Cool Things That Happen When You Swim!

[Ashe]

Hey Everymer, i have been hoping to find a thread where we can post cool things we have encountered in the water, but i couldn't find anything. So i decided to make one myself. You can post about things you didn't realize you could do but now you can, fun experiences and stuff like that. This is not a thread for sharing tips and tricks BTW.
But for example: My friend was taking videos of me in one of my tails. I did bubble kisses and stuff. When i looked back at the video again and again, i found something really cool! For about a split second, this cute little bubble appeared, then dissappeared again. I named it Jimmy LOL5695
Sorry if there was already a thread about this stuff! Feel free to move it.

[Merman_Shawn]

Today, swimming in tail at Coney Island, I saw bunches of little fishes. Then when I came to the surface, Mermaid Lanai pointed to a spot where seagulls were diving in the water. She deduced that there was a bait ball there, so basically we swam with sharks today and didn't realize it.

[Mermaid Celissa]

Well, when I was swimming in the ocean in Miami before I even got my first tail, I had goggles and there were these little silver, shiny fish swimming all around me. It felt like a little tornado of fishies ^_^ You couldn't see them from above the water though, only under. There was also alot of driftwood where I was swimming, or driftLOGS, should I say.

[Ashe]

Another cool one was before i became a mermaid, but its still awesome! My family and i were on a small glass bottom boat going whale watching, when suddenly, a baby orca whale and it's mother both swam directly under our boat. The baby kept on doing adorable little spins underneath us. Then they were gone for about a minute. Then, the mother whale jumped up and over the bow of our boat (it was a very short boat). It is a moment that i hope never to forget. It showed me the beauty of whales and now, as an aspiring professional mermaid, i do my best to help save them.

[Mermaid Celissa]

Aww! I would kill to see that. <3

[Ashe]

Today, swimming in tail at Coney Island, I saw bunches of little fishes. Then when I came to the surface, Mermaid Lanai pointed to a spot where seagulls were diving in the water. She deduced that there was a bait ball there, so basically we swam with sharks today and didn't realize it.
That is soo cool! i would love to tail swim with sharks one day! ...at least ones that don't bite LOL!

[Merman_Shawn]

That is soo cool! i would love to tail swim with sharks one day! ...at least ones that don't bite LOL!

Grey Nurse Sharks are supposed to be pretty docile. And they're big enough to look impressive on film.

[Merman_Shawn]

Another cool one was before i became a mermaid, but its still awesome! My family and i were on a small glass bottom boat going whale watching, when suddenly, a baby orca whale and it's mother both swam directly under our boat. The baby kept on doing adorable little spins underneath us. Then they were gone for about a minute. Then, the mother whale jumped up and over the bow of our boat (it was a very short boat). It is a moment that i hope never to forget. It showed me the beauty of whales and now, as an aspiring professional mermaid, i do my best to help save them.

That sounds magical.

[Ashe]

Wow! Most people wouldn't believe me about the whale thing... i guess cause most mers have a connection to the ocean we understand the beauty and wonder that the sea provides us with

[SilverSiren]

When I was a avid surfer living in Cali I frequently had dolphins out with us. We would all just sit about on the waves with our boards and watch them play. Dolphins are so intelligent, they are very aware that surfers are playful and never do harm to them, so they'll just swim right up to you. In LaJolla and Huntington you can get really big waves at certain times of the year, at those times, if your lucky, the dolphins will take a quick wave ride with you for a moment. Magical. Plus the added comfort, that if there were dolphins about, sharks were less likely to be with you.

[Capt Nemo]

Here's some of my friends at Redgranite quarry. (food helps!) The rainbow trout liked to school with me while swimming once chowtime was over.

5922

[Ashe]

Wow, Capt Nemo! that looks really fun!

[Ashe]

I already posted this on it's own thread, but i went to the beach and figured out that i can open up my eyes under the water and it doesnt hurt one bit! :jawdrop:

[Lyna]

The only cool thing I can think of is the feeling of swimming in a latex/silicone tail for the first time. A well made one that flows perfectly through the water. It's an indescibeable feeling.

