Merbellas Thread

[Mer-Crazy]

So, to all those who own Merbellas tails I managed to get the tail on. Yay 😊 I even attempted my first swim. I say attempted because I just couldn't do it. The fluke was so heavy that every kick was just ridiculously painful. I managed a minute before I had to stop because it was hurting my ankles so much. Is this normal? Does anyone have any advice for me? My feet were fine, the rest was fine it was just the. Stress the kick put on my ankles, the tail was probably a tad short on me at the back as well because I have big um... Ass-ettes

[Mizuko]

Yay! I'm glad you got it on! I'd love to see some pics of you swimming in it!
As for the sore ankles, did you swim in monofins/fabric tails before getting this one? I found initally wayyy back when I first started mermaiding that my ankles did get some stress from the monofins, but after a few weeks the ache faded because my muscles grew

[Mer-Crazy]

Yay! I'm glad you got it on! I'd love to see some pics of you swimming in it!
As for the sore ankles, did you swim in monofins/fabric tails before getting this one? I found initally wayyy back when I first started mermaiding that my ankles did get some stress from the monofins, but after a few weeks the ache faded because my muscles grew

I'd had no practice in monofins before I got my tail. I'm considering getting one just to practice and build up my muscles. It's really good to hear that it will stop hurting though. I was worried I'd done something wrong

Also, I wanna thank everyone for helping me out with all of this. Without all you guys I would have probably had some kind of melt down by now because I have no clue what I'm doing haha.

[Anahita]

So, to all those who own Merbellas tails I managed to get the tail on. Yay  I even attempted my first swim. I say attempted because I just couldn't do it. The fluke was so heavy that every kick was just ridiculously painful. I managed a minute before I had to stop because it was hurting my ankles so much. Is this normal? Does anyone have any advice for me? My feet were fine, the rest was fine it was just the. Stress the kick put on my ankles, the tail was probably a tad short on me at the back as well because I have big um... Ass-ettes

mmmmmm Are you kicking or crunching? If you're trying to move through the water with your legs rather than your abdominal muscles, maybe that's putting extra stress on your ankles and hurting them?

[Winged Mermaid]

Wow, you got a competitor for your first tail or monofin ever? That's leaping right in for sure! No, that's not normal. Discomfort and some pain, yeah, that can happen- but "every kick was just ridiculously painful"? In my opinion that's not normal or healthy. You should be careful, if you don't know how to swim properly in a monofin and start of with a competitor you can injure yourself. I've heard of it happening before People tearing things, even. That's WITHOUT the extra weight of the fluke even.

If you're kicking at all with your knees or ankles you're doing it wrong and can hurt yourself. Your kick needs to come from your abs and just kind of flow down the rest of your body. Your knees and ankles do move but they're just riding the wave, they're not the source of force. Watching videos of other mers swimming can actually be very helpful (YouTube! ). If you can have someone with gogles, or a camera, watch/record you so you can watch yourself swim or get feedback and improve on it that way. Also, STRETCH. Competitors, even with out tails, can make you cramp like crazy- especially if you're not use to that particular type of fin (fiberglass). First ever time in a competitor fin I cramped so much! My muscles just weren't use to it. I stretch (legs in all kinds of ways, ankles, hips) for 15-30 minutes (sometimes longer) before I get in tail and there is HUGE difference in comfort and therefore control between stretching and not stretching for me.

Just take it easy. You don't want to injure yourself! Better safe than sorry. It wouldn't be a bad idea to get a lower priced monofin for practice to help you learn proper technique and build muscles for sure

[Mermaid Syrena]

In defence of Alex (French Merman)- OK, he's a real sweetie. Like Raina said- English isn't his first language. Certain nuances of English humour (or non humour) can be super subtle and hard to grasp, so I don't blame him at all. We've all had our little slip-ups, or occasions when we came across to some people as a little too brash, but I know French Merman is always willing to learn and change if he realizes he's wrong.
Oh, and I love his gifs. Instant mood-lightener.

[Merman Arion]

In defence of Alex (French Merman)- OK, he's a real sweetie. Like Raina said- English isn't his first language. Certain nuances of English humour (or non humour) can be super subtle and hard to grasp, so I don't blame him at all. We've all had our little slip-ups, or occasions when we came across to some people as a little too brash, but I know French Merman is always willing to learn and change if he realizes he's wrong.
Oh, and I love his gifs. Instant mood-lightener.

Thanks Cara. I appreciate very much. Indeed, i'm 24 and still improving. English can be tricky sometimes when it comes to humor. Yet, i'm a grow up and i can learn from my mistakes. So far, i have always apologized when i knew that the line was crossed. I would rather make people laugh than hurting them. Just saying. I just hope that one day, in spite of my light deafness, my English will be good enough so i can meet some of you in real life.

