Reef Tail Project

[Coradion]

Hey all, I'm new to this site. A friend of mine asked me if I could make her a new mermaid tail. She works as a mermaid for a hotel and they ordered some Mertailor tails but they don't work too well. I'm also looking into writing a funding proposal to make a few tails for some mermaid guided snorkeling tours here in Hawai'i as part of a reef education/conservation project. I've been looking at a number of tail designs and styles and have yet to settle on one, so this site seemed like a good place to look for help.

These are the requirements a tail for me and my coworkers would need to satisfy.

1.) They not only need to be swimmable, they need to be low drag and effective. All of us are divers and would be using professional dive fins. Competitor monofins are a must as we need to make it to depth quickly with minimum waste of air. Hotel performances require mermaids to swim behind large substrate to breathe from a respirator at timed intervals so we never have to surface. Usually the respirator is at a 10 meter mark.

2.) The material needs to be pretty durable. Neoprene is a big plus since it's warmer, but how thick can it be made? We can decorate weight belts to compensate for high neoprene thickness if needed.

3.) They need to be anatomically correct. I know this sounds weird, but if you work with fish all day and are in a tank or in the ocean with the real deal a neon pink, weak tailed, metallic fin just looks out of place. The cosmetic aspects aren't as much of a concern to me as things like putting together the caudal fin would be. Like the fin rays can't be super think/chunky, etc.

Any help would be great.

[MermanMatty]

What was wrong with the tails?

What about the tails didn't "work"?

And did your friend and her company call Eric so he could potentially resolve the issue?

[Coradion]

I guess he took like three months longer than he said to ship them, they came in the wrong sizes and colors so only 2 of the 6 staff members could wear them. They're too heavy making deep dives a lot harder. Also the thickness and size of the caudal fins creates a lot of drag. One of the biggest issues is the waist fitting, without it being tight the whole thing fills with water creating even more drag.

[RêveD'eau]

I can see where all of those things would pose issues. I have two tailmakers in mind that could possibly help your situation. Mike Van Daal makes high quality custom tails HOWEVER last time I checked there was an extremely long wait list. His facebook page is called Flip Tails. The other tail maker is Mermaid Shelly. She does custom tails according to your specifications exactly, whatever you have in mind, she can do! Check out her facebook page www.facebook.com/mermaidshelly or mermaidshelly.com for more info.

I have not had tails made by either of them (Mermaid Shelly has made me two mermaid tankinis and they are just wonderful!!) but check out the forum of tail maker reviews.

[Coradion]

I think the plan is to make our own, a lot of money has been spent on tails so far so we have to make sure whatever we go with is exactly what we need. I don't know the background of either of those tail makers, but for us we're looking for tails with free divers in mind, plus it seems like more fun to make your own.

[RêveD'eau]

Then I would recommend looking up topics in the tailmaking forum.

[AniaR]

just remember these are all tutorials based on what people have figured out on their own. There's no guarantee they'll work for you.

[malinghi]

I'm also looking into writing a funding proposal to make a few tails for some mermaid guided snorkeling tours here in Hawai'i as part of a reef education/conservation project.

This is the coolest idea.


just remember these are all tutorials based on what people have figured out on their own. There's no guarantee they'll work for you.

Good disclaimer Raina. The tutorial are good but it helps to have some crafts experience, or alternatively to practice any tricky parts on small test pieces. If you do choose to make a tail it may be a good idea to make a thread on here where you can ask any questions you might have along the way.

[Coradion]

The funding is going to be the biggest step, hopefully mermaid snorkeling tours can be tied in with the aquarium education program. It'd all be fairly basic tour information like "Corals are small animals and this is why mermaids don't touch or break them apart" instead of "Mermaids dislike CFC's in the atmosphere because it leads to ocean acidification and subsequent breakdown of all calcareous body parts in marine organisms."

I have some experience with neoprene work mostly with wetsuits, so hopefully that and all the odd aquarium work I've done will help. Also looking at the way most mermaids I've seen swim and how their tails are designed what we need is going to be a bit different probably a lot of trial and error. I'll definitely start a construction thread when I start.

