Wild South African appears!
(This is more of a re-introduction if you think of it that way. Sorry for the long post but it should be a good one, I’m spilling it all.)
So, I really don't know where to begin... might as well at the very beginning! Lol!
When I was but a mere guppy I was always fixated on mermaids, especially as one might guess Disney's The Little Mermaid. As a landlocked mer, my family is lucky enough to own a beachfront house in Paradise Beach (perfectly named btw) which is a small isolated reef and sea shell beach located close to Jeffrey's Bay in South Africa. I remember each morning I would watch the early movie cartoons on TV while on holiday there and watch the Disney TV series of the Little Mermaid.
Of course as an Afrikaner male with strong Dutch settler’s heritage, stuff like boys playing with dolls, homosexuality and many "millennial based" things (if I can call it that?) were frowned upon, and still greatly is! So naturally my folks thought I would grow out of it and told me to keep my mermaid obsession hush-hush around others.
So I did, until a catalyst back in 2008 - 2009-ish, when I was surfing the internet and stumbled across an eBay add for a Mike van Daal 'Splash' swimmable mermaid tail. Note it was (I think) before he officially even started Flip Tails and it looked to be a neoprene tail, THIS one to be exact: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgSB...3B43CDFA5A9EA3
I was instantly hooked on a long lasting obsession that would continue to this day! Naturally super-young me BEGGED my parents for it since it was stupidly affordable back then. Due to their conservative Afrikaner nature they said no. Shortly after I discovered more of his work from that time and obsessed over it to a point where my parents prohibited me from talking or even looking at pictures of his tails.
I've been a hands on and crafty guy since a very young age and immediately made schemes and plans to fabricate my own swimmable tail. This was around the time that I discovered the Mertailor whom was also fairly new with only his partial silicone tails.
Since then I've been very observant in the mer-community. Stalking (literally the most appropriate word I can think of now lol!) around on MerYuku and the beginning of Mernetwork under the user name Nykur. I was fairly naive way back when and until recently, only popping in here and there through the years to lift my opinions about something and almost completely disappearing in the recent years due to life’s responsibilities and shit.
But until very recently mostly suppressed my love and desire for a mer tail to be 'normal' and please my folks and the Afrikaner community. So naturally I don't have a tail yet, since I fabricate these amazing tail plans (go look up some old threads by Nykur) only to discard them when it comes to the fabrication of the actual tail because of my fear of being judged and rejected here in the South African community (Which largely haven't been exposed to the mermaiding community what so ever! Cosplay hasn’t even reached us yet basically.)
Then I stumbled across Raina's youtube channel today, while watching Buzzfeed Unsolved (Any #shaniacs here?) and watched her vlog with Merman Christian.
These two amazing mers rekindled my love for the art of a mer tail and reminded me why I love the mer community. After all for the last decade I've grown up seeing the mer community expand and watched iconic mers like Eric the Mertailor, Mike van Daal, Raven at Merbellas and Raina perfect their craft. Saw the rise (and fall) of many tail makers. Witnessed so much mer drama...
I remembered how I was inspired by iconic mers like Winged Mermaid, Mermaid Alesea the Blue Mermaid, Mermaid Melissa, (even Merman Jesse), Merman Arion, Merman Christian, Raina, malinghi, Kanti and a ton of others.
So I just decided "Screw it"
If the folks around these parts think I'm insane then that's the way it’s going to be. Rather a happily insane merman than an anxious guy missing out on a revolutionary community of amazing mers.
The community is routed, but still young-ish and I'm tired of missing out on the action.
So here I am with a clean slate (new profile and finally properly introducing myself! phew!) & I'm planning on being more active in the mer-community!
Now officially known as Merman Novello
December is around the corner. And I’d love to get a basic tail self-made by mid-December while on holiday at the coast. The South African rand is horrible in comparison to the US dollar right now so getting a tail made is a no go. If you think $3,500 is pricey for a silicone tail, try around 50 000 ZAR (which basically feels like $50 000 to us South Africans).
I’m currently studying Graphic Design, so should be able to whip up something in Photoshop and have it printed on Spandex or neoprene, then get a make shift monofin (since monofins are non-existent in SA for some reason??)
(Anyway if you’re still reading thanx so much for bearing with me!)
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nice to have another mer in the neighborhood. 
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