Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey brain Stuff, Lauren bog Obam Here. If you're fascinated by mythological creatures, love to swim, and know the entire score to The Little Mermaid, your time has officially come. Mermaid Ing is an honest to goodness hobby and even career, and it's poised to explode at a mermaid school or birthday party near you. All you need is a tale
and more on that in a minute. A while. It may seem like this is popping up out of nowhere, mermaids and mer men have actually been at it for years now. We spoke via email with Sheila Kaiser, lead mermaid instructor at Aqua Mermaid in Austin, Texas. She said, Mermaiding has been around for twenty plus years and I think will only continue to grow in popularity. We teach ages seven to eighty and I have all different reasons
for wanting to come than experience being a mermaid or merman. Yes, the typical mermaid school has classes for both adults and children, and how special events like bachelorette parties. We also spoke by email with Kala Marama, a mermaid instructor and professional belly dancer in the Northern Virginia area. She said, I personally have loved mermaids since I was young, and I've also loved the water. For children, when they have the chance to meet a real mermaid and learned from one,
they often are very excited to do so. Adults that are interested in mermaiding tend to do so for a few different reasons, to live at a childhood fantasy, or to do something different and interesting, But she notes it's a lot harder that it sounds. Indeed, mermaiding is definitely best done by confident swimmers. Marama explains, we know that swimming in any capacity can be a tough workout, so one must be a strong swimmer before putting on a tail,
as a tail adds a new level of difficulty. Tails may weigh between fifteen and thirty five pounds that's about seven to sixteen kilo's. Many mermaid schools require participants to be able to pass basic swim tests, being able to swim at least twenty five meters that's around eighty eat, tread water for a minute, and float on your front and your back. In a class, you'll learn the basics of how to swim with a tail, plus things like the mermaid high five and how to do handstands, which
soon translate into synchronized mermaid swimming skills. Some classes also teach kids about caring for the oceans, and indeed, mermaid swimming is a killer way to get or stay in shape. We also spoke by email with cohed mermaid Rachel Roddick with Aqua Mermaid Chicago. She said it offers a total body workout from toning your glut, squads and abs, combined with great cardio exercises working on breath control underwater. It's
a low impact sport. The benefits from the buoyant effect of the water that takes pressure off joints, alleviating pain and discomfort. At your first class, you usually just need to wear a swimsuit. The school will normally supply the monofin and the tail skin. The monophin is a piece of equipment with foot pockets that allows you to propel forward in the water, while the tail skin is a complete tail that's pulled on over the monof in. If you plan to stick with this, you may want to
buy your own. Models run from about a hundred bucks for something basic, all the way to five hundred dollars or even three thousand for realistic, professional grade mermaid tales. But wait, you say you can be a professional mermaid? You bet. Although some people take the classes just for fun and exercise, there's a growing contingent of professional mermaids around the world. Aqua Mermaid estimates that there are about a thousand professional mermaids currently working in the United States.
There's presently no standard certification program that all mere people must pass, but there are a number of mermaid conferences held around the world every year. So how does one pursue a mer career? Many pros become mermaids, swim instructors, mermaid entertainers at birthday parties, events and the like, mermaid influencers on social media, and even custom mermaid tale makers. There are also mermaid modeling opportunities to be had for
photo shoots or on film. A friend of mine was a Mermaid x ra in a recent episode of Hawaii five Oh. Much like any career, there's some investment required on the front end to become a professional mer person. First, a potential pro must be a strong swimmer and have a background teaching swimming or synchronized swimming if they plan to be an instructor, and other classes can help, like early childhood education courses if you plan on working with kids,
and business courses Mermaiding is a business after all. Today's episode was written by Ali A. Hoyt and produced by Tyler Clain. Brain Stuff is a production of I Heart Radio's How Stuff Works. For wineness and lots of other splashy topics, visit our home planet, how stuff Works dot com, and for more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit that I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.