I'd had no practice in monofins before I got my tail. I'm considering getting one just to practice and build up my muscles. It's really good to hear that it will stop hurting though. I was worried I'd done something wrong
Also, I wanna thank everyone for helping me out with all of this. Without all you guys I would have probably had some kind of melt down by now because I have no clue what I'm doing haha.

When i ordered my magictail, i had no experience whatsoever with a monofin. The first swim was bad and tricky, yet i managed to not drown LOL. I did some streching before and drank lots of water to avoid cramps. Now, i'm getting better and better since my muscles are growing and each swim are getting easier and easier. The feeling is juste amazing underwater. I'm thinking to get a competitor monofin in the future when i will order my dream tail from Raven or Finfolks so i will practice a lot beforehand so i can avoid what you are feeling right now. Iona is right, just take it easy.

LOL, now I want to see a meme of a mer clutching their tail and saying, "My precioussssss..." XD

Be careful not to say "my preciouuusssss" too many time, you may end up waking up like this guy and become Golum

[Merman Arion]

to lighten the mood, this is how i feel when i see Raven's beautiful work and when i swim underwater.

[Miyu]

Frenchie, you may speak English as a second language and have trouble grasping some of our humour... well LOL so do I, and English is my first language! English is, in my opinion, the hardest language of all, and a lot of people fail at it all the time... even those whose first language IS English :P

[Mer-Crazy]

Wow, you got a competitor for your first tail or monofin ever? That's leaping right in for sure! No, that's not normal. Discomfort and some pain, yeah, that can happen- but "every kick was just ridiculously painful"? In my opinion that's not normal or healthy. You should be careful, if you don't know how to swim properly in a monofin and start of with a competitor you can injure yourself. I've heard of it happening before People tearing things, even. That's WITHOUT the extra weight of the fluke even.

If you're kicking at all with your knees or ankles you're doing it wrong and can hurt yourself. Your kick needs to come from your abs and just kind of flow down the rest of your body. Your knees and ankles do move but they're just riding the wave, they're not the source of force. Watching videos of other mers swimming can actually be very helpful (YouTube! ). If you can have someone with gogles, or a camera, watch/record you so you can watch yourself swim or get feedback and improve on it that way. Also, STRETCH. Competitors, even with out tails, can make you cramp like crazy- especially if you're not use to that particular type of fin (fiberglass). First ever time in a competitor fin I cramped so much! My muscles just weren't use to it. I stretch (legs in all kinds of ways, ankles, hips) for 15-30 minutes (sometimes longer) before I get in tail and there is HUGE difference in comfort and therefore control between stretching and not stretching for me.

Just take it easy. You don't want to injure yourself! Better safe than sorry. It wouldn't be a bad idea to get a lower priced monofin for practice to help you learn proper technique and build muscles for sure

That's probably the issue. I'm used to just using fins, so my kicks come from knees and ankles. I'll be super aware of my form from now on. But with a monofin what would you suggest as as good starter one? I attempted to swim today but my BF didn't film it very well so you can't really see me swimming, so I don't think you'd be able to see what I'm doing wrong. On that note if I could do it again I would not have ordered the competitor monofin. I really wished I had been warned that its not a good idea for a first time monofin user.

[Anahita]

Oof English. I hate tutoring it. Seriously, it drives me insane because everyone always asks "why" for English. "Why is THAT funny, but not this?" "Why is it spelled that way, but nothing else is spelled that way?" "Why is there no word that rhymes with orange?" "Why, why, why, why?!!?"

:P

Cursing and lewd humor in English doesn't help either, because the rules are NOT simple. Something can be completely hilarious, but change one word that just happens to magically be more "severe" and you're up shit creek without a paddle..... Farsi is way easier - cursing and lewd humor is just not acceptable under any circumstances that a non-native speaker would be in, so they never have to learn about it.... And French has always been more forgiving/flippant about swearing and such (at least in my experience, but then again, I'm like, a barely 150cm tall borderline munchkin that speaks with a very funny twang, so the comic value of that may be why I'm treated much more gently... Although, on the other end of that, when people who are native French speakers find out my middle name rhymes with a certain dirty word in French, they usually loudly sang about it - so I like to think that it's more of a forgiving language with that kind of dirty/inappropriate humor stuff.... )

Wait, as for "why" and English.... Why am I posting this in the Merbellas thread? Oh dear, I jumped on the derailed topic I think. Shame on me.

