Most people have some personal goals in mind when they start the PADI Mermaid Course and have an idea of what comes next. If not, that's okay!

• After certification, what can you do? Many mermaids come to me with dry land experience and they are seeking to improve their in-water skills and fluidity. Achieving a certification alone is not usually enough to be transformative for your fluidity and comfort in the water. You will need to practice your skills, plan choreography, and work out unique performance movements. The best place for this is Mermaid Practice! If you also want to practice on your own there are a few pools in the the Salt Lake City area that allow monofins and practice in a mermaid tail:

• Dive Utah, Holladay, Utah
• Cottonwood Heights Recreation Center, Cottonwood Heights, UT

If you are outside the Salt Lake Area, the best way to find open water sites is to connect with a PADI Dive shop in your area. Once you locate a shop, contact them to find local areas that allow mermaiding either in confined water(pools) or in open water locations. When I first started swimming as a mermaid in my area, I did just that. I located a PADI dive shop close to me and went in to discuss my goals. I met Dave at Dive Utah, and he was happy to help me move forward with my mermaid swims! He helped me coordinate with a Divemaster to act as a safety diver for each of my mermaid practices, since this was long before the PADI mermaid program was established and this was the best way to create a safe space for Mermaid practice. 

Recreation Centers
When you are visiting a recreation center to arrange a practice session, be sure to communicate what your goals for the session and what certifications you have. The center may or may not request to see your certification card. I have been turned away from many facilities because they simply ban monofins outright. I'm working to increase monofin acceptance in my area, but this is a work in progress in public pools. Be prepared with bifins to practice with in case your plans for monofin practice is not allowed. You can always make the best of a pool session! Use this list below to guide your conversation as you discuss your certification with recreation center staff:

As a PADI Mermaid, you are certified to:

• Coordinate with a buddy to practice safe breath-hold mermaid dives incorporating a variety of unique underwater performance moves. (We don't dive alone!)
• Perform as a mermaid buddy by: monitoring the mermaid diver and being prepared for any emergencies. Buddies can follow with a float, wearing bifin, and watch as the mermaid swims). Finally, buddies can be be prepared to rescue a mermaid diver in less that 30' of water.
• Execute safe breath-hold dives as a mermaid, perform quick exits from your tail and monofin, perform self rescue techniques as needed, communicate and coordinate as needed with the safety diver, and execute skills in situations similar to that which you were certified.
• Respect the local environment at all times. (natural or man-made)

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Not all mermaids are satisfied with local Mermaid Practice or pool training, so we have travel options for you! This coming summer, 2023, I will be attending MerWeek and completing photoshoots on land for attending mermaids. This is an amazing opportunity to build community with other mermaids from around the world, develop your skills in confined and open water, develop your photography and video portfolio, and experience a beautiful Caribbean environment in Cozumel, Mexico. This opportunity has been transformative for me in the past and I am excited to share it with all mermaids this summer! The incentives for early registration will extend through the end of 2022. 

What's your favorite place to practice you Mermaid skills? What's the most unexpected door that mermaiding has opened for you?

Safe mermaiding, 
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~Ani

We are excited to complete the Save the Manatee Virtual 5k again this year to raise money for the Save the Manatee club!
I first swam with the manatees when I was about 5 years old. My father was a scuba instructor and had us in the water as soon as we could swim. I remember heading out on a small boat in winter in Crystal River Florida with the promise from my dad that we were going to see some manatees! I wasn't sure what a manatee was, but I was excited to see one. We stopped the boat at a specific spot that my dad thought would be a good place to get in the water, and we looked around. I remember learning how to tell if a manatee was breathing at the surface by looking for their "footprint". This is a disturbance on the surface of the water that can indicate where they recently took breath, or if they were floating on the surface. We were quiet, waited, and watched. Then I saw something very large and light colored against the eelgrass underwater quickly approaching our boat. It swam towards us, then under our boat and away with a speed that was surprisingly fast. I may have screamed. I was 5, forgive me. 

Needless to say I was now hesitant (more like terrified) to get in the cold water with such a huge swiftly moving creature as a small child. My dad reassured me that they were not aggressive, and we had strict instructions to not touch them. We were to interact passively only. If a manatee came to us, that was fine. We were not to chase any manatees. 