[Ashe]

Sounds awesome, Lyna! I cant wait for that expirience in a Jesse tail im planning on getting in the future :)

[Mermaid Fenicia]

I think I made a new little friend at the pool last Saturday. :) When I was diving with my new monofin (to try it out) a little girl was following me. She was wearing goggles so she would see me swimming n the bottom of the pool :) Every-time I took a dive she was looking at me. Pics from the dive: http://mernetwork.com/index/album.php?albumid=325 ;)

[Mermaid Kalliope]

Mine, so far, would probably have to be when I went snorkeling at Crystal Cove (A local spot in So Cal) and while I was waiting for my snorkelling buddy to join me a 1-2ft long leopard shark just swam right by! I was like "Whoa! That was... Oh, wow! That was a shark! I saw a shark!" It was about a foot away from me, too!

My other fun thing was at Catalina Island in 4th of July cove. I asked my friend what we might see while snorkelling out there, and she said "Probably not much because of the season." I was like "Awww.... no octopus or anything?" Well, we went snorkelling regardless and all of a sudden this little orange thing floated up, saw us, then dashed away! It was an octopus! I was so excited.

I just love seeing things like this!

[MerEmma]

The other day while I was swimming with my Oceanika (no full tail yet!), I had one girl my age and one girl about 6 say that they liked my "tail." :P

And the guy at the front desk was really disappointed when I was leaving the hotel on the last day because he didn't get to see me swim with the fin. He thought it was really cool. xD

[Mermaid Pickles]

A few years ago I went to the beach, and I was surrounded by a ring of box jellies. They were really pretty. Clear with little iridescent stripes. They went away after a bit, but I think that was the first time I really connected with the ocean since I was really little. Now I go to that beach every year just to find the jellies. :D They don't sting. I don't think they have any tentacles....

[Mermaidmechanic]

I've posted this somewhere else before but thought I would share here as well.

One of my most amazing ocean experiences: I was on a ship's swim call off the coast of Costa Rica swimming about and inspecting the wide variety of jellies with my goggles; there were these odd looking long ribbon jellyfish, some flat jellyfish, tiny blob jellyfish, and orange jellyfish. The ocean was this fantastic teal color and the visibility was unparalleled. While observing the assortment, a giant blue sailfish swam near our group (there were about 80 of us in the water) and seemed very curious. I swam out further to get a better look and it swam right next to me. It was a little bit unnerving since its snout was longer than my arm and looked like it could do some real damage. I just played it calm and watched it swim... it changed from blue to deep purple as its body reflected the light. It's sail would flatten against it's body and then fan out again in a magnificent display of blue hues. It hung around long enough for me to surface and come down again and even seemed to follow me up a little. Finally it seemed bored and swam down. I watched it until the blackness beneath our ship swallowed it. By far one of the most "magical" moments of my life.

[Taniira]

It's not a mer experience, I was on a safety stop from diving once when I had really long hair still, and my friend looked really amused while watching me, and I couldn't figure out why. Finally I realized it: there were a bunch of little fish swimming in and out of my floating hair as if it were their home or a place to hide. I didn't even realize it until one swam in front of my face finally. We were 60-80 feet above the bottom in open ocean, so I have no idea if they had been swimming along with me for a while and all during my ascent or if they just happened upon us and decided my hair would make a good stopping point.

[Alveric]

Actually, I think that could very well be called a Mer experience.

[MermaidBrittany]

Thats so cool! :D IDK how they got there, but in open ocean like that they find whatever little shelter they can. Its usually floating debris, but in this case it was your hair! xD

[jvry8c]

when i used to go snorkeling off the island of saba in the Caribbean i would always see sea turtles. They would often get really close to me and let me swim next to them. Stopped going to the bay where the turtles were after encountering a 6-7ft barracuda was to interested in me and keep't following me. It also got uncomfortably close (less than 4 feet in front of me) and stared at me. I don't like it when something that big and scary looking is checking you out.

[Mermaid Muir]

Not while swimming but I was on a boat back from catalina island and about maybe 10 minutes out this HUGE pod of dolphins came all around the boat. Then about 30 minutes later ANOTHER huge pod of dolphins came around. It was so majestic and beautiful. Add in a sea lion we saw at around the half way point. That was a boat ride I will never forget!

[Mizuko]

I think a funny/cool thing that happened to me recently while I was diving in my tail was when I saw something shinning from the sea floor underneath the jetty, and dived down to get it. I picked it up- it was someones keys that had obviously dropped off the side of the jetty. I was looking at them when suddenly these two big black shapes moved in front of me. It was two scuba divers! We stared at each other for a second- myself in surprise and them in disbelief. I'd forgotten I was in my tail, scale bra, with no goggles, and at a depth of about 30feet! They probably thought I was real for a second! haha!
I just smiled and waved and then swam back up to get a breath. I still wonder what they were thinking!! haha!

