I met a siren

  Egypt: Red Sea - October 2016

This is the first thing I notice when I step on the deck of the boat. A mermaid's tail, lying there, between two diving bags.

A mermaid tail on the bridge

I bend to feel the object. It's flexible and massive at the same time. The tail is yellow and blue, silicone, zebra and bristling with small fins. I lift a little caudal. It weighs. I will learn later that the tail is 12 kg!

"You share your cabin with Cindy, it's up to her, the mermaid tail," teaches me Phil Simhawho welcomes me aboard theExocet, moored in the Hurghada Marina, Egypt. Professional underwater photographer, diving and apnea instructor, he is the instigator of this week-long diving cruise in the Red Sea.

He does not tell me more. It's late, more than midnight. My cabin roommate, arriving earlier in the day, is already sleeping. I fight with the doorknob, sneak up to my bunk as quietly as possible. I would be remiss if I wake up a siren ... ☺️ We'll meet the next day!

Back to the Red Sea

Eh yes. In October 2016, here I am in Egypt for a thematic diving cruise "photo and apnea". With a siren on board, so. But that, I did not know when I made my reservation, at the last minute, learning that there remained a last place available a few days before departure ...

For the rest, I knew what to expect: transparent water at 28 ° C, just four-five hours flight from Paris. The idea of being surrounded by photographers like myself and the presence of apneist friends (Rémy and Audrey de Blue Addiction) have finished convincing me!

In addition, the Red Sea, I do not know very well. My only dives there, before this new trip, went back to November 2011 (It was also with photographers, those of Forum of the photo-sub).

I know, I'm very late in my stories, I have not finished telling my 2016 dives in Indonesia (Komodo and Raja Ampat in July, Triton Bay in March). The posts to come by the end of the year will be a jumble of Red Sea and Indonesia, but too bad for the timeline! It is not every day that one has the chance to photograph and film a siren under water. I can not resist the pleasure of showing you some pictures ... 😉

Siren, it's a job

The mermaiding or sirenism, it is a new sporting leisure in vogue, and also a trade. Fun coincidence, my duck had just dedicated a beautiful portrait to a professional sirenTen days before I met Cindy!

The sirenism, it is to evolve in apnea, the legs slipped in a tail of fish - gracefully, as to do. Cindy is Swiss, she is in her thirties and teaches mermaiding to adults and children in Neuchâtel (more info on his website Métisphère). She played the models in the Red Sea for us photographers. I let you discover what it gives, with the little video below:

It's really sporty, the mermaiding. Cindy's performances impressed me a lot. Immerse yourself several meters deep on a single inspiration, without a mask, eyes wide open, and waving gracefully with a silicone tail of 12 kilos while keeping the smile, it requires a hard training. Ariel can go get dressed.

How are we getting into sirenism? By passion. And by taste of the challenge, too, I believe. Cindy has always loved water and she is a top-level athlete: acrobatic rock, swimming, apnea ... Engineer, she decided to change her life: "I wanted to devote myself to activities that corresponded more to my aspirations", she says. She is now naturopath, coach and siren! A sacred girl ...

Unlike all of us, on the boat, she had never breathed in a regulator (the thing that divers have in the mouth and that bubbles): she took advantage of the cruise to make her first dive! And she even saw sharks. Disgusting, the luck of beginners ... 😁

😮

  Egypt: Red Sea - October 2016