NOTHING FISHY ABOUT THIS MERMAID TALE
Swimming women in costume are riding a wave of popularity
Angela Lorio paid for her first tail with a summer beekeeping job.
Gold and shimmery, the new appendage was a bargain deal, a magical entree into the watery world of professional mermaiding for the Houston-area woman.
Now she and her mer-partner, Sherry Rozas, are eagerly awaiting the spring party season.
“There’s a lot of mermaid demand,” said Rozas, also known as Mermaid Sherielle.
The swimming women of Siren Star Entertainment are among dozens across the state in the burgeoning mermaid industry, turning childhood fantasies into a paying profession by regularly wriggling into brightly colored tails to entertain children and adults.
Inspired in part by the enduring popularity of mermaid movies, they are ready for hire for birthday parties or corporate events. Some even offer to bring their own water tank for landlubbers without ready pool access.
There’s a MerNetwork community for fishy folk to share tips, a MerDirectory listing professionals for hire, and a smattering of annual parades from North Carolina to Coney Island to San Marcos.
In Texas, there’s even a mermaid group — or “pod,” as they’re called — that unites merfolk across the state.
The world of real-life mermaiding traces back to at least the 1940s, when a dive instructor in Florida persuaded some nautically inclined women to try out his newly invented breathing hoses and swim in underwater ballets
as the Weeki Wachee mermaids.
The group — one of the better-known mermaid ensembles — is still active today, performing at a state park north of Tampa.
Around the country, some 1,000 professional mermaids and mermen make a full-time living off their scales and tails, according to a Fast Company estimate.
The popular Disney film “The Little Mermaid” and other mermaid movies have contributed at least in part to the demand.
It’s the tail that makes the maid.
A full silicone tail — the preferred choice because of its natural look — weighs upward of 35 pounds and can be the biggest initial investment in a mermaid career.
Silicone tails can cost at least $2,000 and can be customized by color, the number of fins and size. Fabric tails, such as the one Lorio purchased, can be a more affordable option, starting at a couple of hundred dollars.
Maria Russo — one of the Lone Star State’s industry leaders as a professional mermaid and elite tailmaker — got into the business to fulfill a childhood dream.
“I made my first mermaid tail out of trash bags and duct tape when I was 13 years old,” said Russo, known as Mermaid Maria.
Now, she crafts the colorful silicone tails in an Austin studio with her partner, Jason Darling. The couple’s business, Sirenalia, uses the motto, “mermaids are real.”
Hooked by the tail
Lorio got into mermaiding on a whim.
“It was one of those sure-why-not-let-me-trythis things,” the 50-yearold Magnolia science teacher — known as Mermaid Zaya — said recently.
“I could see the trend coming, and I’m like, ‘Well, I can swim,’ ” she said.
She took a summer job at a local apiary and used beekeeping to fund her first tail. It doesn’t feature the pricey silicone, but it gets the job done.
The business she formed with Rozas and Angela Staha is slated to hit the water this spring, catering to kids’ marine fantasies with event and birthday party appearances, one of the most popular ways to turn mermaiding into a money-making endeavor.
They haven’t announced their prices yet, but professional mermaids often charge upward of $200 an hour for appearances.
Rozas, 49, who normally works in accounting, got into mermaiding after years of acting, doing everything from amusement park costume characters to Shakespeare. But a couple of years ago, she read about a tail-maker online — and she was hooked.
She persuaded her husband to be her mertender — the unlucky assistants tasked with carrying the mermaids when they’re out of the water — and sprung for a second-hand silicone tail.
“I love the swimming,” she said, though it’s a lot harder in tail.
It’s naturally buoyant, so the extra heft isn’t the problem. It’s the drag.
“It’s different from a monofin because with a tail you have drag from the fluke and the fins and you have to get used to that,” Rozas said.
‘Dreams come true’
As business bubbles up across the state, some enterprising mermaids are making waves in new directions.
In addition to performing at kids’ parties and other seaworthy events, Russo also puts together mermaid retreats.
Every year for about a week, a handful of dedicated merfolk fly down to Belize for a trip Russo likens to “mermaid summer camp.”
The island visit, which benefits a nonprofit high school in Belize, includes mermaid-themed movies, mermaid yoga and mermaid boot camp, along with hours of swimming in tail.
“It’s like a mermaid vacation on a paradise island,” Russo said.
Moira Dobbs is helping a new generation of mermaids live out their salty dreams in different ways.
At Adventure Scuba & Snorkeling Center in Plano, the 27-year-old mermaid offers Sunday workshops complete with swim classes and fabric tail rentals, even for older swimmers.
“As the mermaid culture becomes more mainstream, I have more of an adult following,” she said. “For some people, it’s also about working out.”
Dobbs also offers more traditional entertainment events and kids’ parties, where she fields sometimes-bizarre questions from the curious.
“One of the biggest questions they ask is where I am on the food chain,” she said with a laugh. “They want to know what I eat and what eats me. They’ll tug on my hair and my tail to see if I’m real.”
She also crams some marine conservation lessons into her mermaid appearances, explaining the importance of the oceanic clean-up work she does in her free time.
Ashley Rodriguez — also known as Mermaid Lotus — is heading up a project geared at bringing mermaiding to the internet. The 25-year-old Dallas-area woman works a day job at an insurance company but raises money on the side to shoot a mermaid fantasy web series.
The series features three mer-stars — including Rodriguez — but finding the supporting swimmers was more of a challenge.
“It’s hard to find a lot of mermaids this far from the coast,” she said.
She also runs the Pod of Texas Facebook group, a virtual watering hole for the Lone Star State’s water-loving piscine pretenders.
The online group has about 80 members at all stages of their mermaiding careers, Rodriguez said.
“Not all of them do children’s parties and stuff,” she said. “Most of them do it for the exercise, the fantasy — making your own dreams come true.”