[Mermaid Varshana]

You just described my perfect summer, Mizuko: trolling divers :lol:

[Echidna]

Today was a busy day at the pool where I'm doing most of my workout.
Normally, nobody bats an eyelash at me
(I'm donning goggles, a cap, and a turquoise fabric tail which is almost invisible in a pool for my workout), but today, I was constantly followed by squealing children, who totally thought I was real.

There was this one boy who ran after me around the pool, and once I surfaced, he came over and said:
"You're a mermaid!!"
and I said, as I usually do, "no no, I'm not, I just look like one at the moment",
and then he pointed at me and said very reprovingly,
"do you think I'm BLIND? Of course you're a mermaid! I mean, just LOOK at you!!"

He was so serious, it really cracked me up.
I explained to him and his sister that tails can be bought (which of course led to excited squeals "mommy mommy, can I have one too?"), they felt my fluke (eep), but I think they still half believe I'm the real thing and just pretend to be human lol.

[AptaMer]

I explained to him and his sister that tails can be bought (which of course led to excited squeals "mommy mommy, can I have one too?"), they felt my fluke (eep), but I think they still half believe I'm the real thing and just pretend to be human lol.

This is sooooo cute!

[Mermaid Kalliope]

So, I got to go to the beach a couple or so times the past few weeks and got to take a new swimmer with me! She hadn't been swimming in a long time and had never been snorkelling or freediving(she ditched the snorkel pretty quickly). We were swimming around, not seeing much and overly just being disappointed, but then as the evening rolled in, there suddenly were schools of surf perch everywhere! She was so excited, diving about and looking at them! We even saw a round ray, which proceeded to head directly towards my third friend who was there. Haha. We spent at least an hour just swimming with schools of fish! It was great! No tail on this swim, but I had my monofin. I can't wait to have my tail in the ocean!

[Gem Stone]

one of my favorite mer moments happened at weeki wachee. I was swimming in a homemade fabric tail, the white and purple and yellow one from my avatar. this tail has two small separate swim fins, and way too much extra fabric, so swimming was hard, but I loved it anyway. so I'm at weeki wachee, sitting on the pier, talking to a little kid who saw me from the shore, made his mom rent an inner tube and swim him out to come see me, when another boy (who'd been annoying me earlier) ran past the mother and accidentally pushed her. she caught herself before falling in, but her black sunglasses fell and sank to the bottom under the pier. she was upset, because they were her favorite pair and she couldn't swim that far. the boy that pushed her said he was sorry, and so I offered to go swim to the bottom and get them for her. I hoped in and floated at the top to find them, and right before I dove down, I heard the boy speak up. "Oh, don't worry. I can get them. she can't cause she's not real" he announced rather loudly, mocking me. I glared at him. "I can get them without having to jump in" I countered, although I had no clue if this was true or not because I hadn't ever dove that deep before. so before he could move, I took a deep breath and started going down. I made it, got the sunglasses, but when coming back up, I realized how bad having too much material was, because I wasn't getting to the surface fast enough. it took me thirty to forty seconds to swim up the 25-30 feet of water. when I hit the surface with sunglasses in hand, everyone clapped. I was so happy! I made a little boy's day, rescued a lady's sunglasses, and proved another boy wrong all at the same time.

[MerMarla]

one of my favorite mer moments happened at weeki wachee... when I hit the surface with sunglasses in hand, everyone clapped. I was so happy! I made a little boy's day, rescued a lady's sunglasses, and proved another boy wrong all at the same time.

Makes me soooo happy too Gem Stone! What a wonderful story! So much excitement, and a few lessons learned! Awesome... and glad you enjoyed my "home waters"! (Bit on the cool side, eh?... and also, you found out the reason we didn't embellish the tails with heavy fabric, the drag is really noticeable!)

(Clappy hands)
(((Hugz))) and Bubble https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/e/B0C'z
Mermaid Marla

[Mermaid Kalliope]

Huzzah! Go Gem! *high fin*

[Nashoba]

During a vacation on Maui (sans tail), I got to swim beside a wild sea turtle. Also saw a lemon shark around Molokini crater but it was lurking down deeper than i could dive. In Cancun (also sans tail), I came face to face with both an octopus and a baby barracuda. I know I've been very lucky to have some of these run-ins.

