Michaela Werner never wanted to be a mermaid. But, that's just what the former competitive freediver and swimmer, from the landlocked country of Slovakia has become, moving fluidly, scaly silver one piece reflecting light off the water.
"There must be some H2O gene in me," jokes Werner, who refers to herself as a CMO (chief mermaiding officer) of No Ripples, a Sydney-based swimming school designed to teach children and adults the art of mermaiding.
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The art of 'mermaiding'
Freediver-turned-professional-mermaid Michaela Werner teaches the most unusual swimming classes you're ever likely to see at the pool.
"I want to show people that swimming can be fun; swimming is quite serious – you have your head down doing your laps and don't talk to anyone," says the 37-year-old, who is also a life guard. "This is completely different – I encourage people to talk and get to know each other and have a community ... it's just about having fun in the water, I think it's something people don't do enough of."
The genesis of mermaiding, where a monofin with two footholes is worn, is not Darryl Hannah in Splash, but freediving.
![Making a splash: Mermaiding is safe, Werner insists.](/web/20161014171812im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/s/1/h/y/s/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gs1fmz.png/1476418995679.jpg)
After Werner, who can hold her breath for more than five minutes and swim 133 metres on that breath, had three children in quick succession (she has two-year-old twin sons and a four-year-old daughter) she stopped freediving.
"I started swimming with the monofin on the surface – that's how free divers move through the water," she explains. "It's the most efficient way to swim, because you're trying to conserve oxygen and move as little as possible ... it's not about speed, it's about distance, about swimming as far as you can."
Although Werner doesn't teach breath holds, mermaiding classes combine aspects of swimming and diving in a playful way.
"Basically you are just using your body, creating this wave through the body and then this big fin just helps propel yourself forward," Werner says, adding that it is similar in movement to butterfly in swimming.
![Michaela Werner.](/web/20161014171812im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/s/1/h/l/v/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gs1fmz.png/1476418995679.jpg)
"The only difference is that you use arms [in butterfly]. From diving I teach people skills like how to equalise because we do go under the water, not for long, but we do dive and swim through hoops and recover shells and objects and whatnot.
"Another thing from diving is using buoyancy – noticing when they exhale how the body reacts differently to when they inhale and have a lung full of air – it's a totally different feeling. In diving and free diving that's a fundamental skill."
![Mermaid school.](/web/20161014171812im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/s/2/9/t/0/image.related.articleLeadNarrow.300x0.gs1fmz.png/1476418995679.jpg)
She insists it's both a good workout ("you feel like you are doing these mini crunches and you have to stabilise constantly") and safe.
Just as Werner's business was launching late last year, Australians were being warned about the possible dangers of "mermaid tails" which combine the monofin with waist-high fabric that binds the legs together.
![Michaela Werner and fellow mermaid, Vicky.](/web/20161014171812im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/s/1/h/y/b/image.related.articleLeadNarrow.300x0.gs1fmz.png/1476418995679.jpg)
"They were worried that kids won't be able to get out of [the costume] if they wanted to," says Werner, whose children's classes also involve teaching water safety including rescue and learning about tides and rips. "My opinion is that the fabric is not necessary and personally I don't even like it ... It's just a costume, you can still experience the feeling of swimming like a mermaid or a dolphin without the fabric.
"I worked the whole winter to show the pool managers and the councils that this can be safe and it's not just safe but an amazing water activity that should be supported."
Children, she says, don't need much convincing to participate in mermaiding classes.
"It's combining that fantasy of being a mermaid with getting them in the water in a fun way – getting them to do the exercise without having to do the exercise," she says. Adults, on the other hand, tend to be a little more hesitant.
"The reaction when they hear the word mermaid is that it's only for people who want to be a mermaid or a merman and I never wanted to be a mermaid," Werner says, adding that once people see her trying it out they tend to want to have a go too.
She hopes, through mermaiding, to help others find the same joy she feels in the water.
"It makes me feel alive, it makes me feel happy. As a mum I'm extremely busy, but when I'm in the water I feel free."