[Anahita]

Selene, maybe a Finis Foil would be a good start for you? It's pretty affordable, and I actually think that Finis made it specifically to train people how to use a monofin.... (I could be entirely wrong on that though)

[Elle]

It felt kinda weird hearing an Aussie accent on here, Selene xD
Your tail is amazing!

I know....I'm so used to hearing American accents, when I hear an Australian one it's a bit of a shock

[Ariel-Starfish]

I know, right?! She's just like, "Oh, let me go under the water this way! Easy as pie!"
Where as me, it's like. *stop. pause.* "Okay, I'm gonna do this..." *spastic half turn aborted by the fact that my body panics when water goes up my nose* *surface with hair all over my face, spluttering* "Okay, that did not go real well." XD

Exacly!! XD

[Aziara]

And French has always been more forgiving/flippant about swearing and such (at least in my experience, but then again, I'm like, a barely 150cm tall borderline munchkin that speaks with a very funny twang, so the comic value of that may be why I'm treated much more gently... Although, on the other end of that, when people who are native French speakers find out my middle name rhymes with a certain dirty word in French, they usually loudly sang about it - so I like to think that it's more of a forgiving language with that kind of dirty/inappropriate humor stuff.... )

I can certainly confirm what you said there... where I live, most of the older folks spoke French as their first language. Perhaps that's why, but most humor I end up being around is pretty much identical to stuff that French Merman says. I find him hilarious for that reason
As for the painful ankles when you first start swimming in a monofin, I can certainly say that's normal if you've never tried it before, because my own first try I tried to get propulsion by pushing with my legs. When I started using my midsection to power my kick, my legs hurt much less. But now my abs and lower back feel sore after :P. There's just so much muscle that most folks don't normally use, that you need to use a monofin. Using a practice monofin might help you a bit. Shipping on a merfin wouldn't be so bad for you (I'm so jealous), so maybe you could try one of those? Or maybe a finis foil or wave or rapid?

[PearlieMae]

Wow! Talk about diving into the deep end! A practice monofin is definitely in order...this might help give you an idea of the movement:

And LOTS of practice!

[MerEmma]

I think the issue is really a lot of using your ankles to kick instead of your abs--personally I've swum so much mermaid kick my entire life my ankles are just fine swimming that way but if you're not used to it I can easily imagine that being painful.
I'd say a Foil, Wave or even an Oceanika (no outrageous US shipping prices, I love mine and it's easy to swim with but it's a bit pricey) would probably be best to practice with. I'm sorry it hurt your ankles so much and I hope you're able to get it down quickly. :c

[Mermaid Kalliope]

Wow it's been a while! XD

Harmony- My gods! Your tail is exquisite! Absolutely beautiful! I love your smile and excitment! :-D You are adorable. Haha The colours remind of how some metals look when they've rusted/aged or the shiny rainbow you get from oil on asphalt. I've always thought it to be such beautiful colours even if it is oil. >>

Phoenix- All of your stuff is so lovely! I adore the eye of your octo. :-) Reminds me of fire. Your tail looks fintastic on you! It just... fits! Very very lovely.

Selene- Awwww.... Aussie accent. ♥ Your tail is so... so... mysterious? I think that's the word I'm looking for. It just has a certain something that's ethereal about it. :-) As for your ankles, just as everyone said, get a practice monofin. I have a finnis wave that I use and the only pain I get are my abs hurting after a long swim. I'm barely getting any kind of a workout now from it and am looking forward to finally being able to use the competitor. So, it does help and I would recommend the wave over the foil because it will be a smaller jump in blade size. The oceanika sounds like a good idea, too, for you, since you live in Australia. :-) Best of luck in your mermaid adventures!

French Merman - Don't feel bad. My first language is English and I had someone ask me what my first language was because of how I speak. XD I don't get English.

And..... HUGS all around!

[AniaR]

Raven decided to do her own version of the famous "She Creature" Tail, if you've never seen the movie, here's a still that shows the tail:



The tail is actually a split tail, not something that would be actually functioning in real performing mermaid life, so she put her own unique spin on it. personally, I think it's a great homage. It looks enough like it, but has that Raven flare! (Just like my Splash tail!)

[Mermaid Lorelei]

Raven decided to do her own version of the famous "She Creature" Tail, if you've never seen the movie, here's a still that shows the tail:



The tail is actually a split tail, not something that would be actually functioning in real performing mermaid life, so she put her own unique spin on it. personally, I think it's a great homage. It looks enough like it, but has that Raven flare! (Just like my Splash tail!)

Click here to view the full image.

That girl just blows my mind.