[XMermaidMarinaX]

It was two scuba divers! We stared at each other for a second- myself in surprise and them in disbelief. I'd forgotten I was in my tail, scale bra, with no goggles, and at a depth of about 30feet! They probably thought I was real for a second! haha!
I just smiled and waved and then swam back up to get a breath. I still wonder what they were thinking!! haha!

Mizuko... You are awesome! Haha! Trolling divers, the best thing ever! I plan on going to the beach in my tail next month when it gets here :D

[XMermaidMarinaX]

I was swimming tail-less at Nokomis Beach, and there were this absolutely adorable little fish, bait fish my mother said, but they were silvery, swimming around in the seaweed.

[Ashe]

Haha Mizuko xD That is so funny! I so want to do that :D

[Echidna]

OK, I guess I'm more the "aquatic monster"-type mer (opposed to the friendly, smiling, waving cute mer).

Today it was really hot, and the pool was so full I could hardly submerge for fear of being kicked by all the frog-swimmers and big wave-splashers (crawlers), so I was a tad irritable.
Still, I was doing my laps quietly, mostly at the surface due to the traffic;
and then, one of the teens hanging around on the rope lunges over, grabs my fluke, and tries to pull it.
(I should add I was just in a normal bathing suit with a small monofin on, no tail).

We were both surprised by what then happened.
It went lightning-fast, as if I'd trained this millions of times.
I instantly turned- he lost hold of my fin- and I went into full "attack-mode", swimming toward him,
rising quite high out of the water above him, with the full intention of dunking him under.

I can only presume my face (and whole body language) must have been quite intimidating, for his naughty grin instantly disappeared, he scrambled backward so fast he almost went under, paled visibly, and then stammered an apology while I had just risen above him like an aggressive orca or something.
Since he had apologized, I just turned and swam off.
He and all his cronies gave me a wide berth after that, and I must admit I enjoyed that immensely lol.

[Nashoba]

Caltuna,

I tend to be a pretty chill person, but I have yet to have someone grab me when I'm swimming. I did severely scare the crap out of a stranger in front of his friends when he slapped my butt in a bar, though. I heard later that he told his friends, "Man. I'll never touch anyone I don't know, again."

My hubby is a professional martial artist and calls me a "lipstick hippy." Though I tend to be very laid-back, I have been known to be rather intimidating when provoked. I can't say that my response to that situation (especially in public where you were minding your own business) would be any different. Honestly, I say "good for you" on that one. It's not okay for someone to grab you without your permission in any context. I think it was right on, and rather funny, to terrify the guy that did this to you. Even though I'm sure he viewed it as a harmless prank, I think you taught him and all of his cohorts a valuable life lesson about women and their personal space.

Sometimes it feels way awesome to let out that scary part of ourselves. Especially when it's in our own defense. ;-)

[Echidna]

I did severely scare the crap out of a stranger in front of his friends when he slapped my butt in a bar, though. I heard later that he told his friends, "Man. I'll never touch anyone I don't know, again."

haha <3
That's great!
May I ask what you did?

I think people are especially scared when you take them by surprise- as in, you do look so sweet and harmless and *wham*
surprise can be scary too!
My experience today was probably comparable to a dude in the ocean grabbing the fluke of what he thinks is a dolphin,
only to realize when it turns around and comes at him "OH SNAP it's a SHARK!" :D

[Nashoba]

Well . . . the short story is that I slapped him. The long story goes like this.

He smacked my butt, then ran out the front door. I stood there, in a daze for a minute, then saw him walk in through the back door (very small bar as I could see both doors from my vantage point). I made a beeline for him and got in his face. I said, very calmly, "If you ever touch me again, I have one word for you - cops." It was at this point that he tried to play it off like it was no big deal and something inside me just snapped.

Background: I have PTSD. My mother was severely mentally and emotionally abusive. I spent 2 years being physically assaulted by an alcoholic ex-boyfriend and I am a rape survivor. (Thankfully, I am not longer in any of those situations or danger.) Assaulting me = bad idea.

Like I said, I snapped. Something just flinched in me and I came from down by my hip and gave him the most powerful smack my body could manage. I didn't get his face, though. I caught him over his left ear. He fell to the floor as I walked away and gathered my things. His friends had to help him up onto the bar stool. He couldn't stand and kept falling and had to have his friends carry him out to their car. That's what we call "knocked on his ass."

