With the recent live-action remake of the Disney classic film “The Little Mermaid” and the Netflix docuseries “Merpeople,” interest in the mystical half-human, half-fish has been piqued once again. Some scuba instruction businesses are now offering classes where people can experience the swimming part of being a mermaid.
In Peter Kalenda’s scuba class at Rochester’s Northwest Junior High School, it’s always safety first. But fun is a close second.
“I love it,” said student Sam Winburn. “It’s fun to be in the water. To get moving.”
Now, this is no ordinary scuba class. And not your typical scuba gear. But in this pool, it’s making, excuse the pun, a big splash.
“People ask how scuba is going and I tell them we’ve ventured into mermaid,” explained Kalenda, an instructor for RU4Scuba, which holds a variety of different types of scuba courses in and around the Rochester area.
Yes, mermaid. Students wear monofins, which keep their feet and legs together. Some are outfitted in a suit which resembles a mermaid-like tail skin.
“Most of the time you get a very shocked reaction like, that's a thing like you can actually do?” said Kalenda. “Yeah it's an actual course you can get certified in it.”
Scuba Schools International, an organization which teaches scuba skills, began offering mermaid classes a few years ago. Swimming with a monofin and tail skin is hard, at first — and potentially dangerous if you don’t know what you’re doing.
“And your feet are locked together and eventually your legs are locked together when you're wearing a tail skin,” said Kalenda. “And most of us don't normally swim like that.”
After just a couple of classes, Winburn, who works for an oral surgeon, feels like a fish in water.
“Easier than you think,” he said. “You move much quicker with a monofin in the water, so once you find your balance you can propel yourself pretty quickly.”
In his day job, Kalenda is a college professor. He became interested in scuba while he was in college. He says the growing interest in the classes coincides with the recent popularity of mermaids in popular culture.
“I think that's being driven more and more with what's in the media and found on TV or in movies,” he said. “It's a great way to get people into the water and passionate about the ocean and conservation, who normally don't enter the water because scuba is a very expensive hobby.”
Melissa Cushman is a school teacher by day who takes two scuba classes — one with adults, and one with her ten-year-old-son.
“My students love it,” she said. “I think it's just fun and kind of like a bucket list type of thing. “Something that you never really thought that you would be able to have a chance to do.”
When students complete the mermaid course, they even get a certificate, something scuba instructor Kalenda never could have imagined.
“Absolutely not,” he laughed. “No, I was hoping that someday I would be teaching scuba, because I enjoyed teaching. But [this] mermaid thing was not something in my mind that people even did.”
All it takes is a little imagination. And a sense of adventure to try something new.
“It's fun because you know you're doing all this stuff that you used to do when you were a little kid,” said Cushman. “And you kind of just get lost in it.”