Raina: How would I clean when a porn set gets dirty? What should I use to build stilts that are sturdy? Where could I breed

a new species of birdie? Ah,

Sidney: Wow, that intro song always gets stuck in my head. Hello and welcome to Explain Like I'm 30. I'm your host, Sidney Razkine, a. k. a. Sidney Raz, all across the internet. Today on the show, we have... A mermaid. But before we get into that, let's talk about something that's happening in the news.

You got it. It's hot labor summer, y'all. Everyone's going on strike. Everyone is saying we need better compensation, and I completely agree with them. Completely. And I think you should, too. So if you have the opportunity... Join a union, okay? Get that collective voice in action. Besides that, what else is happening?

It's hot in where I'm recording. It's like a hundred degrees outside. It's a hundred degrees probably inside this room. I'm sweating so much and I do not have... Central Air. And I'm sweating a lot, if I'm being totally honest. During this, my hair up is in a bun. My hair is up in a bun right now because I want to look cute, number one.

And number two, I'm sweating so much because I'm so hot. And at least I know that I'm sweating, unlike mermaids. Mermaids do not know if they're sweating. That's right. You sweat underwater, but you don't know it. So you have to replenish your electrolytes and your, you have to hydrate yourself and all of the stuff that I learned from today's.

Guest, Raina Mermaid, a professional mermaid, you heard that right, a professional mermaid based out of Halifax, Nova Scotia, and she is one of the pioneering mermaids of this entire industry. You know how you think to yourself... Well, I see mermaids all the time on videos, social media. I know that you could probably hire a mermaid for a birthday party or you see them floating around in the aquarium.

Sometimes they have like under the sea nights or mermaid nights in the aquariums. Guess what? That's because of Reina. And that is one of the most amazing things that I discovered in this conversation. She is one of the first mermaids Mermaid

is an incredible person and we got to talk to her about being a mermaid, starting out as a mermaid, how it was actually kind of difficult to swim at first, but let's get into the episode. I'm very excited. For you all to listen to this, uh, Reina Mermaid, everyone.

Reina, welcome to the podcast. Welcome to Explain Like I'm 30. Thank you so much for being here. Thank

Raina: you for having me, Sid.

Sidney: Oh my gosh. This is so exciting. So you are a mermaid.

Raina: I am a professional mermaid. That's my

Sidney: job. That, I mean, that is like, to me, that's the only intro that I really need because that really is just like the most incredible thing that I can say.

And one thing, one thing that I loved about, um, your website and all of your Instagram posts is like, you are a professional, like. You believe in imagination. Yeah, yeah, imagination. And I think that that's one of the coolest things. So Raina, let's give a little soft pitch to let the people know where you are, who you are, what you do, how do you do it.

This is incredible.

Raina: Yeah, definitely. My name is Raina Norman. I go by Raina Mermaid as a professional mermaid. I live in Nova Scotia, Canada. So basically Sid and I are on the exact opposite sides of the continent. If you go where Cid is and you go exactly straight across all the way to the other end of the continent, that's where I am.

We've got icebergs and belugas and the Titanic. That's us over here. Um, and I have been a professional mermaid. It'll be 15 years. This fall, it sort of started as a side fun thing while I was in university. And then as local economy changed, I started focusing more on it and becoming more of a businesswoman and it just sort of took off.

So I do all kinds of things. I've got a background in child development and a background in education. I also have a passion for the ocean. So I basically put all of this together. and created this job where we do kids entertainment and environmental education, underwater performing. We do a little bit of stunts for movies.

If you've seen Lighthouse, uh, some, some of the, uh, mermaids on my team worked on Lighthouse. So did the The Mermaid Stunts there, a lot of other great shows are filmed locally, like From, if you've seen From, Sean Majunder is local, he's the priest in From. So lots of, uh, lots of filming happens in Nova Scotia, and because we do this sort of underwater filming and stunts and we can do these costumes, we kind of get roped into all these adventurous things, music videos, that kind of thing, so it's really fun.

Yeah,

Sidney: I mean, I've heard a lot about filming in, um, in Toronto, and I guess I didn't realize that a lot of stuff was also filmed in Nova Scotia. I mean, I definitely didn't realize until just now how close the Titanic sinking is to Nova Scotia. So do you, I mean, do you What's that like? Do you get a lot of tourists into Nova Scotia and like, like all of the...

Raina: Yes. Um, the Titanic sunk just off our coast. We actually have several graveyards dedicated to Titanic victims and we helped with the victim recovery. We had the filming for Titanic. A lot of it was done here. And James Cameron recently confirmed an urban legend that we all know, like we all knew this. But we were kind of waiting for someone official to say it, that during the wrap party, somebody spiked their fish chowder with, uh, LSD.

What? Yes, and everybody got super, super high and had to go to the hospital, so that happened here. Oh no! Um, so yeah, Titanic was, uh, a bunch of it was filmed here. The door, the famous So, the door, the actual door is here in our museum that they modeled the door off of. The actual piece, so when Mythbusters went and kind of did their thing, that's referenced here.

And just a lot of, a lot of when you see a lot of American TV shows and films that are, um, the setting is like Maine or, um, Or some sort of like Stephen King universe. A lot of it is done here because we're very coastal. We've got these great film tax credits. One of the music videos I did was actually called Titanically, which is pretty cool.

And it was all about the Titanic and underwater stuff. So Titanic is kind of big here. And we did, um, we did have a lot of local people involved recently in that submarine disaster. So a lot of locals were trying to help with that rescue and recovery. So, yeah, it's just, it's hard, not a lot of people know the name Nova Scotia, but chances are, you've seen it tons of times in TV and you've, it's been in the news.

