US to swim with the wild Florida manatees, a subspecies of West Indian manatees, for years.
So we were all excited when we arrived at Birds Underwater Dive Centre at 5am for our tour but, despite the best efforts of the crew, returned to shore disappointed.
Though Crystal River is usually abundant with sea cows heading from the ocean to the warmth of the many natural springs, months earlier a hurricane had wiped out most of the manatees favourite food – seagrass – keeping many of them out at sea.
On top of that, some previous inclement weather only days prior to our visit had also turned that section of the usually crystal-clear river water temporarily murky, making any hard to spot.
When our tour boat returned, we drove a short distance away to meet up with Mermaid Kay at Hunter Springs Park.
The small beach, swimming area and park is named after Hunter Spring, one of three natural springs that feed into the cove.
The deepest part of the freshwater swimming area was roped off to separate it from the boat traffic heading along the canal, with residential homes looking over the inlet.
This was where Leia and I were both ‘mermaiding around’ when we noticed a boat stop nearby, people hop into the water with pool noodles and slowly start heading in our direction.
Thanks to the earlier part of our morning, we realised it was a different boat tour and that a manatee must have been spotted in the area.
Leia and I thought nothing more of it, since the crowd – on the other side of the rope – was still some distance away from us, moving slowly and quietly, as per manatee spotting rules.
Plus, our family had already experienced how difficult it had been to spot the aquatic mammals just a couple of hours prior, so knew not to get our hopes up again.
Yet, about 30 seconds after Leia and I put our faces back in the water to return to exploring the underwater world as mermaids, we suddenly spotted a large sea cow only a few metres away, gracefully swimming along on the other side of the rope partition.
Despite averaging about 450kg and being known as one of the slowest-moving marine animals, we were surprised with how quickly the manatee was gliding, leaving the pool-noodle crowd far behind, in its proverbial dust.
It was an exciting and appropriate sighting, considering that the earliest of explorers are believed to have mistaken manatees for mermaids.
This includes famed Italian explorer Christopher Columbus, who in 1943, documented that he had seen “three mermaids” that historians believe were manatees.
Later that day, Leia pointed out that the marine life and outdoorsetting made the mermaid experience feel more realistic.
“There was so much marine life, like manatees, fish and snails, which made the experience feel so much more real,” she said.
Mermaid Kay, who previously was a manatee tour guide, said she was thrilled when she had a chance to become a mermaid instructor about four years ago.
“Being a mermaid is like a dream come true. Everybody always wants to be a mermaid,” she said.
“I’ve loved mermaids ever since I was a kid.
“I’ve always dreamed of being a mermaid and (would watch) the mermaid TV shows ... and now I get to share that dream with others.”
Kayla said ‘mermaiding’ was also a unique way for people to explore the environment.
“I think it’s a neat idea (and) it gets people to be able to appreciate the springs in a way they don’t usually do,” she said.
The instructor said longer courses were available for anyone wanting to learn advanced mermaiding skills.
“When you get good at it, you can swim without your face mask and you can get very good and professional looking down there, blowing bubble rings and mermaid kisses to everybody,” she said.
Mermaid instruction was serious business though, with those wanting to become an instructor or professional performer required to complete several layers of certifications.
“You have to go through instructor school,” Kayla said.
“There’s usually level one to level three mermaids, which is usually shallow to deep water mermaids.
“To be a mermaid instructor you also have to be a freedive instructor or at least a freedive certified to do that. So there’s a lot that goes into being a mermaid.”
Part of the training includes knowing rescue manoeuvres, she said.
Kayla said there was an active mermaid community throughout the US, particularly in Florida.
“The mermaid community are all just people who may or may not be certified or are they might just be people who do it for fun, but they all meet up and they all support one and another very highly in a very body positive community,” she said.
“They usually meet up just to take pictures and to learn things from one another.”
In Crystal River, about 130km from Tampa, “Mermaid Mondays” are popular.
“They pick a different spring every Monday and all the girls go – sometimes dozens of them at a time – just random people, anybody who wants to be a mermaid will show up and they will all bring a tail and go mermaiding for a while,” Kayla said.
The instructor said plenty of men also become merman.
“I had a husband and wife come a couple of years ago. The husband had lost the bottom of his leg in (military) service.”
“He had a prosthesis made to fit the monofins we use so that he and his wife could come out here and be mermaids.
“He’s a usually, you’d think, a really tough guy, and … he was excited to play mermaids and did it really well. He was much better at it than his wife was,” Kayla laughed.
MORE INFORMATION
WHAT: Try Mermaid: An hour long introduction to the underwater world of ‘mermaiding’ or separate manatee tours
WHERE: Birds Underwater Dive Centre, 320 NW US-19, Crystal River, Florida, USA
CONTACT: Visit birdsunderwater.com
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