Quote Originally Posted by AniaR View Post
You are sure on a roll with replying to every single thread that has to do with safety. (At least this one is *somewhat* recent? :P )

This seems to be something you're very invested in - which is good- but I feel like all we're doing at this point is giving you the same responses in all these threads. And I feel some of the assumptions you're presenting in some of these posts are incorrect and I'm curious where you're getting your info from or what you're basing it on. For instance in this 4 year old thread you think people can't drown their first time in a silicone tail. (I'm replying here because I dont think there's a need too spread these issues out across so many threads, and at least here people are active and can reply whereas that thread is mostly people who aren't here anymore) and that's just a poor assumption. I haven't seen you say anywhere htat you've swam in a silicone tail, and even if you had, your one experience couldn't be applied to everyone. Many people express struggling their first time in a silicone tail and feeling panicked and the potential for drowning is real. So many factors can play into it. Where I float in my She creature tail, one of my smaller mermaids who the tail is a bit big on (so it fills up with more water) sunk like a stone and because the fluke had no kick, couldnt get to the surface. Another one of my girls had a similar experience and found herself panicking underwater. The only reason these situations didn't escalate was because we have a safety protocol and intervened.

At this point, does it really have to be asked- can we swim alone?

Really what it comes down to is mermaids can do whatever they want (barring any bans) but whether or not they should is another question. The actions have ripple effects through the whole community.

Now my point with THIS thread (5 months ago) was that the person I spoke to (well respected in the community) felt it was OK to take risks (such as breathing from an air hose without training) because if a mermaid died, it would't really effect the community, because by their logic scuba divers die all the time.
I have retracted my statement in the linked post about silicone tails. I don't claim to have swam in a silicone tail or know what it's like to swim in one. From what you are saying it sounds like a buddy is always required for silicone tail swimming, especially if you're new to it, but I suppose my question above was about if it's safe to swim by yourself in a fabric tail (sorry I should have clarified that). And I should have further clarified this to say just regular lap swimming as opposed to long breath holds and so on. I am asking your opinion not to try to fish for a positive response but I am genuinely interested to know what more experienced mers think about it since I dont have many mer friends that can regularly go swimming with me. I am not aware of this question has been answered specifically anywhere else which is why I am asking it.

And just so you know I 100% agree with you on your OP. I do think that if Mermaid died from swimming it would be a big problem for the community and it stresses me out even to imagine what implications that could have. Without even any incidents occurring there are so many pools here in Australia that are banning it.