The Official Underwater Tricks Thread!

**Mermaid Kelda** · 01-26-2014, 08:08 PM

Originally Posted by ireneho

I tried the barrel roll today at the Leisure Pool... The water went up me nose and into the back of my throat even though I was holding my breath! Not a pleasant feeling. Did I miss a step?

You need to close your soft palette!
There are two ways of blocking off air (and water) - one is closing your throat (what you do when you cough, for example, and when you hold your breath), but this only stops the water from going down your throat/lungs; it leaves the passage from your nose to your throat open, which lets water run into your mouth.

Your soft palette is at the back of your mouth at the top, and if you can close it, you stop water from getting any further than your nasal cavity. There's no way of stopping water from going up your nose, though, unless you wear a nose plug or don't swim upside down.

**Mermaid Jaffa** · 01-27-2014, 03:29 AM

So if I use my tongue to close the gap, like roll it it in my mouth, that will stop the water going thru?

I was watching the kids on youtube doing barrel rolls and they weren't wearing nose plugs.

**Mermaid Kelda** · 01-27-2014, 06:57 AM

Originally Posted by ireneho

So if I use my tongue to close the gap, like roll it it in my mouth, that will stop the water going thru?

I'm not sure that you can use your tongue to close the gap. With your soft palette closed, you actually should be able to move your tongue around quite a bit, so I don't think your tongue has anything to do with it (I'm not even sure you could get your tongue far back enough in your mouth to block the passage at all anyway).

**Aziara** · 01-27-2014, 08:24 AM

You know how your throat squeezes when you swallow? Basically you would squeeze it like that and hold it to close the soft palate. At least that's my understanding.

**Mermaid Jaffa** · 01-27-2014, 04:09 PM

Oh. Thanks I will try that next time.

**Lyretail** · 02-15-2014, 01:25 AM

Does anyone else get the feeling their reading real life manuscripts on how to speak dragon when reading how to make doughnut bubbles?
I mean the whole 'Puh'/Fus' and then that dude knocking over the rocks with his underwater 'Puh' (ro dah!)

And Those bubble hearts are to cute...

**selkie13** · 02-15-2014, 03:36 AM

Lol! I never thought of it that way, your right

**Mermaid Ixa** · 03-17-2014, 04:48 PM

This might seen like a weird question or have been answered earlier but I was thinking if it was possible to do a jump out of the water like swim far down and jump up out of the water. Sort of like a synchronized swimming jump or like they do in pirates of the carribbean on stranger tides. I haven't tried yet has anyone here tried?

**Theobromine** · 03-17-2014, 04:54 PM

It's possible...but you would have to be very athletic, of course: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z09RmuaPyVU

**Seatan** · 07-14-2014, 12:30 AM

Originally Posted by Theobromine

It's possible...but you would have to be very athletic, of course: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z09RmuaPyVU

I dived backward off a moving speedboat while throwing my legs in the air in am attempt to do something like that... That counts, right?

One of those things where you say: Never. Again. (Up there with purposely throwing myself off a jetski at forty five miles per hour on a dare and standing on a dock in skis with the roped circled up next to me while the boat takes off and jumping in the air when it looks like the right time.)

These are the reasons you should need a license to drive a boat. Or at least be older than thirteen.

**Winged Mermaid** · 03-17-2014, 06:32 PM

The only people I've seen do that are in just a monofin (fiberglass) and are finswiming champions. Pretty sure you have to be very athletic especially in finswimming. I really doubt it would be possible with a tail on- too much drag.

**Mermaid Ixa** · 03-17-2014, 06:40 PM

Originally Posted by Winged Mermaid

The only people I've seen do that are in just a monofin (fiberglass) and are finswiming champions. Pretty sure you have to be very athletic especially in finswimming. I really doubt it would be possible with a tail on- too much drag.

that makes sense I would imagine you would have to be very strong.

**Mermaid Kelda** · 03-17-2014, 07:04 PM

We've got a thread about this already, go check it out Ixa: http://mernetwork.com/index/showthread.php?2181

**Mermaid Ixa** · 03-17-2014, 07:31 PM

Originally Posted by Mermaid Melaina

We've got a thread about this already, go check it out Ixa: http://mernetwork.com/index/showthread.php?2181

Thanks! Still have to find my way around this site im brand new here

**Alcyone** · 03-26-2014, 03:56 PM

well..I'd be fantastic to be able to jump like that, but I'm pretty sure that the friction between the tail and water will just make impossible(or really hard) to do that... plus, you need to be a real athlete...

**TheChimera** · 03-31-2014, 05:26 AM

I've seen that done before by a freediver while I was in Cape Town, but yeah, you have to be really athletic. There are a couple of really good vids on Youtube that show similar stunts, they are mostly done with only a monofin, I don't think it would easily be possible with the additional weight of a mertail though

**mermaid_lover** · 05-02-2014, 05:59 PM

I tried it on the pool yesterday and it felt like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_VcN...e_gdata_player

Verstuurd van mijn GT-S6500 met Tapatalk

**Mermaid Jaffa** · 05-26-2014, 12:06 AM

Would love to do that trick at 0:53 but I think you would have to be very fit swimmer, have a lot of strength, stamina and a proper monofin.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmpPdZk-upI