I spoke to a mutual acquaintance, the next day. I was worried that I had popped his ear drum, unwittingly. (That's what I get - PTSD and self-defense training.) I also talked to my lawyer, just in case there was some damage. Turned out I hadn't hurt him permenantly, but the mutual acquaintance said, "Even if you did make him deaf in that ear, he'd never admit it. It would hurt his pride to have to tell the story about how he smacked a girls butt in a bar and she didn't take too kindly to it. He'd never admit that he got his bell rung by a girl.'" and "He said, 'Oh, man. I'll never slap the a$$ of someone I don't know, ever again.'"

Again, I'm not normally violent. There are just some things that . . . are hard limits, ya know? lol

I'm hearing one of the aliens from Lilo and Stitch in my head right now. "Help! I don't like the ocean! Ahh! Oh, look, a friendly little dolphin. They helped sailors during the war... It's a shark! It's a shark and it ain't friendly! Looks like a dolphin... Tricky fish! Tricky fish! Octopus, will you please help me? An octo... the octopus is worse than the shark! I hate this planet!"

And he didn't even run into mers who don't take $hit. ^. _ .^~~~> (<-- tried to be a little face with devil horns and a forked tail, but my icon-fu is not so strong.)

[MermaidIsis]

Well . . . the short story is that I slapped him. The long story goes like this.

He smacked my butt, then ran out the front door. I stood there, in a daze for a minute, then saw him walk in through the back door (very small bar as I could see both doors from my vantage point). I made a beeline for him and got in his face. I said, very calmly, "If you ever touch me again, I have one word for you - cops." It was at this point that he tried to play it off like it was no big deal and something inside me just snapped.

Background: I have PTSD. My mother was severely mentally and emotionally abusive. I spent 2 years being physically assaulted by an alcoholic ex-boyfriend and I am a rape survivor. (Thankfully, I am not longer in any of those situations or danger.) Assaulting me = bad idea.

Like I said, I snapped. Something just flinched in me and I came from down by my hip and gave him the most powerful smack my body could manage. I didn't get his face, though. I caught him over his left ear. He fell to the floor as I walked away and gathered my things. His friends had to help him up onto the bar stool. He couldn't stand and kept falling and had to have his friends carry him out to their car. That's what we call "knocked on his ass."

I spoke to a mutual acquaintance, the next day. I was worried that I had popped his ear drum, unwittingly. (That's what I get - PTSD and self-defense training.) I also talked to my lawyer, just in case there was some damage. Turned out I hadn't hurt him permenantly, but the mutual acquaintance said, "Even if you did make him deaf in that ear, he'd never admit it. It would hurt his pride to have to tell the story about how he smacked a girls butt in a bar and she didn't take too kindly to it. He'd never admit that he got his bell rung by a girl.'" and "He said, 'Oh, man. I'll never slap the a$$ of someone I don't know, ever again.'"

Again, I'm not normally violent. There are just some things that . . . are hard limits, ya know? lol

I'm hearing one of the aliens from Lilo and Stitch in my head right now. "Help! I don't like the ocean! Ahh! Oh, look, a friendly little dolphin. They helped sailors during the war... It's a shark! It's a shark and it ain't friendly! Looks like a dolphin... Tricky fish! Tricky fish! Octopus, will you please help me? An octo... the octopus is worse than the shark! I hate this planet!"

And he didn't even run into mers who don't take $hit. ^. _ .^~~~> (<-- tried to be a little face with devil horns and a forked tail, but my icon-fu is not so strong.)

Ya! you go girl! A old school mate did that to me once and it ended with a kick to the stomach, im glad im not the only one who has responded that way!:lol:

[Mermaid Caspiana]

I don't have a cool story yet about mermaiding, but one year at the beachwear walked out and we thought we saw a shark but then a whole hunch of dorsals came up and them they strayed jumping. Dolphins! And the next day we saw more from our balcony and of course when I look away one does an awesome twirl in the air like at seaworld or something. And someone had brought a stingray up from the shallows and put it back in the deep. And to mermaid pickles I was courious and found this on box jellies. You were in an amazingly dangerous situation there look:


Box jellyfish
Box jellyfish are cnidarian invertebrates distinguished by their cube-shaped medusae. Box jellyfish are known for the extremely potent venom produced by some species. Wikipedia

[MermaidLychee]

This isn't a mermaiding story, but I went snorkeling out at my favorite hotel beach, and was almost run over by a sea turtle! She swam up right underneath me, and nearly smacked me in the face!

