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Merman Ray
03-15-2012, 07:32 PM
Hellow everybody. I am new here.

To introduce myself first I start with the basics. I am a 42 year old man from Indiana. And I have had a secret interest in this for a very long time, and only discovered that there is a community of people into this, as well as other men, recently.
The oldest memory I have that has sparked this interest goes back to the old TV show with Patrick Duffy, "The Man From Atlantis"(1976-78)
I was so fascinated by this guy with webbed feet and hands and can breathe underwater. It was so cool to me that whenever I went swimming that I imitated the way he swam (he swam in much the same way a mermaid does) and I would stay under as long as I could. I even had dreams about being able to breathe under watter.

Fastforward to 1984, the movie with Tom Hanks and Daryl Hanna "Splash". I became obsessed with it. This is where I had the thought that if I knew how to make a mer-tail for myself (and had the money) I would have had one back then. But back then I figured I was alone in my interest. So I kept these thoughts to myself. In fact, this post is literally the first time in my life I have shared this with anyone ever.

Fastforward to 1991. I was in the Bahamas, and luckily got a chance to scuba dive. What was really cool is the scuba tour people told us that we were close to where the movie Splash had done the underwater filming.
It was so awesome to finally swim while actually being able to breathe while under watter. And the awesome colorful fish that are around us the whole time. At one point I gave it a try, swimming like a mermaid. I swam that style for a short time. It was a bit dificult, but I realize I have not done much swimming in my life so it was natural to get tired quickly.

Fastforward to December 2010. Now that I am in the age of the internet I Had a random thought that maybe there would be something on youtube showing how they made the tail for the Splash move. There were no such videoes. However I found a few videoes of people (surprizingly, males) demonstrating their Splash replica tail in swimming pools. At that moment I wanted to know how to contact this person to either have one made for me, or find out where he got his. Well, I never found anything. I figured that eventually I would find out something.
I went back out on the road to my line of work that travels and gave it no real thought of it again until just a few days ago.
This past tuesday I had the thought that I wanted to see by chance if someone has a poster for sale on e-bay. One that I had wanted for 28 years, the 72"x 24" "Splash" poster. I saw it in a window in 84 once and I really wanted one, but I did not know how to get one then. But now, I did find it. Amazing!
As of this typing I do not have it but I will.

Anyway, moving on. After I found the poster I went back to youtube to look at those videoes of people swimming in their tails to see if I can find out anything with that. What I ended up finding was a video series from a guy that goes by Docjava3. Well, no doubt that was extremey interesting. So I saw all the vids he has on making tails. After that I went searching some more and found out that there are people who have reported some negitive things about him. I dont know but I think it should be wise to stay away from him til I know more about it myself.
In doing some more searching I found another tail maker, Mike Van Daal. So far everything I have found out about him were all positive. So I think I will be going to him to have tails made for me. What I have seen looks real good. I saw some more videoes and pictures that had other men into this as well, so cool that I am not the only one!

Finally! I have found a way to actually have the mertail I was wanting for so many years!
Yesterday, after doing EVEN MORE searching, I found the MerNetwork! WOW! There is even a whole community for this! So naturally I had to sign in.

I did a little bit of reading after I logged in just to get some kind of feel and I like what I see so far.
One thing was something I never gave a thought to, a mer-name. I came in here with a name that I thought might be fitting to this site but I am not sure if that is a name I will always have here. I will visit the site that halps create a mer-name and see what I think.
Well, That was a long introduction, hopefully I did not bore you too much, Thank you for reading it and I will see you all later.

Kanti
03-15-2012, 08:04 PM
Hey there! Welcome to the forums~
Glad you like what you see so far! It's a great place to meet people who share the same interests as well as a super interesting place to learn about buying/making tails~
It's a shame you had to go along so far in life without talking or showing your interests but I can understand it's probably easier to not mention it.
Either way, you're here now :')

You should try your hand at making your own tail~ it's a rewarding experience in my opinion xP

Sea Pearl
03-15-2012, 08:18 PM
Welcome Foxfish! It's nice to meet you! :)

Mermaid Lorelei
03-15-2012, 08:37 PM
Welcome to the community Foxfish!

ShyMer
03-16-2012, 08:42 AM
It's been a long journey to get here, hasn't it? Good luck on finally getting the tail you've always wanted!

Gem Stone
03-16-2012, 12:59 PM
Nice to meet you! It's nice to see another mer has found our big family here!

Merman Ray
03-18-2012, 12:47 AM
Thanks everybody, it is very nice to have found the online mer community. I hope to make some friends here. Maybe even find some fellow merpeople in my area. I really hope to be able to get a tail sometime this year. That is something I have been waiting for for a very long time. You all dont know how great it feels for me to know that I can actually talk to people about this interest of mine with others without being seen as wierd. I would really love to meet up with some fellow mers to swim with someday when I have my own tail.

Joy&RaptorsUnrestrained!
03-24-2012, 06:37 PM
It is a pretty awesome feeling, to find people who share your interests and appreciate them, isn't it? Welcome, and hope to hear from you. Don't worry about names so much, unless you really feel the need to change it and make a new identity (such as if you actually do get a tail). I'm currently just enjoying the goofiness of my screenname and I figure I'll select a more mer-ish name sometime after I actually get a tail, and there are a few others who are in a similar boat (or out of a similar boat).

Merman Ray
03-27-2012, 12:42 AM
I have already posted a request for a name change even though I don't have a tail yet. I have been a merman at heart for a long time. And it is very nice to see that there are others with this interest. My first tail or two will be made by others for sure. Maybe in time when I get an idea of how people make tails I will try to make one and see how that turns out.
Thank you Kanti, SeaPearl, MermaidLorelei, ShyMer, Gemstone, and Joy&RaptorsUnrestrained for the welcome.