Mermaid tail safety was widely publicised by the Australian media in December/January 2015/2016, unfortunately for all the wrong reasons.

A video of an American mother letting her daughter dive head first in a pool wearing a mermaid tail went viral and caught attention of the Australian authorities including the ACCC, Choice and Royal Life Saving. Consequently, all swimming pools in NSW and in Victoria run by YMCA and Belgravia Leisure have banned mermaid tails!

Is this the solution to the problem? Of course not!

I believe that any aquatic equipment, if not used properly, can be potentially dangerous. This applies to every mermaid tail, monofin or dual fins for that matter. If your child is not a confident swimmer, she should not be using any swimming equipment apart from flotation devices and she should always be under adult supervision.

I understand that public swimming pools don’t want to take unnecessary risks by promoting a potentially dangerous activity. However, these are the facts:

• There has not been a single mermaid tail drowning reported anywhere in the world, ever! So obviously, it cannot be that dangerous, particularly if people observe a few basic rules and common sense
• The most dangerous sport in Australia is horse riding (approximately 20 Australians are killed as a result of horse-riding activities each year, with 3000 being admitted to hospital with horse-related injuries)

If you want to make sure that your child is mermaid tail ready, attend our mermaid class and learn how to swim with the mermaid tail safely!

Mermaiding is becoming a world-wide fitness trend and there are thousands of mermaid tails and fins sold in Australia each year. If we are not allowed to run our mermaid classes and educate our kids about water safety, chances are that many children will use their tails and fins in their home pools, beaches or lakes, without proper training and supervision.

Mermaiding needs to be taught properly and practiced diligently, just as any other sport such as surfing or snowboarding.

In January 2016 I issued this media release about the mermaid tail safety. You can access the article here: http://medianet.com.au/releases/release-details?id=847064