Getting started with no resources or help

[ArcticMermaid]

Hi everyone,

So I have a lot of challenges ahead of me, I'm curious if anyone has any pointers for overcoming some of the practical ones...and maaaybe some of the emotional ones.

My biggest practical issues are:

* no local pools allowing fins, nearest fin-friendly location over an hour away.
* no local mer-friends to help me with the basics.
* no local fin swimming groups (also over an hour away, might be inactive now).

I live abroad in Japan (near Tokyo) and there simply aren't any pods, mermaid schools, meet-ups or anything mermaid related for me to attend. I can't even find a pirate festival or renaissance festival. *sigh* The closest I've found was a one-time thing you can do in Okinawa where you dress up as a mermaid and do a photoshoot, but that's a plane trip away from me and wouldn't be regular thing obviously.

My only ideas for what I can do for now are taking swimming lessons to become a stronger and more confident swimmer without fins, and to develop my mersona by buying a fabric fin and some accessories and going from there. Maybe I could try dry-gigs, but I wish I could swim SO badly!!

Thanks so much! Any tips or advice are greatly appreciated.

[fabianfrz]

If you cannot go to a pool, use open water.

[K Swim]

I came here myself to seek friends and I am not having much luck finding anyone local, so I am doing it alone. Since I keep this hobby a secret, I don't go to pools. I hear about so many of them not allowing mermaid tails due to safety and liability issues so that's another reason I don't even try. I do have a couple of lakes that I can use, but the whole process is still difficult to do alone. Just keep hanging out in these forums, and maybe you'll find friends local.

[theMerFanc]

Hmm, are you 100% sure the pools are all anti-monofin? Have you tried speaking with the folks who run the pools in person to let them know you are a safe swimmer and the fins have quick releases and are entirely safe, maybe show them the fin so they see and understand the straps. Many pools that don't allow tail skins wills till allow the monofins themselves. If that isn't an option, I would say next step would be to look at private pools. See if you have any friends with pools or if you are looking to move any time soon make having a pool a priority. If that isn't an option either then as mentioned above, swimming in entirely public open water like lakes or ocean will be your only option. But PLEASE be safe. Have a spotter or merwrangler and make sure someone knows where in the water you are at all times.

Not too long ago, there were only a handful of people across the world swimming with mertails and now look where we are! Be the change you want to see - if you want an active pod then create one! And you're only going to do that by putting yourself out there and being visible and letting other people know it's a really hobby. I am sure you arn't the only person in such a vast city as Tokyo that likes mermaids and wants to be one.

[ArcticMermaid]

If you cannot go to a pool, use open water.

Thanks! I will see what the nearest lake is. At a glace, most still seem a good 45+ minutes away. But will double check! Just takes me a bit longer since my Japanese isn't that good.

I came here myself to seek friends and I am not having much luck finding anyone local, so I am doing it alone. Since I keep this hobby a secret, I don't go to pools. I hear about so many of them not allowing mermaid tails due to safety and liability issues so that's another reason I don't even try. I do have a couple of lakes that I can use, but the whole process is still difficult to do alone. Just keep hanging out in these forums, and maybe you'll find friends local.

Thanks for sympathizing with me! I'm glad you're making a little progress, but I hear ya on trying to find local friends. It sounds like I might need to just start a pod and wait for mers to find me. But I'm such a newb, I'm worried I'm the least qualified to do that. *sigh*

Hmm, are you 100% sure the pools are all anti-monofin? Have you tried speaking with the folks who run the pools in person to let them know you are a safe swimmer and the fins have quick releases and are entirely safe, maybe show them the fin so they see and understand the straps. Many pools that don't allow tail skins wills till allow the monofins themselves. If that isn't an option, I would say next step would be to look at private pools. See if you have any friends with pools or if you are looking to move any time soon make having a pool a priority. If that isn't an option either then as mentioned above, swimming in entirely public open water like lakes or ocean will be your only option. But PLEASE be safe. Have a spotter or merwrangler and make sure someone knows where in the water you are at all times.