[AniaR]

you can also have the tails adjusted. The tailman aka thom shouse offers to fix any tails even ones he didnt make.

Mermaidsinmotion aka Linden is a great person to talk to about perfect tail swimming I think, she's on FB. her tail was custom made by a spfx artist.

[MermanMatty]

I understand the situation is frustrating....

BUT Eric's tails are custom to size and color and if the company wanted two tails to fit SIX girls, that is just asking for issues, they are made to specifically fit one person, but if they happen to fit another that is fantastic but technically he did his duty because the DO fit two of the six girls.

I understand at first the silicone tails do seem kind of awkward and difficult to swim in but once you get acquainted with it you will never want to swim with your feet again lol

But my honest opinion would to have them call Eric and see what he can do, I'm sure since they're his tails he will do something about it.

-Merman Matty

P.s. Scuba Diving with mermaids- pretty sick I must say so myself! (Watch out for sharks lol they already think divers are an afternoon snack as it is)

[Spindrift]

BUT Eric's tails are custom to size and color and if the company wanted two tails to fit SIX girls, that is just asking for issues, they are made to specifically fit one person, but if they happen to fit another that is fantastic but technically he did his duty because the DO fit two of the six girls.

He ordered more than 2. But only 2 fit.

[Mermaid Lorelei]

If you are going to be producing your own tails with neoprene, you may want to take a look at Dr. Seaweed's tail making journey. He molded latex pieces for use on his neoprene body. It might help you with some challenges in the future.

[Coradion]

Sorry if I wasn't clear. They have six girls. They wanted a tail for each girl. They started by ordering two tails meant to fit two girls, those two tails fit none of the girls.

[Coradion]

I didn't really intend on having a thread about the current tails. I just brought them up because they have some problems that we wanted to avoid with any new tails that are more based on inherent design in regards to divers. I think a lot of the mertailor tails look really nice, but ideally we want something a bit lighter in weight and with greater caudal fin rigidity for any future tails.

[Mermaid Lorelei]

I'd suggest, for a rigid caudal fin, that you look into lexan. It gives great rigidity while still being flexible enough to swim with. It also comes in varying thicknesses, which gives you more leeway. Or using competitor fins, such as you mentioned above.

[Mermaid Sirena]

Perhaps what would work best for you situation would be fabric tails with the design of the fish silk screened on, or painted on with fabric paint. If I remember correctly several mers have had success with this idea.

[Mermaid Marla]

I'm a diver also and find the tails with latex or anything on them a little hard to manuver in because they fill up with water instead of free exchange of water, like wetsuits. Of course I'm not very skilled at the mermaid swim, and do see many videos of others in latex and silicone coated tails that seem to be fine. I personally want to make just a neoprene tail and possibly sew in little 1 lb weight pouches like Mermaid Malena did in one of her tails. I think as divers you would want to stay as true to a basic neoprene tail as possible. You can paint it a ton of ways without having any drag issues. I would look at Hannah Mermaids first tails that were beautifully painted with scales. If you have an airbrush specialist I bet you could paint up neoprene to look just like the natural fish! Anyway - just my two cents...

[Coradion]

Hannah Mermaid's definitely seem to be more of what I'm looking at doing. Fabric tails would be destroyed pretty quickly with one or two bumps into a reef.

[Mermaid Harmony]

Is this for the Pacific Beach Hotel? Do you think they are interested in having another mermaid? PS. I like the tour idea for people with mermaids that's pretty awesome.

[Elle]

as far as drag is concerned (besides having tails that fit) has anyone ever considered having some small openings in the fluke? so that trapped water has somewhere to get out?
I dunno if it would work or not, but it sounds like an interesting idea (or maybe that's just me) :D

[roamingmer]

http://www.enjoy-swimming.com/how-to-swim-faster.html
I will shortly be doing the total-immersion swim weekend which follows many of the principles listed above. Whilst weight in the water will influence how the tail moves and requires more leg force; the streamlined mer-body and good surface structure for the tail will be much more important.

[Coradion]

I finished mine for it, and yeah it's for Pac Beach. They're always looking for more divers if you're SCUBA certed that's the only requirement.

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