Mermaiding, the practice of swimming with your legs and feet encased in a tail skin and monofin, is making serious waves, even here in landlocked Utah.
In 2023, MerPeople, a four-part Netflix docuseries, followed a pod of bedazzled mermaids and mermen as they dove headfirst into the professional performance circuit.
Major news publications like The Guardian, The Week and The Washington Post have run stories about the practice, touting it as a new, waterborne way to escape life’s stress and express creativity.
It’s clear that what once shimmered as niche entertainment at aquariums, theme parks and kids’ birthday parties has surfaced as something bigger: a bona fide sport blending artistry, athleticism and a touch of bedazzled cosplay—complete with dedicated schools, tiered certifications and even competitions.
Ani Ostendorff Ferguson is one of the only PADI (Professional Association of Diving Instructors)-certified mermaid instructor trainers in the Western U.S. She’s also one of just a handful of people in the world who are also freediving and SCUBA instructor certified. And she’s the founder/owner of Aqua Native, a PADI mermaid and freediving school based at Dive Utah in Holladay (4679 S. 2225 East, aqua-native.com).
“We know about the lifelong benefits of swimming, and the benefits of mermaiding are very similar,” she says.
“It’s a low-impact, full-body workout that strengthens the core, glutes and legs while improving cardiovascular health, flexibility and breath control.”
A childhood visit to Florida’s famed Weeki Wachee State Park seeded Ostendorff Ferguson’s fascination with mermaiding. “When I was five, my dad took me to a performance by the Mermaids of Weeki Wachee [a professional underwater mermaid show] and I was blown away,” she says. “Marti Mermaid picked my sister and me from the crowd to come up for a photo after the performance.”
She went on to attend Weeki Wachee’s Sirens of the Deep Mermaid Camp as a tween, but as she got older, Ostendorff Ferguson’s aquatic focus shifted to competitive swimming, following in the footsteps of her dive-master dad. But then, on the eve of her 13th birthday, she finally acted on her dream of becoming a mermaid instructor. “At the time, there was only one mermaid instructor trainer in the world, in Cozumel, Mexico, and so that’s where I went to get certified,” she says.
Mermaiding, Ostendorff Ferguson explained, is based on the three core principles of freediving: immersion; apnea, or holding your breath; and triggering what’s called the mammalian dive reflex, an automatic physiological response that occurs when all mammals submerge their faces in cold water.
“When the face, particularly the forehead, comes in contact with cold water, this reflex is activated, calming down the whole body by drawing blood into our core and causing the spleen to release red blood cells,” she says.
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“This superpower, that we all have, gives us this amazing sense of calm while allowing us to hold our breath longer.” Once students master triggering their mammalian dive reflex, the next step of mermaiding is learning the dolphin kick, the primary propulsion technique, done using a monofin or a wide, single swim fin worn on both feet. “The mermaid dolphin kick resembles a competitive swimming kick, but the mermaid version is generally deeper and slower, originating from the core and hips rather than just the legs to create a graceful, fluid movement. “I love how mermaid swimming helps maintain my core flexibility and strength overall. And it’s fun.”
As you might guess, when your legs and feet are bound in a monofin and its accompanying spandex leg covering, safety is a major concern. In fact, using a mermaid tail skin and/or a monofin is prohibited at most public pools in Utah. “I teach people how to quick-release out of their tail skin and monofin right away before I show them any other techniques,” Ostendorff Ferguson says. “And no one should ever swim without a buddy.”
Aqua Native offers six levels of mermaiding classes, from the one-hour Discover Mermaiding Experience to the two-day Mermaid Instructor certification course. Use of Aqua Native monofins, tail skins, dive masks and nose clips is included in each course. Aqua Native also runs a multiday Mermaid Swimming & Diving course through University of Utah Lifelong Learning (continue.utah.edu).
While it would be easy to assume that Aqua Native’s mermaiding classes are filled with elementary-age girls, Ostendorff Ferguson says that most of her students are in their 20s and 30s. “I think most parents are pretty focused on getting their kids swim lessons and it’s not until people are adults, making their own income, that they decide to try something they’ve probably been wanting to do for a long time.”
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