It's just not really the name that's in people's mindset. But for a mermaid, it's perfect because there's ocean

Sidney: all around me. Yeah, I mean, well, I guess my first question is, does it get too cold for you at any time

Raina: as a mermaid? Yeah, I'm pretty conditioned to the cold water. A lot of people here do cold water dipping in the winter.

So, but I, I will do indoor things, aquariums, pools when it's too, too cold. But right now it's beautiful. Temperatures are very similar to what you'll get in LA out in like Catalina Island, very similar temperatures. Uh, so we're, we're in the ocean, we're in the lakes, we're in pools.

Sidney: Have you been, have you been a mermaid in Catalina?

Like off the

Raina: coast here? Yeah, I've been so I actually just recently got back from California. I go for mermaid events once a year and I start in Sacramento. There is a California mermaid convention. Yeah,

Sidney: actually, I saw that you and your husband hosted the largest mermaid convention in the world in 2017.

Raina: That was, uh, yeah, at the time that was in North Carolina and it was The largest one and now so many more are coming up and this one that we go to in California is just fantastic because it's networking for people all over the world. We get to work with like award winning underwater photographers and videographers.

I got to meet Robert Short who is the Oscar winning special effects artist from Beetlejuice but I know him from Splash, the damn thing. Tom Hanks movie, right? Wow. So, um, he did E. T. as well, and he does a lot of modern day stuff. And Robert is such a gem. We call him sort of the, uh, the father of the modern mermaid movement because he did so much pioneering with this costume that Daryl Hannah wore and so much pioneering with Ron Howard for the underwater filming that back in the 80s, it's just like, it still holds up today.

I, I shot, um, I shot a film here a few years ago and we were having some trouble. It was really cold. There was still snow on the ground. I, can't wear a full wetsuit with the costume. It breaks the realism. So I can put like wetsuit pants on underneath, but otherwise, you know, it breaks the realism. We wanted this shot of the mermaid diving into the ocean, but it's, it's literally winter.

It's too, way too cold to do that. So we filmed from the waist up. a little bit. And then after asking Robert, consulting, my husband donned a full suit and puppeted my tail underwater to get the shot of the tail splashing to make it look like the mermaid had, you know, dived into the water. And we learned that from Robert, who did that on the film Splash.

He's puppeting the tail in a bunch of scenes so that. It's easier for the performers. So that's an opportunity I wouldn't normally get to pick someone's brain over because of this convention, which is just so amazing.

Sidney: And that's in, so it starts in Sacramento and then it goes

Raina: down. Yeah. So we start in Sacramento and I have a sister in law who is a firefighter for, um, the LAFD.

So we visit her again. It's hilarious because we are across the continent from each other. That's just the way it works out. But we travel over, we, we take our son. This was his second year going. Last year he was nine months when he went. This year he's, you know, a year and a half and, uh, did great. It takes us three flights, but Sacramento, I really love Sacramento, and they have the world famous Dive Bar, which is this bar that you walk into and there is a tank that runs along the ceiling and the mermaids are performing in the tank.

And you're having a beer and just watching these gorgeous mermaids perform. Wait, there's, how, how did I not know about this? This is incredible. Listen, Sid, I will hook you up because you got to go try it. It's amazing. Um, I had the opportunity to be in it once. There's fish in it. It's, you know, there's real fish.

There's a little remora who will come and stick on you like when you're

Sidney: swimming. Okay. So, so, so many questions, but how, so I guess the first one that I think of is, uh, how long can you hold your breath for? And what is that

Raina: like? Cool. Yeah. So the principles that we use for this sort of work, not everybody does this sort of breath holding stuff.

Um, some people just enjoy doing mermaid stuff recreationally. But for me, because I'm doing the stents and I'm doing a lot of ocean stuff, it's really important for my own safety that I can hold my breath and communicate effectively underwater. So before I had my son, my personal best was three minutes.

Whoa. And I haven't had as much an opportunity to. to train as frequently since having my baby, but I just did do some training on the weekend and have an official assessment and I got to two minutes and 32 seconds, so I'm getting back up to my best. And that's with full movement

Sidney: and

Raina: everything. Yeah, so like, yeah, so freediving is all about.

You're training your body to use your oxygen efficiently. So for, for any human, we have this mammalian dive reflex. So once the spots on your face under your eyes get wet, it triggers this It's a signal in your brain, and it's stronger in other mammals than it is in us, but it's still present in us. It signals us to hold our breath, and it sends these signals to our body to sort of redistribute how our oxygen is moving through our body.

As you are practicing a breath hold, so the average person can do 30 seconds, so I would I can, I can do about 10, but

Sidney: that's

Raina: fine. Yeah, yeah. Well, you, you be relaxed. You know, you relax yourself. You, it's very meditative. If I'm going to hold my breath for 30 seconds, then I would spend double that amount of time just doing normal deep breathing.

And that's going to oxygenate my blood. So I do a minute of just normal deep breathing, and then I would hold my breath. And the interesting thing is at three minutes, you still have 80% of your oxygen circulating in your body. What? So... Up until the three minute point, it's basically a mind game. So anybody, you know, barring any health issues, uh, anybody who is safe, clear, safety cleared to practice this and does it with a professional, never do it alone, you should take a tribe freediving course or whatever, um, you can get up to three minutes and it's really something to see your body.

kind of like in the beginning when you first try it and you do your 30 seconds, it's like, oh my god, breathe. But then your body is learning, oh, okay, no, we're okay, we have lots of oxygen, and those signals get pushed out further and further. So for my end, very rarely do I have work where I absolutely have to be holding my breath underwater for a long time because the people filming me are not holding their breath for a long time.

They're, they're either going down and doing a shot and coming up or they're doing scuba and then they have to come back up and communicate and change the markers or whatever. But the benefit for me is that if something does sort of go awry underwater, instead of panicking, I can kind of slow myself down and go, all right, I can hold my breath for three minutes.

