Become a Mermaid at AquaMermaid School

Have you ever dreamed of being a mermaid? I have! We had a pool at my parents’ and I would often wear flippers and swim with my feet together pretending I was a mermaid. What if I told you that you could fulfill that childhood fantasy? That’s right, YOU CAN BE A MERMAID!!! Thanks to the AquaMermaid School you can slip into a tail and swim like a mermaid. I got to try it out and will tell you all about it in this post.

Let’s start with the first step of becoming a mermaid: the tail. The tails are a pair of flippers tied together and placed inside the tail material. Once your feet are secured snuggly into the flippers you simply slide and shimmy up the rest of the tail over your legs and torso. And voilà, you’re a mermaid!

Once you have your tail on and you slip into the pool you are given a pool noodle to help you stay afloat. You’re also starting on the shallow end of the pool so you can safely stand up.

We started by swimming a pool length (and back) with a noodle to get a feel for the tails, then we did it without a noodle. Then we did it on our backs with a noodle, then without a noodle.

There are a few moves that you stay in the shallow end to do, like forming a V with your upper and lower body, trying to get your fin out of the water while using your arms to float and rotate in place. Did I mention that you get a full body workout during this class? 😉

You also get to play in the deep end to do some flips. While the other ladies did some flips without their noodles, I kept mine the entire time. The flips actually looked a lot easier without the noodle, but I was getting fatigued at this point (especially after a few failed flips, and a few successful ones) so I rested with my noodle a bit.

We did more than that, but I won’t tell you all the moves you’ll learn during the class – I have to leave some element of surprise, right? 😉

The class lasts about 50 minutes, leaving you 10 minutes at the end to play/swim and take pictures.

My mermaid pod consisted of myself, Ali Matthews for Ottawa Life Magazine (read her article), and Sabrina Doyle for Canadian Geographic. We were all mermaid newbies and our instructor, Kim, was wonderful at teaching us the mermaid way.

Becoming a mermaid is extremely fun, but you do need basic swimming skills (your swimming level will be assessed at the beginning of your class). You’re also moving in ways you’re not used to so you may experience some muscle cramps in your feet and/or calves, or in your ligaments behind your knees (I had foot cramps and sore ligaments).

AquaMermaid proudly operates in Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa, Quebec, Kitchener, Phoenix and Chicago offering a variety of mermaid classes per week featuring 40 mermaid team members. The meticulously chosen pools are staffed by professional mermaids trained as lifeguards, synchronized swimming instructors and aqua fitness trainers. The team is available to help you in your exercise, maximize your workout and make your life a real fairy tale come true!
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They have classes for kids and for teens/adults. You can book a class or book a party – how fun would this be for a girl’s birthday or a bachelorette party?!?

If you book for a year you get a free tail, how cool is that! You can also buy a tail for $140.

I had a blast being a mermaid and it’s something I would do again in a heartbeat! What about you?

– Chantal 🙂