[Kumori Kitsune]

My bf was taking pictures of me in my new tail and he took this picture it looks noting like the blue tail I was actually wearing.12996

[Mermaid Kalliope]

My bf was taking pictures of me in my new tail and he took this picture it looks noting like the blue tail I was actually wearing.12996

That is eerie!! It looks like he captured a photo of a real mermaid! Haha Nice!

[Mermaid~Summer]

OK, I guess I'm more the "aquatic monster"-type mer (opposed to the friendly, smiling, waving cute mer).

Today it was really hot, and the pool was so full I could hardly submerge for fear of being kicked by all the frog-swimmers and big wave-splashers (crawlers), so I was a tad irritable.
Still, I was doing my laps quietly, mostly at the surface due to the traffic;
and then, one of the teens hanging around on the rope lunges over, grabs my fluke, and tries to pull it.
(I should add I was just in a normal bathing suit with a small monofin on, no tail).

We were both surprised by what then happened.
It went lightning-fast, as if I'd trained this millions of times.
I instantly turned- he lost hold of my fin- and I went into full "attack-mode", swimming toward him,
rising quite high out of the water above him, with the full intention of dunking him under.

I can only presume my face (and whole body language) must have been quite intimidating, for his naughty grin instantly disappeared, he scrambled backward so fast he almost went under, paled visibly, and then stammered an apology while I had just risen above him like an aggressive orca or something.
Since he had apologized, I just turned and swam off.
He and all his cronies gave me a wide berth after that, and I must admit I enjoyed that immensely lol.

That is awesome!!! I probably would have done the same thing and given them what my sister calls my "evil look of death". If I can make a full grown man put his hands up in the air and back up 3 paces from me in the middle of a bar with one look then irritating young people don't stand a chance lol

[Kumori Kitsune]

haha <3
That's great!
May I ask what you did?

I think people are especially scared when you take them by surprise- as in, you do look so sweet and harmless and *wham*
surprise can be scary too!
My experience today was probably comparable to a dude in the ocean grabbing the fluke of what he thinks is a dolphin,
only to realize when it turns around and comes at him "OH SNAP it's a SHARK!" :D

I havent gottent like this with my tail on but I have when people are mean to my bf. Pluse if a guy hit me on the ass and my dad was there. Oh it would be bad. the guy would be rethinking his life lol.

[Kumori Kitsune]

That is eerie!! It looks like he captured a photo of a real mermaid! Haha Nice!

Aw thanks I know and the tail I was wearing at the time was blue lol maybe I am A real mer.hee hee lol

[Mermaid Kalliope]

Aw thanks I know and the tail I was wearing at the time was blue lol maybe I am A real mer.hee hee lol

;-P Maybe you are. Shhhh... don't let the government know.

[Kumori Kitsune]

Lol yeah

[MaskedNightingale]

I've posted this somewhere else before but thought I would share here as well.

One of my most amazing ocean experiences: I was on a ship's swim call off the coast of Costa Rica swimming about and inspecting the wide variety of jellies with my goggles; there were these odd looking long ribbon jellyfish, some flat jellyfish, tiny blob jellyfish, and orange jellyfish. The ocean was this fantastic teal color and the visibility was unparalleled. While observing the assortment, a giant blue sailfish swam near our group (there were about 80 of us in the water) and seemed very curious. I swam out further to get a better look and it swam right next to me. It was a little bit unnerving since its snout was longer than my arm and looked like it could do some real damage. I just played it calm and watched it swim... it changed from blue to deep purple as its body reflected the light. It's sail would flatten against it's body and then fan out again in a magnificent display of blue hues. It hung around long enough for me to surface and come down again and even seemed to follow me up a little. Finally it seemed bored and swam down. I watched it until the blackness beneath our ship swallowed it. By far one of the most "magical" moments of my life.

Wow! I've always wanted to see one of those up close. What an amazing experience.