We motored to a new location on the river and waited, watched and listened. My dad was satisfied that this was a good location to get in the water. I fumbled around with my gear and thick wetsuit to finally roll over the side of our small boat. I adjusted my mask and saw I was surrounded by manatees! They were huge! As a small child, they were the most impressive creatures I had ever witnessed in the wild. I observed right away that some were sleeping, some were eating eel grass, some had buoys attached to their tails. I kicked my fins gently to take a closer look. I remember at this time, the waterways were covered with hyacinth on the edges of the river. The manatees would swim up, open their mouth, and somehow devour huge masses of water vegetation with each bite. It was mesmerizing to watch. 

Year after year, we would return to swim with the manatees in Crystal River and surrounding springs for years to come. I want the manatee to be able to exist and thrive in their natural habitat. I want everyone who is interested in these gentle giants to be able to experience them safely, at a distance. As a Mermaid, I feel it is important to call attention to the needs of the manatees and to help them survive in our modern world. I live far away from Crystal River now, but I can still contribute to a cause that is very important to me. And you can too!

​Join us in completing the Virtual 5k for manatees and spread the word about this opportunity to those who might be interested in helping as well. You can also find additional ways to get involved with adoptions and support for manatees at the Save the Manatee Club Website. Last year, the event raised $47,000 for the Save the Manatee Club with almost 1,800 virtual participants from nineteen countries and all fifty states. 

As a virtual race, feel free to run, swim, canoe, bike, kayak, ride, scuba or walk; you pick your favorite way to support manatees. We will complete our event on November 25th in the morning. You can chose your best day and favorite course; have fun!  Your packet will include a manatee race finisher's medal, manatee race t-shirt and manatee race bib.  
Let me know when you complete your race and tag us in your photos! (@aqua_natives, #runformanatees)
Have fun outside!
~Ani

Many months ago, I was selected out of small group of PADI Mermaid Instructors to attend the first every PADI Mermaid Instructor Course at PADI Headquarters at the end of October. I was thrilled, as this aligned with goals I set for myself when the PADI Mermaid Program was first introduced at the end of 2020. I had been a mermaid for many years, a diver since childhood, and at the time I was working as a Divemaster and Underwater Photography Instructor at Dive Utah. I knew when the program was released that I wanted to complete it, and ultimately become a Mermaid Instructor Trainer. 
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I had a long way to go to make this goal come true. The only instructor that was certifying PADI Mermaid Instructors that was accessible to me was Julie Ferrara of Freedive Cozumel  in Cozumel, Mexico. After working out the schedule, I realized I had to make two separate trips to Mexico to complete the Mermaid and Advanced Mermaid Courses, then return for the Mermaid Instructor Course. I was delighted to attend the first Mermaid Instructor Course that Julie had conducted, and felt that I was keeping track with the timeline of my goals.

I completed the Mermaid Instructor Training with Mermaid Q and then headed back to make plans for Mermaid Courses at Dive Utah. We have since certified so many mermaids through our dive shop, and I have expanded to teach Mermaid through the University of Utah. My course, "Mermaid Swimming and Diving" is catered to adult learners who are interested in deeper learning about specific topics and creating community as they learn. This course has been blast and fulfills my dreams to reach out to a wider audience to bring even more people to be able to experience and love the ocean and our waters.

As I prepared to travel for the Instructor Trainer Course, I could not prepare myself for the experience I was about to have. I shared a room with the best mermaid roommate I could have, Jen Downey. Although we joked that we were at Mermaid Camp for the week, it was definitely intense and not a vacation! Our trainers set the expectations for excellence on the first day and conducted professional, exceptional trainings, workshops and skill assessments throughout the week. Eric Albinsson and Alan Jan are true professionals of PADI Training and I was consistently impressed with their fluidity of instruction and commanding presence in the classroom. As an educator myself, I am consistently impressed with the investment in educational training and materials that PADI produces to be the top training agency in the industry. After experiencing their training at all levels, I can say I feel the most informed and prepared having learned through the PADI system. 

This level of professionalism is what sets Aqua Native apart from other Mermaid Instructor schools. Like the PADI Professionals I learned from in California, I am a dedicated Educator and Teaching professional who brings this level of exceptionalism into the classroom. Had it not been for the many PADI Instructors I have been able to work with over the years, I would not have the background and tools necessary to be successful as a Mermaid Instructor. My first PADI Mermaid Instructor Training is scheduled for the end of March at Dive Utah, and I hope to see you there to start your journey as a PADI Mermaid Instructor!