A Deep Breath

Today I discovered that my breath hold while swiming underwater has gotten longer.
A good 10 seconds longer, and even if that doesn't seem like much, it is when you are propelling your body under the water for any extended amount of time.

While my current breath hold time is nothing to get excited over, today I realized that when I focused on something other than how long I had before I needed to surface, I was able to relax. The jittery feeling in my diaphragm melted away. I ignored the little bit of water filling my nose; it wasn't going much further than that. When I was a kid, this just came naturally, but I've found that getting back into that mindset as an adult is really interesting. Challenging would be a better term.
There are, I'm sure, so many psychological barriers that weigh on us as adults, that just weren't there during childhood. The daily grind of adult responsibility can trigger all kinds of stress, even if it's not outright noticeable. We stash the little stresses away like old receipts, that for some reason we don't just throw in the trash. These little shreds, impacted by larger ones, accumulate like paper-mâché, and it gets harder to shake them off with each passing year.

The one thing I can say that initially distracted me today, were the tiles on the bottom of the pool. One long dark glazed line extended beneath me. I simply focused on my surroundings and less on an actual speed I was trying to travel at. The almost-panic knot in my chest loosened even more.

It really comes down to relearning how to enjoy spending time underwater. I always have; diving down as much as possible for that feeling of weightlessness. But learning how to leave my day floating on the surface, or sitting on the side of the pool, while I frolic beneath is a little journey of discovery in itself.

A Quick Clip & Waterproof Makeup Review

While it's not much to look at, yesterday Anders and I were able to get some quick footage during an afternoon swim in my tail.

Hopefully we can splice more of the footage we caught later, too. Sorry for the blurriness, the iPhone (enclosed in an underwater case) kept trying to focus on the bubbles instead of me.
I was having some uh...technical difficulties with my bikini top; each time I dove down from the surface, or simply swam forward underwater, it would pull down and expose more than I'd like to at a public pool, hah!
So, even after I tightened up the halter strap, this still kept me from doing much of the underwater tricks and lengthy submerged swimming I wanted to capture on video. Especially if I'm going to be sharing it online.

Regardless, this was also a good test for some of my waterproof makeup!
I need to find a better waterproof concealer, but the eyeshadow and lipcolor stayed intact.
My brow pencil wasn't waterproof, so it bit the dust pretty early on.
The mascara was supposed to be waterproof, but it also evaporated as I suspected it would. I'm hoping to track down some of Urban Decay's 'Cannonball' waterproof mascara. I've heard rave reviews from other mermaids about this one.
The waterproof eyeliner by Rimmel stayed put.
Maybelline's 24 Hour Color Tattoo cream shadow also stayed put, and was easy to blend.
My lips were wearing Cover Girl's 'Outlast', recommended by Mermaid Iona; it's amazing. Completely comfortable compared to most lip colors like it, it even survived lunch and drinks at the Hukilau after our swim.

So stay tuned for more (better) footage. We may have access to a GoPro camera soon!

The Deco Darling With A Golden Tail

About 2 days before attending a local sci-fi fantasy convention, I had the urge to create a new look for my gold tail, and get photos.
So, armed with the scraps from the creation of the tail, I whipped up a 1940s style "sunbathing dress" inspired by ones I'd seen on Esther Williams and Betty Grable.
Lucky for me, the hotel that was hosting the convention had a really pretty pool, and my talented friend and fellow cosplay nerd, Mary Anne Butler had her camera at the ready.
More photos are on the way, but these are the teasers she's sent me so far:

Here's a link to a super quick snippet of video, of yours truly making new friends and inspiring a future mermaid.
 https://www.facebook.com/rj.johnson/videos/10205670893245140/

As you will witness in the clip, roles were reversed; this time the mermaid was tempted into the water from her sunny perch, by the adorable child. I wish the clip was longer, and could have caught the song this little girl was making up while hanging onto my shoulders, as I gave her a ride across the pool. I'm still not sure how I didn't just die from cute overload ;-D

In other news; I've entered a fun little contest with Mermaid Minerals to be Mermaid of the Month of May.
You can cast your vote for me by "Liking" my photo in this Facebook post.
Thanks!! XOXO