I have plenty of time to get help and get myself out of this situation. So I'll give you an example. I was filming all day. There's a facility that that gets booked for filming. It's called Survival Systems Training. Got some pictures on my Instagram and it is used, it's used for training, uh, pilots when they drop an aircraft into the water.

So how to get out of that scenario. So they can like reproduce waves and winds and all this crazy stuff in there. And it, and obviously it can get booked for filming because they can create all these conditions a little safer. So I was filming. I'm underwater. I've been in the water for like eight hours.

And one of the problems that you have is you can't tell you're sweating and you can't tell you're dehydrated. So I'm constantly drinking, you know, Gatorade and stuff. But towards the end, I'm running on adrenaline. Yeah, sure. I go, I go down to hit a mark. I'm upside down totally because I've kind of like descended down.

I've got my hands down. I'm doing this little graceful move. And I go to turn around and I get the worst foot cramp inside this like 50 pound. Silicon encasement of a costume. Yeah. And I can't get myself turned around. I'm just like, kind of suspended, underwater, stuck. So

Sidney: this is where the training comes in.

Upside down? You said you were upside down? Yeah. Oh my

Raina: gosh. I'm like, upside down, like, uh, six, six meters or so of water or so. It's like, just like down there and I can't turn myself around. I have a safety diver who's watching me and I give him sort of like my help signal and I just calm myself down and tell myself, okay, you've got this, you can hold your breath.

He just comes over and he turns me upright and swims me up to the surface. It probably takes five seconds, but if without that training, you might panic, you might thrash, you might open your mouth and take in water. So having that training is so helpful and really. It's, it's marketed as such an extreme sport, which it can be.

There's this amazing, uh, you know, there's an amazing Netflix documentary that recently came out about freediving and it's really, it can be extreme. But, um, for many of us, we're more focused on the meditation, meditation benefits and the breath holding. So it's, it's just really, um, It transcends a lot and I find that in my everyday life it helps me manage stress and and chronic pain and things like that because it forces me to be aware of my body and my breathing and it calms me down so it's really beneficial to me and helpful for a mermaid.

Sidney: Yeah I mean it must be really helpful as a parent too because I know that sometimes I just have to breathe with my 10 month old and just the situations in general I'm just like okay it's fine. It's fine. Um, but, but I was trying to think, um, about that, like, ascent to mermaid because it's for anyone listening.

I noticed the tattoo on your arm. That's just kind of like a synchronized swimmer. So was that sort of like what you did first?

Raina: No, actually, believe it or not, I, uh, I was not a very good swimmer growing up. I, I absolutely loved the ocean. I loved nature. I loved the water, but I have a fine motor disorder, which is called dyspraxia.

And right, actually, this month that we're recording is disability pride awareness. So I will take the little plug to just say that dyspraxia, it is a, um, it's, uh, it's sort of like an invisible disability and it actually makes it so I can't drive. Um, it difficult to do fine motor tasks like tying your shoes, doing zippers, putting lids on things.

It doesn't really hold me back in life other than the driving, but it is super annoying and frustrating. A lot of famous people have it, um, Harry Potter has it, the actor for Harry Potter has it. Really?

Sidney: I didn't know that. Yeah, yeah. So is it, so, so when you say fine motor skills, you mean, yeah, like opening a jar, writing a pencil, that kind of thing?

Raina: Yeah, and it affects my spatial recognition. So for me, for driving, like I can, I can do the motions of driving, but my brain really struggles with understanding things like merging or how much space I need to take a turn. Got it. Got it. And it makes you very, Unsure of your footing, your gait is kind of wobbly, your balance is kind of off.

We're very clumsy, we're always covered in bruises. Lived in the same place for like a decade and I'm still bashing my arms and my hips off things. What is

Sidney: it? What is it called? Because it sounds like something I have.

Raina: It's called dyspraxia. So if you think about dyslexia, you know dyslexia is letters. And in discalculous numbers, dyspraxia is your body.

So it's that spatial awareness and movement. Is it a sense

Sidney: of like dissociating as well? Like you're just constantly sort of like, Oh God, what's happening?

Raina: That kind of thing. Yeah. Like I have a really hard time. It never gets better. So when people say things like, you know, like riding a bike, it's like riding a bike.

Just practice. It's muscle memory. I don't get muscle memory. It's not a thing for me. It doesn't happen. So I can practice and practice and practice. I really, really tried hard to get my driving license a few years ago. I think I took like, 50 one on one classes that cost like a hundred bucks each, like, I spent so much money.

And I practiced and practiced and practiced, and I just didn't get better. And earlier on in my relationship with my husband, we took tango lessons together and thought that it might help me. Well, my husband advanced like four or five levels, and I could not pass the beginner level. So, so this translated to me being a kid who didn't know how to swim.

And then when I was 17, I was Just mostly embarrassed and kind of tired of not being able to do it, and I started throwing myself off a dock, just trying to swim, and I could do the doggy paddle, so that was about it. When I started dating my husband 16 years ago, we went on our first date. We went for a swim in a lake.

I still loved the water, I just wasn't good in it. Went for a swim in a lake, we're talking away, I'm quite the talker, he's very introverted, we're opposites, so he's letting me talk away, and I'm starting to really struggle with the water, but I'm too embarrassed and also like overwhelmed by just like new romance to say anything to him, and I'm struggling more and more and more, and at one point I just, I go underwater, and I'm looking Subs I have this vivid memory of being underwater, sinking, looking up at the sky and thinking, this is it.

This is how I go. I'm going to die on this date. Oh no! I thought that story

Sidney: was going to go so much differently. I thought you would be looking up and thinking to yourself, oh. This is nice, but no, you were literally like, oh, I might die. Yeah,

Raina: and uh, next thing I know, he's got an arm around me and he's pulling me out and I'm like coughing and it's like, I made the situation ten times worse and more embarrassing by not just like asking if we can like swim back in or slow down.

