Oakland’s Mermaid Atlantis is Quite the Catch for Mermaid Weekend
One recent afternoon on Baker Beach, a mermaid with a fiery orange and yellow tail, pink shell bra and pearl bib necklace, watched the sea. She was lost in the rhythmic percussion of the crashing waves.
Seaweed was tangled in her crimson red and sun-kissed orange hair. Mesmerized people stopped, wishing to capture her beauty in a photograph.
“My ride’s here,” she joked as a massive wave swept ashore, drenching her silicone tail.
Mermaid sightings on beaches and land have increased in recent years. There are thousands of mermaids performing at festivals, parades and conventions around the world. Mermaid Atlantis, an Oakland resident, is one of the truest of her kind.
“Swimming in the ocean, it’s like you’re floating, dreaming, meditating,” Atlantis, who has wanted to live as a mermaid since high school, said. “It’s an entirely surreal experience. It feels like nirvana. It’s just gorgeous.”
You can meet Mermaid Atlantis June 3–5 at the Sacramento Mermaid Weekend 2016.
I was first introduced to the mer culture as a kid by Ariel, the star of the Disney classic “The Little Mermaid.” Ariel had everything — gadgets and gizmos aplenty, whozits and whatzits galore. At age five, I just couldn’t fathom giving it up for a human boy. I get he’s a handsome prince, but what’s better about being human?
Mermaids can play with dolphins whenever they want, and they don’t have to wear pants. Seems like a pretty sweet life to me.
Celebrities such as Vanessa Hudgens, Britney Spears and Kim Kardashian have been sighted rocking the ultimate summer accessory: a sparkly mermaid tail. But what the average human may not realize is that life unda da sea may not always be as glamorous as they think.
At Baker Beach in San Francisco, members of Mermaid Atlantis’ mer-pod, the NorCal Narwhals, assisted her in maneuvering along the shoreline. While a multi-colored monofin is not the most practical thing to move around in on land, it glides smoothly underwater.
Atlantis combines her people skills, athleticism and imagination to make a decent living, and I’m not just talking sand dollars. On average, she makes $250/hour.
The life of a mermaid, especially one who makes a living with this craft, is not for the weak. Atlantis describes it as “a sport and an art.”
Many performance mermaids rely on the safety of breathing tubes secured to the bottom of the pool or tank, allowing them to stay underwater for the duration of their performance.
Mermaids like Atlantis train their bodies to withstand harsh oceanic conditions. Atlantis is one of the few mermaids in California who is certified to free dive with wildlife in the ocean without the aid of a breathing apparatus.
“Your abs are killing you, and you’re trying to make this whole lap without breaking the surface or taking another gulp of air, and then trying not to be a snot-face when you come up from the water,” she said.
Atlantis attempted to construct her first tail as a teenager, but failed. With the help of mer-folks on mernetwork.com, she made her first fully functional, neoprene tail in 2012. She brought the tail to her local community swimming pool and drew a lot of attention from the senior aquatics class.
“I got underwater and I did a whole lap on one breath,” Atlantis said. “I thought everyone was going to laugh at me — they were so nice — and I turned and the woman that came out to watch me had tears streaming down her face.”
The encounter pushed Atlantis to continue her journey.
“She came up to me and said: ‘When I was a little girl, I lived near a lake and my parents, they didn’t want me. And so every single summer I would go to the lake and I would swim to the bottom of the lake and wish — I just knew it in my heart if I wished hard enough — I could be a mermaid and swim away from here and be where I was wanted. That never happened for me, but it happened to you. What you’re doing is so important, you have to do this for everyone’,” the woman said to Atlantis.
Atlantis, who lives with her boyfriend and fellow mermaid, Iara Mandyn, embodies the mythic archetype of the mermaid to encourage others to interact with the myth and magic of the sea.
The mer culture has become so ingrained in Atlantis’ everyday life that she slips sea puns like “sea you soon” or “oh my sea stars,” into conversations. Her most-used emojis include the seashell, water droplets and dolphin.
“Mermaids are the natural ambassadors of the sea,” Atlantis said. “It is kind of our job and our responsibility to get people enchanted with the sea and stand up for the rights of all of the creatures, because they can’t speak for themselves.”
You can meet Mermaid Atlantis June 3–5 at the Sacramento Mermaid Weekend 2016.
[Thanks for reading. This story originally appeared on ripple.co. If you like what you read, please check out more of Amanda’s Ripple stories.]