An Eye-Opening Experience

Friday after work, I had an "OMGODS, YAAY!" moment.
It may be silly to get this excited over the following, but I couldn't help it.
For the first time since I was a little kid, I swam with my eyes open in a pool!
A chlorine pool, and it didn't hurt!! The last time I tried opening my eyes in a swimming pool, after only opening them in clean river water, the trauma from the pain caused me to never open them in swimming pools again. It's been goggles always since.
On a whim I decided to give this one a go, since I'd heard good things about how clean it is, but not stinky with chemicals.
After taking out my contact lenses and donning my glasses to safely make it from locker room to poolside, I shoved my feet into my monofin and dove right in.
After psyching myself up a little, I just stuck my face in the water and slowly opened my eyes, expecting the hellish sensation of chlorine molesting my sensitive eyeballs.
To my surprise there was no stinging, no burning! After so many years of goggles it felt weird to swim forward with them open, but I'll just need to get used to that again ;)

I'll still do some laps in the pool at my gym, but since this pool has a deep end, I may be here more often to do some real swimming and deep diving. Perhaps even organizing mermaid meet-ups if they are ok with a bunch of mermaids frolicking.
The other awesome thing is the hours are great when they aren't closed for swim meets and competitions, which is rare. They are open until 8pm Monday through Thursday, 6pm on Fridays and weekends until 3pm.

Thank you SJSU Aquatic Center, for your crystal clear water, friendly lifeguards, amazing filtration system, low chlorine, non-crowded, Olympic-sized pool with a very deep end. Go Spartans!
San Jose State University Aquatic Center

The Rosegold Mermaid Tail

 

Swimmable tail #1 was a success!
While a fabric version is not my dream tail, it is good for practice. I will say that metallic spandex looks amazing on the monofin when it's in the water.
And I have photos!

 

I finally had the chance to take the first swim, in my first swimmable fabric tail(!) with the Mahina monofin.
No video unfortunately. This is yet another reason I want a GoPro camera, so badly! During the entire swim I was wishing that I could get some underwater video of how the fin and fabric dorsal moved through the water. From what I could see myself, it looked really nice and fluid. Even the glitter on the fabric stayed intact and gave a little shimmer.

It felt exhilarating to swim so fast with the monofin. It was pretty comfortable once I had it on and moving through the water.
I'm not sure I'll need any swim socks with it; no foot cramps or bruises on my feet, as a few others have experienced with some monofin designs.
The gold spandex fabric did fairly well, but was a bit see-through when wet. No biggie, since I was wearing a full bikini with it. It was just the turquoise color of my bathing suit bottoms showing through as darker. My next homemade tail will likely be neoprene (except it likes to float) or made from darker fabric.

There was a little drag when swimming, as fabric tails will have in water, but thanks to the suggestion of a long-time friend and fellow mermaid, I left a good portion of the fluke open at the bottom edge. This way water can flow through the fluke and over the monofin instead of catching in it like a bubble. I know now that I want to add more of the pink ankle/dorsal fins to the back foot pocket area of the fluke.
Overall, it flowed pretty smoothly.
I can tell I need to brush up on my extended underwater swimming, and possibly grab some of those near-invisible nose plugs for a few more dives (which I know some other 'mers' use occasionally). At least until I can retrain myself to keep the water out of my nose, heh!

No green/blonde hair either, thanks to Ion Swimmer's shampoo, conditioner and leave-in conditioner spray. I didn't want to wear my swim cap, so I prepped my hair with this collection during the week leading up to this pool swim.
Speaking of which; the pool was fairly shallow, about 4 1/2 ft. at its deepest. So I did a few handstands, waving my fin at a few kids hanging out in the pool area.
I overheard one little girl say to her mom with urgency, "Mommy LOOK! ...I wanna be a mermaid, too", then *splish* my fluke would disappear below the surface just before mom would turn to look. This hilariously happened a few times, as my friend documented from the poolside.
I'd surface to hear this little girl insisting that "No, really she's a MERMAID, loook!"

My friend and I were swimming at a hotel pool near Disneyland this weekend. We were there to attend the Halloween costumed event, and she was the Anna to my Elsa. The entire time at Disneyland we had kids coming up to us asking if we were the "real Anna and Elsa?!" Our replies were similar as those used while in mermaid form around kids; "We are as real as you are, don't you think?". And they'd just nod and give us big smiles.
So, getting the opportunity as a mermaid, to continue little random moments of enchantment for some of the kids, was really heartwarming.
xoxo