So, it was, and the, the hilarious irony of it is, is now we're both these certified freedivers, and we're really good swimmers, and we can both breath hold. But for me, it did not come naturally. I got the mermaid interest, and it sort of developed from dealing with the dyspraxia, and I have some chronic health conditions, one of them being endometriosis, which is a fertility disease that causes severe pain.

Um, tissue that is similar to the inside of the uterus grows throughout the body in different organs and it kind of corrupts whatever tissue it touches. And it just causes significant pain and for me added just like one more limitation to my mobility. My back was hurting, my legs hurt, it, I was in pain all the time and I was only 21 or 22.

So there was all this mental health that went with it because I couldn't drive and I was having pain walking and I felt really just cumbersome and stupid and why can't I do this? So I was having a pity party one day and Splash came on the TV. Always loved the movie. Always thought it was stunning.

First film, first real big film, I think, Tom Hanks did. He was very young in it. John Candy. Hilarious. If you've never seen it, you have to see it. It holds up pretty well. That's great. Yeah. So, I see this film and I'm thinking, that is so sweet. It's interesting because this is not CGI. This is the 80s. So I bet you that actress had to have a costume.

I started Googling and found out that yeah, she had a costume. She did all this training. And while I was Googling her, I discovered Annette Kellerman, who is the woman I have tattooed on my arm. So for people who are just listening to audio, my tattoo is a woman outstretched and she's wearing a red bathing suit and she's just sort of diving off my arm.

And the significance of the bathing suit is that Annette was a professional swimmer back in the day when women had to wear dresses or they would be arrested. So, she invented the modern day bathing suit and was arrested for wearing it. She had very similar health issues to me with a lot of chronic leg pain.

So right away, I was like, okay, that's interesting. She lived a hundred years ago, so how did she overcome that? And for her, it was swimming. She taught herself to swim. She started competing against men and winning against them, which was unheard of back then. Then because women Oh yeah. Weren't even allowed to do that.

She would choreograph underwater shows, which back then they called it water ballet and that became synchronized swimming. Got it. She starred in the first movie that cost a million dollars to make. Whoa. She did the first onscreen artistic nudity in a Hollywood film. Hello. Didn't show anything, but it was still groundbreaking.

Uh, published the. fitness book because she wanted women to learn that they could be strong and fit and has instructions, you know, teaching women how they can get fit. And she was the first professional mermaid that I can find. So she made her own tails and swam in aquariums. And between her and Daryl Hannah, I was hooked.

So there's my pun. Yeah. There you go. Right. And I learned about Daryl Hannah, who has autism. And I thought, wow, yeah, so if these two women could deal with things the way they did in, in their time with the way the world was, maybe this is something that can help me too. I had no inklings back then or interest or even an idea that it could be a job because it really wasn't back then.

There was maybe three or four women in the entire world who were doing it as a job, but I would Google

Sidney: and in 20, in 2015? Like 14 years ago, 16 years ago? Yeah, yeah, 16 years ago. Wow, really? There were only three women that were doing it? I feel like it's totally normal now. I'm like, oh yeah, it's a mermaid.

It's exploded. Like for me, for me, when I think about this topic, I'm like, oh yeah, like I've, I've seen those videos of like mermaids and aquariums and stuff. Like that's just so totally normal for me now, but I didn't

Raina: realize. The growth since I became a mermaid has been huge. So, um, now that's, now they do have, they did have Weeki Wachee, which is a, uh, mermaids performing in Florida in this underwater theater.

And that's been going on since I think the forties. So I sort of see that as its own little project. Uh, and I know that Disney had some, but in terms of like women who were freelancing and doing now, which has become so common, Uh, there was Hannah Frazier, who is the daughter of Andy Frazier. He's from that band Free.

They have that song, um, It's all right now, baby, it's all right now. Yeah. So that's, that's, that's her dad and she, she was from Australia and she was a mermaid back then. Uh, Mermaid Linden, who is LA based. She does a lot of parties for, in the Hollywood scene. She's also a very accomplished, uh, freediver.

She's amazing. And, uh, Medusa Serena, who runs this. underwater rec bar in Florida. She is this woman in her 50s who is so insanely fit because of her underwater work and all of her things that she does. She's just such a huge inspiration to me and her entrepreneurialism like she's just Mind blowing. So these three kind of, we call them the mermaid trifecta because they were sort of like the original women, modern day kind of doing this.

So I discovered them while I was Googling and I just thought, man, I would just love to even get a very basic costume and learn how to do this. And back then that was like impossible. Now you can buy costumes on Amazon. Uh, this was like so hard. I couldn't even buy a fin to get inside a costume. I ordered this thing on the internet.

It showed up. It looked like some kind of fetish thing, like it was made of stretch vinyl. Yeah. Like it was just like so bizarre looking. I took it to a lake and I was so scared. so scared that I would drown that I put a life jacket on with the mermaid tail. And I'm trying to swim and I finally get brave enough, I take the life jacket off, I'm kind of paddling around and instead of cheering me up, it kind of had the opposite effect.

I was like, this is so dumb and I look so dumb and I'm never going to be this. Uh, strong, graceful woman, like a very self defeatist, um,

Sidney: was it, so, so you're saying is it like the same material as like the flippers that you buy, basically like the scuba

Raina: flippers? Yeah, so back then I couldn't get anything and I actually did just put two regular flippers inside of it and the fat, the body part of the tail was, it was almost like a a tablecloth, like a plastic tablecloth, like it was not good.

It was not, or like a shower curtain, like that plastic y kind of, yeah. So it was not like the water didn't flow through it, it kind of ballooned up and it was bright, bright orange, like a, like a pylon from the road. It was not, no, definitely did not look like Daryl Hannah.