Not too long ago, there were only a handful of people across the world swimming with mertails and now look where we are! Be the change you want to see - if you want an active pod then create one! And you're only going to do that by putting yourself out there and being visible and letting other people know it's a really hobby. I am sure you arn't the only person in such a vast city as Tokyo that likes mermaids and wants to be one.

I'm not 100% sure, but I'm also not very hopeful. The general culture in Japan is that rules and rules and there are no exceptions - really stubborn, hardly any wiggle room. But that doesn't mean there aren't exceptions. But my biggest problem is I haven't ever been fin swimming yet, so I couldn't even explain or prove anything properly as a newbie. But I do think it's worth asking around once I think I gain some confidence. I'll also look into private pools...although its extremely rare for Japanese homes to have them since space is so limited here.

Moving probably won't be happening since we're in a purchased and paid off home. I should be happy about that, but erg it means I'm stuck when things don't work in my favor like this.

I think open water might be my only option too, I'm just REALLY nervous because I'll be figuring it all out on my own with no experience. I keep wishing I had someone there to kind of hold my hand in the beginning.

I totally love your attitude about making the change I want to see. I'm really considering trying to get a mermaid pod started. I'm just SO new to all this, well the actual fin swimming anyway. I worry I'm the least qualified to do all this. I wouldn't be able to guide or help anyone, I'm the one needing it really!

[theMerFanc]

I convinced my university pool to let me use my fin without ever having swam in it before. I basically just said it's for training and showed them the quick release straps and they over-turned their policy. And similar for the city public pool, I passed their swim test without the fin and showed them the straps and said everything was really safe and they had no problems with it. Of course I don't know about Japanese culture sop that might be a barrier but you don't know until you try! As far as being to new, theres no such thing. Its not like you need to be an expert to gather friends, you arn't teaching seminars on how to swim in a tail, you're just creating an open space for people to come have fun. Most pods don't actually have any kind of leadership (only like an admin if theres a facebook group) and theres not usually any kind of rules other then the obvious 'be nice' ones. And at least with my pod, whenever someone wants to have a meetup they just do, no authorities to go through. So that was a lot of words to say you don't need to be an advanced tailswimmer to start a meetup.

[Mermaid Jaffa]

Join a scuba diving club.

[ArcticMermaid]

Join a scuba diving club.

Great idea, thank you!

I convinced my university pool to let me use my fin without ever having swam in it before. I basically just said it's for training and showed them the quick release straps and they over-turned their policy. And similar for the city public pool, I passed their swim test without the fin and showed them the straps and said everything was really safe and they had no problems with it. Of course I don't know about Japanese culture sop that might be a barrier but you don't know until you try! As far as being to new, theres no such thing. Its not like you need to be an expert to gather friends, you arn't teaching seminars on how to swim in a tail, you're just creating an open space for people to come have fun. Most pods don't actually have any kind of leadership (only like an admin if theres a facebook group) and theres not usually any kind of rules other then the obvious 'be nice' ones. And at least with my pod, whenever someone wants to have a meetup they just do, no authorities to go through. So that was a lot of words to say you don't need to be an advanced tailswimmer to start a meetup.

Oh wow! That gives me hope, it's always worth a shot convincing pools to adjust their rules!


Also thank you SO much for the encouragement! It helps SO much since I'm so new to all this.


Actually I have AMAZING news! I found a local-ish pro mermaid! She's a little far from me, but she's in Japan! I emailed her in Japanese, and she wrote back in English. Apparently she has a group in Shizuoka. She enlightened me to a mermaid school in Tokyo, and I finally learned what it's called in Japanese. It's called マーメイドスイム which is basically "mermaid swim" - go figure! But she said her group is planning a class or event closer to me once the coronavisu stuff is over, so I'm going to wait (need to save up and buy a beginners tail anyway!) and see how that goes. I might even make local mermaid friends, I'm SO exited!

[theMerFanc]

That is absolutely amazing! Woohoo!