Come and join in the fun of mermaid (and men) swimming
Nish Kumar samples life under the lido with Arundel’s mermaids
It’s very rare that the question ‘how was your day at work’ can be answered by the response ‘I put on a fake mermaid tail and had a terrific swim in a Lido next to a castle’.
Mermaid swimming is the passion of Anna Haskell, a former primary school teacher and I met her at a session at Arundel Lido, located a short walk away from the castle.
To avoid any confusion that may already be arising, Mermaid swimming is exactly as it sounds. Well not exactly, there’s no talking crabs or sea witches trying to steal anyone’s voice.
And to be clear, in the interests of journalistic rigour, I did ask and received the sort of baffled response that can only follow a question that suggests a 36-year-old adult believes Disney films are documentaries.
Mermaid swimmers don a ‘mono-fin’, a colourful mermaid tail with a plastic ‘fin’ at its base. Then they swim in the pool, with activities ranging from basic pool width completion, to synchronised patterns and diving for treasure and doing underwater assault courses.
On Saturday morning, I found myself poolside with Anna, and we watched a class full of mermaids of different ages swimming. My first question was, inevitably, ‘what in the name of God is happening here’?
Anna is a warm, good humoured presence, and utterly inspirational. It’s clear why she was such an excellent primary school teacher.
In between instructing the class, she talks to me about her time in the education system.
One frustration was her growing realisation that children were dropping out of her swimming class; especially girls. Swimming is a passion of Anna’s having competed whilst at school.
I asked her why she thought people were dropping out.
“The competitive element puts a lot of people off ”. She also became concerned that there wasn’t a way to encourage exercise that would be ‘fun rather than emphasising competitiveness’.
It was this impulse that led her to form the South
Coast Mermaids. And it’s an organisation she leads by example.
In September 2019, she completed a 12-hour swim in the mermaid tail to raise money for the Arundel and Download Community Leisure Trust (ACT) and the Chestnut Tree House children’s hospice .
The organisation focuses on swimming for enjoyment and has the express aim of being as inclusive as possible.
And it is this element of the mission statement that has led Anna to speak to the press – she says to me ‘we want more men’ as well as more swimmers generally of all ages and genders.
At this point I start to look nervously around the pool. Realising that I am the only person who loosely matches the description of ‘man’ I realise, there’s nothing to be done, other than for this journalist to invoke the spirits of Hunter S Thompson and gonzo journalism.
And it is this that culminates in your humble reporter finding himself in a swimming pool with a class full of concerned looking mermaids. And I can report that, after any initial reservations I might have had, mermaid swimming was as fun as was promised.
The sense of community is palpable and the goodwill of my classmates powered me through attempts at handstands and a rudimentary synchronised routine.
In this reporter’s opinion, it’s a great form of exercise for kids of all ages.
It wasn’t exactly ‘under the sea’, so much as it was “in the Lido” but still, it was a heck of a way to spend an afternoon.