Sidney: Yeah. That's incredible. Cause I think about this now and I'm just like, Oh, like how many people are constantly like, I don't even, I've never even thought about the mechanics of a mermaid tail, like water flowing through it and doing all of that stuff.

But um, for yeah, it didn't, if it didn't flow right, like, were you just like floating back up to the surface because of

Raina: that? Yeah. Like dragging this thing. I might as well have been wearing a bag, like, but my, my now husband. So, my husband was taking photos, and when I got home and I saw the photos, I was like, oh, okay, I actually kind of do look like a mermaid, so that's, you know, maybe there's something here.

I knew, I recognized I was not a skilled enough swimmer, so I started taking lessons, I invested in like goggles and earplugs, nose plugs, everything to just make me feel comfortable underwater and just started practicing. And for me, the light bulb really clicked when I was able to, a few years into it, invest in a higher quality costume, which did make all the difference in being able to swim.

So I've got some examples with me I can show, but basically... Yeah, I

Sidney: was actually going to ask about the stuff in the back. I was like, Oh, this is so cool. This is the kind of flipper that I'm used to.

Raina: Yeah. Yeah. So we have something called a monofin and these started out in the freediving industry and it is one singular fin that both feet go into.

This is the fluke part of the mermaid tail and this is where your propulsion is going to come from. Yes. We have different types of monofins for different types of swimming. If I'm going to be in the ocean, I'm going to need something that's more fiberglass. And it's going to be more rigid so that I can cut through the current and I can be strong.

The floppy one I've got here in my hands is really perfect for a small tank. We have a traveling tank. So being in that small tank, I'm not really swimming. I'm more doing like artisanal stuff where I'm kind of like little flowy movements and flips. Sorry, you said

Sidney: that. You said that I started flowing with you.

Raina: I was like, yeah, and it's very, very flowy. And what happens is there's several types of mermaid tails that go over these fins. Behind me here, I have sort of the The creme de la creme of the tails, this is a fully rubber silicone mermaid tail. It weighs about 45 pounds. It's sculpted by a special effects artist and airbrushed.

It has wetsuit material on the inside, so that's called neoprene. The outside is medical grade silicone and it's been... airbrushed to a custom design. It's got extra fins added on it so that when I'm moving in the water, I've got a little dorsal fin that moves. I've got little heel fins that move. This is something I would use for a movie or music video.

It's very highly realistic. It blends in with the skin. It has a fleshy feel to it.

Sidney: Do you feel any sort of the extra fins?

Raina: Uh, the fluke itself, the fin part, depending on how it's constructed, that's what can give me the power. Um, but I'm not going to drag this heavy thing out for every single thing I do, because it's a, it's a really expensive investment. This is about... This one here costs 3, 500 USD and that's on the low side.

Yeah, because it has to be medical grade material if these are going to be in the ocean, in aquariums. We don't want to poison fish. We don't want some, we don't want a material that's going to leach. Like, latex will continuously break down in the water, whereas this medical grade silicone, you can boil it.

Like, it's not going to, it's not going to leach into the environment. Also, less of a chance of developing an allergy to it, whereas if I was wearing something latex, I could, the continuous exposure could, could do that to me. Um, so this is, I would use that for stuff like this. And then for, Hopefully it's not going to fall.

It is super heavy. For things like a kid's party, I would use, um, a fabric mermaid tail where I would put the fabric over monofins. I've got another monofin here. Yeah,

Sidney: I see. I see. So you have a couple of it. Yeah.

Raina: So this one is an example of sort of a more rigid, it's kind of plasticky. And I would put, instead of the silicone body, I would put a fabric body over it.

And actually, the the artist who makes my mermaid tail, Uh, his name is Murr Taylor. He made some matching ones for my baby, so I've got these cute little, uh, but it a, a neoprene blend, which is similar to wetsuit material, and it has a really high, highly realistic print on it to look like mermaid scales.

Wow. The one I'm holding is made to sort of, inspired by a whale shark, so kind of whale shark colors. Yeah, you can have any, anything. Those are great for other types of work where things may be, you know, in the aquarium because I can hide a weight belt if I need to sink you. It's not obvious. I can get it off and on a lot easier by myself.

I don't need like three people to pull the costume up. Yeah.

Sidney: Wait, you said, you said, you said weight belt. So that means that you have extra weight on you when you sink. And then do you have You have to be more, obviously, athletic to like, swim up to the surface. Yeah,

Raina: so, different materials are gonna have different buoyancy.

So sometimes we have to cancel out that buoyancy. It's really typical with anything that's made from neoprene to have to wear weights. Scuba divers, So, most scuba divers have to load up with weights to help themselves sink because the material itself is so floaty. You never want to weigh yourself down to the point that you're fighting to get to the surface.

You really just want to be sort of neutrally buoyant. We just want to sink enough that we're not fighting against the float. So I wouldn't necessarily need it with every costume I wear, but especially in saltwater, it adds to your buoyancy. I may need to have a weight belt hidden in my costume somewhere.

And the other aspect to that is it needs to be in a safe way so that if I do have an emergency, I can ditch the tail, I can ditch the belt and get out safely. Um, so as I went through my mermaid career and I would I was going through university, I was doing these two degrees, I would do these gigs on the side, I would save my money, and I would get better costumes.

And every upgrade to my costume, my swimming skills got better and better. And then eventually I was able to just like take some courses. I had to, in order to get my freediving course, I actually had to form a local group of freedivers and we flew in some instructors because there wasn't anybody local that could do it for us.

Wow. So a bunch of us. I trained forever to get my breath hold to that two and a half

Sidney: minutes.