[MaskedNightingale]

It's not a mer experience, I was on a safety stop from diving once when I had really long hair still, and my friend looked really amused while watching me, and I couldn't figure out why. Finally I realized it: there were a bunch of little fish swimming in and out of my floating hair as if it were their home or a place to hide. I didn't even realize it until one swam in front of my face finally. We were 60-80 feet above the bottom in open ocean, so I have no idea if they had been swimming along with me for a while and all during my ascent or if they just happened upon us and decided my hair would make a good stopping point.
Little hitchhikers :)

[MaskedNightingale]

I think a funny/cool thing that happened to me recently while I was diving in my tail was when I saw something shinning from the sea floor underneath the jetty, and dived down to get it. I picked it up- it was someones keys that had obviously dropped off the side of the jetty. I was looking at them when suddenly these two big black shapes moved in front of me. It was two scuba divers! We stared at each other for a second- myself in surprise and them in disbelief. I'd forgotten I was in my tail, scale bra, with no goggles, and at a depth of about 30feet! They probably thought I was real for a second! haha!
I just smiled and waved and then swam back up to get a breath. I still wonder what they were thinking!! haha!

That is the best experience I've heard yet! That would have been so neat, dream mermaid experience!

[MaskedNightingale]

That is the best experience I've heard yet! That would have been so neat, dream mermaid experience!


OK, I guess I'm more the "aquatic monster"-type mer (opposed to the friendly, smiling, waving cute mer).

Today it was really hot, and the pool was so full I could hardly submerge for fear of being kicked by all the frog-swimmers and big wave-splashers (crawlers), so I was a tad irritable.
Still, I was doing my laps quietly, mostly at the surface due to the traffic;
and then, one of the teens hanging around on the rope lunges over, grabs my fluke, and tries to pull it.
(I should add I was just in a normal bathing suit with a small monofin on, no tail).

We were both surprised by what then happened.
It went lightning-fast, as if I'd trained this millions of times.
I instantly turned- he lost hold of my fin- and I went into full "attack-mode", swimming toward him,
rising quite high out of the water above him, with the full intention of dunking him under.

I can only presume my face (and whole body language) must have been quite intimidating, for his naughty grin instantly disappeared, he scrambled backward so fast he almost went under, paled visibly, and then stammered an apology while I had just risen above him like an aggressive orca or something.
Since he had apologized, I just turned and swam off.
He and all his cronies gave me a wide berth after that, and I must admit I enjoyed that immensely lol.
I shall keep that in mind.
I've always been a nervous swimmer when there's crowds upon crowds of kids doing what kids do. (Love kids, I just don't appreciate all the grabbing they do to complete strangers in the water).

[MermaidAqua]

I just got back from France where we stayed at a small apartment just a minutes walk from the beach. As we were up there nearly everyday I had plenty of time to swim in my monofin for the first time. The sea was very calm on one of the days and it was amazing. Then out of the corner of my eye I say this big salmon or something leap out of the water by my sister who was also paddling around. We heard splashes around us and 3 or 4 fish where jumping out of the water around us and a little way deeper. I thought it was amazing and swam over to them immediately while my sister screamed and sped out of the water ASAP It was amazing to know I had been swimming with fish around the whole time and they had just hang around feeling no threat :) It really reminded me of how beautiful the ocean is.

[Gem Stone]

Went to Moody Gardens this weekend for a company party and I swam in the Palm Beach lazy river for a few hours in my manatee tail that I made. it wasn't perfect because I hadn't quite finished closing the fluke but it didn't phase anyone there. at all. four little girls were chasing me around the entire time, a life guard kept asking me questions and then continued to brag about me, to the point of calling his boss to come and watch me swim, a family watched me and videoed and took pictures of me every time I passed them, and I got to help a little girl love water. she was maybe two, wearing a full life jacket, and she jumped in the water that is too deep and swallowed some water. she started to cry, and I saw it happen, so I swam over to say hi. she instantly forgot about dunking herself underwater and just stared at me. I talked to her for a minute when her grandmother came over. the little girl started swimming and showing me what she could do, so I told the grandmother why I had come over. she thanked me for doing that because the girls mother had almost drowned several times and was terrified of water, but was determined to have her daughter know how to swim. anyway, after being followed around until the end of the day and then dragging myself out of the water and behind some large rocks so no one saw me change out of my tail, I snuck out of the Palm Beach so no one saw me. the next day, however, I ran into the same little girl. I had walked right past her and she stopped dead in her tracts because she recognized me. I smiled at her and brought a finger to my mouth and said "Shh," as I walked past. she just smiled and waved at me. MOST AWESOME VACATION EVER!!!

