I met a mermaid
ENThis is the first thing I spot when I step on the deck of the boat. A mermaid's tail, lying there between two diving bags.
A mermaid's tail on the bridge
I bend over to feel the object. It's supple and massive at the same time. The tail is yellow and blue, silicone, zebra-striped and bristling with tiny fins. I lift the tail a little. It's heavy. I later learn that the tail weighs 12 kg!
"You share your cabin with Cindy, it's hers, the mermaid's tail", I learn. Phil Simhawho welcomes me on board theExocetmoored in the marina of Hurghada, Egypt. A professional underwater photographer, diving and freediving instructor, he is the instigator of this week-long diving cruise in the Red Sea.
He tells me no more. It's late, past midnight. My cabin mate, who arrived earlier in the day, is already asleep. I wrestle with the doorknob, slipping into my bunk as quietly as possible. I'd hate to wake up a siren... ☺️ We'll get to know each other the next day!
Back to the Red Sea
That's right. This October 2016, here I am in Egypt for a "photo and freediving" themed diving cruise. With a mermaid on board. But I didn't know that when I made my reservation, at the last minute, learning that there was one last place available a few days before departure...
As for the rest, I knew pretty much what to expect: transparent water at 28°C, just a four-five hour flight from Paris. The idea of being surrounded by diver-photographers like myself, and the presence of freediving friends (Rémy and Audrey from Blue Addiction) were enough to convince me!
Besides, I don't know the Red Sea very well. My only dives there, before this new trip, dated back to November 2011 (it was also with photographers from the Forum of the photo-sub).
I know, I'm very late with my stories, I haven't finished recounting my 2016 dives in Indonesia (Komodo and Raja Ampat in July, Triton Bay in March). The posts to come between now and the end of the year will therefore be a jumble from the Red Sea and Indonesia, but never mind the chronology! It's not every day you get the chance to photograph and film a mermaid underwater. I can't resist the pleasure of showing you a few images... 😉
Siren, it's a job
The mermaiding or sirenism, is a new and fashionable sporting pastime, and also a profession. It's an amusing coincidence that my canard has devoted a fine portrait to the subject. to a professional sirenten days before I met Cindy !
Mermaiding involves freediving with your legs tucked into a fish tail - gracefully, of course. Cindy is Swiss, in her thirties, and teaches mermaiding. mermaiding to adults and children in Neuchâtel (more info on its website Métisphère). She acted as a model in the Red Sea for us photographers. I'll let you discover what it's all about, with the short video below:
It's really sporty, the mermaiding. Cindy's performance really impressed me. Immersing yourself several meters deep on a single breath, without a mask, eyes wide open, and undulating gracefully with a 12-kilo silicone tail, all the while keeping a smile on your face, takes a hell of a lot of training. Ariel can put her clothes back on.
How do you get into mermaiding? By passion. And a taste for a challenge, too, I think. Cindy has always loved the water and is a top-level sportswoman: acrobatic rock, swimming, apnea... As an engineer, she decided to change her life: "I wanted to devote myself to activities that corresponded more closely to my aspirations", she explains. She is now a naturopath, coach and mermaid! One hell of a gal...
Unlike the rest of us on the boat, she'd never breathed through a regulator (the thing divers put in their mouths to make bubbles), so she took advantage of the cruise to try her first scuba dive! And she even saw some sharks. Sickening, beginner's luck... 😁
😮
Beautiful to see it in the wild! It changes sirens in the pool or aquarium ....
@Steph: yes, we were lucky to have a mermaid with us for sea dives... It's not that often!!!
It's really funny that mermaid tail, we almost believe it!
@Sarah: the one Cindy had brought along was "customized" by herself, with a very animal, rather wild look... It reinforces the illusion.
Nice mermaid 🙂
By the way, what did you think of your cruise? The number of boats on the spot in your first photo is a bit frightening. Not too many people underwater?
By the way, how under the corals. I passed through Hurghada a good fifteen years ago and many had already sadly started to bleach.
@Karl: I came back enchanted from this cruise on the Exocet, with lots of fascinating things for me to photograph: in addition to the mermaid, longiman sharks and lots of spectacular wrecks... The Red Sea is "exotic" for me, who's more used to the Indo-Pacific area...
So, in this photo, unless I'm mistaken, the spot where we're moored is the wreck of the ThistlegormIn any case, underwater, I don't remember being bothered by other people. We didn't all launch at the same time, and a number of boats left before us...
Otherwise, there were many of us on the boat (about twenty divers), but each one evolved in autonomy, by small palanquées of 2-3, so it was very well. There were also tek divers with us, who lived their lives more deeply ... Frankly, from that point of view, it was very good.
Otherwise, it's difficult for me to judge the state of the corals in Hurghada or elsewhere in the Red Sea, during this cruise of just one week. I did, however, take some beautiful images of coral reefs, which I'll post soon. I've already posted a few here on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10157619108335158.1073741849.333947175157&type=1&l=7cf006276c
There are some very beautiful and colorful spots, but I haven't been able to see all the sites in Hurghada or elsewhere, so I can't really give an informed opinion on the general state of the corals in the region...
Well, it's true that when I dive elsewhere than in Indonesia (in the Red Sea, for example, but also in Polynesia or Mexico, for my other experiences), I always find that the coral is less spectacular and less exuberant, generally speaking...
Incredible! I'd seen documentaries on this kind of swimming before, but this leaves me speechless.
I think I would be unable to swim with my legs locked in a mermaid's tail.
Cecilia: you have to start by training with a monofin...
She looks so comfortable underwater, the result is magnificent!
@Amelie : Cindy really is fantastic underwater. Seeing her evolve like that really impressed me, I must say...
Share your cabin with a siren => The dream of any diver (male) cruising ...
The world is too unfair !!
NB: Have you seen longimanus?
@Alimata: hi, hi... The thing about cruise ships is that they often pair up by gender: naiads and mermaids on one side, newts and toadfish on the other...
Yes, I've seen longimanus, up close, I'll tell and show that in a future post... Fascinating new experience, for me !!!!
Huge to see sirens !!! The photos are superb.
Wow! It's really pretty and original and again and again bravo for your photos!
The photos and video are superb! I didn't know that mermaid was a profession, at least I haven't come across one in Lake Geneva yet!