People how to be safe as freedivers, teaching people how to do all these things. And it's truly incredible. And, um, I do, so we do have to take a quick break, but I do sort of want to ask, like, is there a quick sort of like life hack that you could tell me and the listeners, maybe like a life hack about like how to control your breathing a little bit better, or a life hack about swimming that you didn't know, or something that like you wish you knew before you were a mermaid.

That's like, like, what, what do you think? Is there anything

Raina: there? Yeah, electrolytes are everything before any kind of exercise, but especially swimming. If you're somebody who gets cramps in your belly or cramps in your feet when you're swimming, electrolytes having some Gatorade before you do it is a game changer.

Wow. And also, you know, just not hyperventilating. Uh, we, we get this. idea in our head that hyperventilating is the way to get more oxygen when you're tired, you're working out and stuff, and it's actually one of the worst things you can do because it's not getting the CO2 out of your body, it's actually kind of keeping it in there.

So you really want to, uh, whether it's working out on the treadmill or it's being a mermaid and getting ready to swim and go underwater, you really want to be slowing yourself down as much as you can and doing that paced breathing. And if you struggle with it, use an app. There's lots of apps that have it built in to get you to sort of visually watch yourself breathing.

You will notice a huge difference in your performance and your capacity and your recovery in how you feel because you're getting that CO2 out of your body instead of hyperventilating, which is kind of hoarding it in there. Yeah.

Sidney: Well, wow. Okay. So now I need to like get an app for breathing. Um, all right, well, we're going to take a quick break.

We'll be right back with Reign of the Mermaid. Hey. Everybody, thank you so much for listening to this podcast. Thank you for learning about being a mermaid with me. It's been a lot of fun. Don't forget to rate and review this podcast. Please let us know how many stars you think this podcast is. Leave us a comment wherever you listen to podcasts, because that's how this show grows.

That's how we get out there for more people to listen. And now! Back to Reina Mermaid. Yay! Hey Reina, welcome back. Thank you so much for being here. You're amazing. I have learned so much about how to be a mermaid and the different things about it. Um, all right, so we are going to be playing a game. It is the game that I'm sure you probably know all of the answers to.

Little Mermaid trivia. Are you up for it? Yeah, yeah, I'm up for it. Now I believe, now in my heart, I believe that this is based on the 1989 cartoon, not on the newer one that obviously stars Halle Bailey. And so we will continue. So we're going to be playing that game. So yes, this is based on the cartoon, um, the 1989 version that my wife so lovingly calls the mermaid movie.

Um, my, actually my wife, my wife and my mother in law, um, we're both in our mid thirties. Our mother in law is in her sixties now. And the only thing that my mother in law wanted to do was go see mermaid movie with my. Wife. And it's just like such an amazing thing to be like full circle. But anyway, okay, so let's let's play this trivia game.

Little Mermaid trivia. Let's do it with a real mermaid, everyone. This is gonna be okay. So question one. What color is Ariel's seashell bikini? Now, do you want the multiple choice? It's purple! Look

Raina: at that! You don't even need the purple! Yeah, like, I might, I maybe have my own. Oh my

Sidney: gosh, that's

Raina: incredible!

I've got a little silicone one

Sidney: here. That's so cool. Okay, well, this is gonna be, this is gonna be an obviously easy game for you. Um, okay, so, which... character tells King Triton about Ariel's encounter with the humans. Oh,

Raina: Sebastian is a crab. And he's really funny in the new one. Dang,

Sidney: dang, you got that easy.

The one thing that I heard about the the new movie was that Sebastian looks like a crab, but Flounder looks like Flounder from the movie. So it was like kind of confusing.

Raina: Yeah, it was the CGI was kind of weird, but the characters themselves, the guy playing Sebastian was so funny and Sebastian was written so well.

He's always kind of muttering something under his breath and like backtalking, so you really have to pay attention to catch his little quips, but they were great.

Sidney: Yeah. Um, well, yeah, my, my, my, my wife loved it too. Um, so, okay. So next question. What does the Little Mermaid call the fork? I bet you're gonna get this one.

In her collection of human objects.

Raina: Wait, I've got one. It's a jingle hopper! Yeah!

I, uh, The Little Mermaid was the first film I saw in the movie theater. Oh my gosh. 4th birthday and The New Little Mermaid. I saw the premiere in California with a bunch of mermaids. We all took over a theater in costume and watched it.

Sidney: Yeah. Wow. Did you, wait, did you, I mean, did you go in? change or did you like change in the theater?

Basically, you put in your fins

Raina: in the theater? Yeah, we all just showed up with everything and some people had walking costumes or we just draped the fins over the chairs. It was

Sidney: good. Were you at all involved in like the making of the movie or like you and your friends or

Raina: anything? No, um, I got to do a little bit of consulting on Siren, which was a Disney TV show through Freeform that was filmed in BC.

So I did a little bit of consulting for them on their Filming, which was cool because I was able to really see them take my advice, uh, very specifically. It was awesome to see. And Roberta, um, she's a big free diving instructor and she did a lot of the underwater stunt training with them. She was amazing.

But with the Little Mermaid, the new one, a lot of it was done with the wires and the cgi. I as opposed to underwater. They did, they did do some underwater stuff, but underwater is just, It's such a whole thing on its own,

Sidney: so I just like so much more dangerous, and like you can't really like plan. There's so much more like insurance that goes into actually creating something like that underwater.

Um, we have one more question. We have one more trivia question. Um, so, man. I just, I wanna like, I wanna like think about really hard, uh, like Ariel, uh, trivia. But let's see if you know this one. Ariel is what number daughter of King Triton? I actually didn't know this one either, so this is where I'm like, oh wow, I don't know.

Raina: I think it's Seven Daughters for the Seven Seas, so I think she's 7th or 8th, so... Cause I feel like the other ones are all named after an ocean, but she's the one who's not. So

Sidney: what would your final answer be? Let's say

Raina: 7, let's say 7. Oh my gosh, that's incredible! Oh, I get it right?