[Mermaid~Summer]

Gem Stone - That is AWESOME!!! :highfive:

[Triton-Mahtlinnie]

I've had some fun encounters at the local lake where I work and swim. The lake is in the middle of the city, so the park on the south end is a popular hang out spot for all sorts of city residents.

I was sitting on the dock, having just got my tail on, when a couple of police men walked up. One looked down at me and just went "what the hell is this?" Then they asked if I could actually swim, so I rolled right off the dock and swam away. xD It was hilarious.

The next day, I swam out behind some of the historic ships moored there to say hi to some people when I scared a paddle-boarder going by. She started freaking out and took my picture. Now there's rumors of merfolk in the lake. Some of the others who work down on the lake have been spreading said rumors on my behalf. It's becoming a very elaborate inside joke, and is incredibly amusing to talk about the merfolk in the lake around tourists.

[Mermaid Sparkle]

I had the chance to go down to Florida and go on a Manatee tour in the Crystal River. We hadn't seen any yet for a good hour, and had just pulled up to a manatee preserve area to see if there were any hanging around the edges that we could go see. The tour guide made it very clear that we were only to swim in the tourist area and to not go anywhere near the ropes indicating the preserve. So, we all hop out of the boat and start swimming towards the tourist area. I'm lolly-gagging over to the side of the group because I am FREAKING OUT. I HATE murky water. If I can't see what's below me, I am flipping my shiznits. I remember breathing super hard and focusing on just not having a panic attack and BAM! I swim straight into a spongy wall. I put my hands out to push myself away and realize that I had just swum straight into a surfacing manatee! He just took a breath and dove straight back down. Nobody else got the chance to hang out with that guy, I think he was sleeping and just surfaced to get a breath and I happened to swim into him! It was so crazy!

We went over to the docks after that and found a mommy manatee and her calf mosey-ing around over there. The calf was super curious and kept coming over to hang out with us, while mommy munched away on plants below. Putting my head underneath the water to look at them was the scariest thing I have ever done, but once I realized I could kind of see, I calmed down and just took in the beauty of those two.

Then we had the chance to go swim by some springs in the clear water and I had so much fun in there. I got to look at all the little fish and swim all over the place and it was just the best experience ever.

I would also like to add that our tour guide was the most respectful tour guide we could've asked for. He really cares about manatees and does his job to help spread conservation awareness. He always checked to make sure we were following the rules, and that the manatees were being treated respectfully by us. He even told some other tour groups (including ones from his company) that there weren't manatees in our dock area after us and another group had visited with them to make sure that they weren't visited by too many people that day. He was the nicest guy and I hope he continues to stick up for manatees down there.

[MermaidWren]

My bf was taking pictures of me in my new tail and he took this picture it looks noting like the blue tail I was actually wearing.12996
That's such a cool picture, it looks real, since you cant even see your ankles at all! Great job to your bf :)

[Mermaid_Sarah]

I was visiting Shell Island in Florida, and the water there doesn't really get deep-it just stays the same depth, which was to my waist, until you go out pretty far. Anyways, my friend and I were swimming and this pod of Dolphins came swimming right past us, maybe twenty feet away! Then not even thirty minutes later, we see this big shape swimming through the water-it was a 6-foot black tip reef shark! It came so close to me, it was probably five or six feet away from me when I decided that I should probably get out of the water :)

[Rivertee]

When I was about 13 I was swimming in a creek down in Ocala where my relatives live. As I dove under my foot smacked something rubbery. I piped back up and within second was riding on a huge manatee, poor thing sunk down and rolled me off its back but the family of them crowded around me and tried to eat my green swim suit. It was rather amazing and terrifying at the same time. My Dad ended up chasing them off in the end but wow.

Sent from my LG-MS770 using Tapatalk

[Capt Nemo]

Just got back from Cave Point, and had massive schools of alewife to scuba in today. Even had a run-in with a monster chinook salmon who was hitting the school. He was in the 35-40+ lb class. Normally, the salmon are extremely shy!

36 lb 4 oz chinook my sister caught at 11. The guy I saw was bigger! This fish could have won a trip to Hawaii had we bought a derby ticket that day!
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[Mermaid Jaffa]

On crowded days at the club pool, swimming in my tail gets me a lane all to myself! Well I do start off sharing a lane with somebody but they kinda have a fear of me hitting them, either that or the lifeguards tell them to go to another lane, but eventually I always get the whole lap lane to frolic in!

[Mermaid Syaira]

at our local pool all the little kids know me as the mermaid =) it's really cool