Amphoebe Stargazer, Concord, NH

[Amphoebe Stargazer]

Greetings all. I'm a new mermaid from NH. My boyfriend gave me my first monofin a few days ago. I am looking forward to making my own tail. Off to practice mermaiding right now under his guidance.

Happy Swimming,
Amphoebe

[Keiris]

Welcome to the Waters Amphoebe! Good luck with your tail! :D

[Amphoebe Stargazer]

My merman and I got in about 4 hours of swimming at the pool this weekend, which will be a rarity because he works 7-days a week. Those of us who live in the frozen northern reaches need an indoor place to get wet, since we only have about two months of decent lake swimming weather here. I'm taking to the fin quite naturally and can make it about 3/4 of the way down an Olympic-sized pool with one breath. Mind you, I'm not very good at swimming fast yet, so that is quite a feat for me. Need to work on keeping my body straighter in the water...my butt and legs want to float up.

The folks at my gym are pretty cool about not letting themselves be distracted by us. There is some initial staring, but once they get a good eyeful, they go about the business of swimming their own laps and leave us alone to do ours. My sweetie swims fully tailed, once I have a tail to go with my fin, it might not look so weird to the other swimmers.

Though in our 50's, it's still hard to face a bunch of junior high boys who need to tease what makes them uncomfortable, or what they do not understand. I've been proudly weird all my life and I'm pretty brazen about it! When I hear or see that someone feels off by what I do, I speak to them directly and say, "This is fun, do you want to learn more?" At that point, they either say yes or run away because they see that I can not be teased into conformity.

I hope to get in about 8 hours a week at the pool and at least one trip to the lake before the season ends. Sadly, since my dear heart works so much, I'll have to do much of that practice alone. He has been a merman for some time, so I have some catching up to do anyway.

Blessings to all,
Amphoebe

[Merman Jamie]

Welcome

[Amphoebe Stargazer]

Thank you for the messages of advise on dealing with kids at the pool. In this case, we were there first and left shortly after the handful of boys arrived. We had already been swimming for 90 minutes anyway. I even asked the watchful mom I she wanted to join the mermaid club. She said, "No I can't swim, I'm just here to watch my kids." I've had lifeguard training, so what she said sounded kind of silly to me. The watchful person should also be able to rescue if needed, I thought. We left to a chorus of "Cannonball!" "Cannonball!" "Cannonball!" Best not to mermaid where there are so many pirates lobbing vollies anyway.