Sidney: Seven Daughters for the Seven Seas, that's...

That's amazing. That is absolutely incredible. That was like, it's like watching, gosh, that makes me so happy. Like if we, if I'm ever, if I'm ever in need of any Little Mermaid trivia, I'm just gonna be like, hey Reina, what's up? Um, help. That is wild. Wow.

Raina: It's been a really, this Mermaid journey has been really cool because, like I said, that was the first film I saw.

Because of my Mermaid work, I got to meet some of the animators who worked on it, and um, voice actors and things like that. I've talked with Prince Eric on Instagram, like, it's completely random. Jodie Benson, who did the voice of Ariel. She's so amazing. Super friendly with fans and you know, she'll reply to everybody.

Uh, Daryl Hanna also, I have a tattoo of Daryl Hanna. Uh, I don't know if I can Oh, that one right there, the

Sidney: splash tattoo,

Raina: huh? Yeah, so that's my, that's my splash tattoo and she's commented on that on Twitter. I feel like this fandom, it's having a moment. You know how when Twilight came out, everything was vampires?

I feel like right now everything is mermaids. That's

Sidney: so great. Well it's great for you too, to be one of the pioneers of mermaids. And merpeople. Merfolk. Oh, that's one thing. Merfolk. Yes. Merfolk. That was one thing that I saw and I was like, I thought, man, that is such a perfect name. Like, because mer people, that's like, that's obviously that's not what they are.

So they're merfolk. That's

Raina: incredible. Like, so we have, yeah, we have different words that have, uh, some of them I've coined and other trailblazers have coined. So my husband, we call him the mer wrangler because he wrangles. The Mermaids. He's our safety. He helps us move when we're in costume. He does all the stuff at his legs.

Um, I had an article go viral for this one and, uh, Stephen Colbert picked up on it and did an opening monologue about it. You'll have to YouTube it. It's hysterical. But the term, the term is... Mervert. Oh, wow. Okay. Yeah. Wow. And those are, those are people, uh, usually on the internet, but unfortunately occasionally in person.

Uh, but people who kind of like harass us a bit because they have a fetish and just really kind of fetish mine or project onto us, really bug us. Um, unfortunately there's like a running list of. Known to merberts so that mermaids can block them from their social media. Uh, Stephen Colbert had a, had a field day with it.

He also coined seviants. Oh, there you seviants,

Sidney: yeah. You seviant, you

Raina: seviants. You seviants, yes. Oh my son, the baby, the baby mermaids, uh, we call them merlings. So, we've got merfolk for the adults and merlings for the babies and kids. And when we speak mermaid. We call it Murmish, and we do, we do Murmish by making squeaks and noises underwater.

And part of what I'll do with kids to kind of get a rapport with them is teach them how to say something in Murmish, and then we go underwater and we see if we can hear each other speaking Murmish, and it really helps. Did

Sidney: you invent a language? Is that what I'm, what I'm hearing right now? Sort

Raina: of, yeah, sort of.

I mean, I just kind of make it up as I go, but it's kind of my excuse if I've got water in my ears and I can't hear what the kids are saying or I get a name wrong or something. I say, Oh, I'm so sorry. I'm still working on my English. I speak Murmish.

Sidney: Well, I mean, I have to ask, can you teach me any Murmish while, while I have you here?

Raina: Murmish? Yeah, I'll try not to, I have to back up. It works best underwater.

Sidney: Oh, cause it has to be so loud. Okay,

Raina: let's all back up. Yeah, I'll back up. So basically, you do like a raspberry with your lips. So kind of like a, like one of those. Yeah, but we're gonna add like a really high pitched, think like a dolphin, like a high pitched kind of sound to it.

So I'm gonna, I don't want to scare the listeners. So I'm gonna back myself up here. And the thing is, is it sounds different underwater than it does If I'm doing it in the air, right? Sounds really cool underwater, but I'll do a bit of a, like a,

like something like that. And I'll do it underwater. So I'll, what I'll do is I'll kind of use different inflections when I'm playing with the kids. So I'll be underwater in the tank and I'm doing kind of like a funny little thing. And I'll do like a little, and they'll be like, oh man, you know? And, uh. And it's really funny because when we're doing tank shows, one of the, one of the neat things we'll do is try to time our breaths when we're doing like a backflip or a barrel roll so I can kind of sneak the air, but it's not obvious to the kids.

And to them, it's just like I'm doing a trick and I'm underwater the whole time. So I'm just like interacting through the glass and I'm doing my little murmish and I've, you know, I'll be underwater and I'll have a fork and be doing my hair underwater. Drink from a Coke bottle or something, eat an apple, the kids love it, right?

But my goal is, like, I want to be in my 70s and 80s and still doing this, not as a job, but I just want to be able to take a tail and go down and swim. So Annette Kellerman was swimming right up until she died, she was swimming on the Great Barrier Reef. And the Weeki Wachee mermaids in Florida at this roadside attraction, they have a...

Reunion every year for women who have been doing it since the 50s and 60s. So you've got women in their 70s and 80s who will go for this reunion. They are better swimmers than I am in my 30s. And I want that. Like, that's all I want from this life is to be healthy, healthy enough that I can keep doing it.

Like, I,

Sidney: like, I truly, I just got so excited to like have. the ability to have mermaids at like a party for my daughter or something and then just like hear that like murmish as you're doing a backflip or taking that air and just be like honey look a mermaid

Raina: like like there it is there it is like there's a mermaid oh my gosh Sometimes it backfires on us.

We're too real and the kids get scared. So I have like, you know, I have different techniques for if they're intimidated. Um, and they don't have to believe that we're real mermaids. Like if it's, if it's gonna, if I want a child to have a good experience and one of the things I'll say to parents when I'm doing a party is I value your children's autonomy.

I'm not a mall Santa. So you can't just yell at your kid to sit on my lap because you hired me. Like I'm going to meet your kids where they are. We want to create a magical. experience that's going to stay with them because when I look back on my own childhood, I can, I can think of every magical experience and I can think of every adult who gave me sort of that special attention or believed in me.

So that's what I like to create for children. Um, and even just with my own son, it's been really beautiful sharing this with him. And our content on YouTube, uh, it went viral when I started sharing videos of my son and I in our, in our matching costumes because he's been swimming since he was six weeks old.

And, uh, that's been a learning curve too. Like we are, you and I, we are this influencer generation. So it's, we are paving the way. Yeah, and we have to make these decisions, like when I put that clip up of my son and I, I wasn't thinking it would go viral, like I was just like, I want my followers to see how cute my kid looks in his costume.

It has 78 million views right now. Sure, yeah, normal. So that's more people than my country, right? We get recognized in the street, in my city. People know my son's name. So I had to kind of take a step back and be like, okay, where is the balance where I can still do YouTube, still do my Instagram and share our lives, but not compromise my son's future or safety or do something that he wouldn't like.

So I have rules about it, you know. Um, if he wants to wear his costume and we're putting it on, great. If I'm trying to put it on him and he's fussing and screaming, I'm not going to force it on him for a clip or, or for the audience or whatever. It's like, it's his autonomy too. Um, and sometimes that means missing out on stuff, but that's the way it's got to be.

Cause I don't want my kid to ever. You know, be resentful that I'm doing this with them.

Sidney: I mean, I think, I think that's super important. And I think you're doing a fantastic job of it, truly.

Raina: Well, we have to just always think about it. And maybe I will change my mind and go back and delete things. Like, you just have to be open, you know, to those things.

So it's just, this is our generation. We're carving the way and we don't necessarily know how things are going to, what it's going to be like in the future, especially with AI and everything. Oh yeah, absolutely. You know, anybody watching this or listening to this and you're, you're in the influencer world or you're like looking to getting into it, it's just something to keep in mind that like we are kind of growing up in this weird space where we're trailblazing, but we don't totally know how things are going to play out.

So it's good. It's good to play certain things safe and it's okay to kind of. Re evaluate and go, all right, maybe I need to change that a little bit. And same thing with my mermaid work. I used to share everything. Then I went back and added a disclaimer to every single video that was like, I am now a trained professional.

Don't try this at home sort of thing. Like these are just examples of what I'm doing. I'm not telling you you should go out and do it. Here's where you can find professionals to teach you sort of thing. Um, and as we learn, we just, we just do it better, right? Yeah, I

Sidney: mean, that's exactly true. I think that even thinking about myself, like, everyone's always talking about like, Oh, don't you want to try different things with your daughter?

I was like, I'm okay, maybe I'll reevaluate that later. But like, I don't think it's okay if she's not on the internet yet. Like, it's fine. Yeah. Um, but but okay, so we do, we do have to wrap up. This has been an insanely amazing conversation. And I wish you could go on for another Two hours at least. Before you go, I just sort of want to give yourself that opportunity to pitch what you're working on.

I know you have a local TV show coming out, you're headed to Mexico, any sort of things like that, and let people know where they can find you.

Raina: Sure, yeah. So I had, I, I feel like viewers and listeners would find this story interesting, but there was a Netflix series that came out that I was in and I got cut from it, which was a real bummer.

Boo! Um, yeah, and I really, no, no shade to the production crew or the amazing director. Um, you know, it was a Netflix decision. They have a formula they follow. And, uh, and I don't know if people realize this, but a lot of the Netflix stuff that is, um, sort of documentary style or reality TV esque, um, the people who appear in it don't get paid.

So, you know, not, not being in it and not having to adhere to their rules and everything for no pay is not necessarily the worst. Thing that could have happened, but it was a bit of a bummer 'cause we were looking forward to it. You know, you wait all year. So I was really bum when that happened. But then I landed a local TV series and documentary that does pay me and is sending me on trips.

It may not have the same viewership as Netflix, but um, it is really exciting and. And for that show, I'm going to Cozumel in Mexico next month with my little family unit. Uh, the series, uh, I, I don't think I can share a title yet because it's kind of a working title thing, but the focus is on how my husband and I function as a family running the business because we own it together and just like managing our team, juggling our son, just in today's world, you know, lack of childcare, that kind of thing.

Um, and in Cozumel, I will be upgrading a lot of my certifications, so I'm going to be doing some free diving depth work that's going to get filmed, going to swim with sharks and in the reefs and see all the critters and meet some other mermaids from around the world. And of course, we're going to keep working on our YouTube, which is HFXMermaid, or you can also find it under Reina Mermaid.

We'd love for people to check it out. I have a series on there. called So You Want to Be a Mermaid. And so all of our long form videos are basically, uh, how to be a mermaid, reviews of products, things like that. And then we've been utilizing YouTube shorts in order to show snippets of Just our life, like juggling the behind the scenes, the costumes, the filling up the tank, the, you know, two year old running around with the mermaid bra on his head, like.

So that's what really good, and we're really, we really are hoping that next year we're going to get that, that gold play button. It would be really a cool thing to do, so. Subscribe. So please subscribe and you can also find me on Instagram. It's at hfx Mermaid. I share a lot of fun behind the scenes there.

Instagram has been tricky. I, I feel like every influencer is, is probably feeling it just with the logarithms. It's hard to get your stuff seen these days. Um, I am on TikTok, but I, um, I just find there's so many to manage and my YouTube is doing so well. That's where I'm putting my resources at the moment,

Sidney: but smart.

Yeah. Focus, focus, fun stuff on there too. Focus, yeah. I mean, As, as an influencer, as a person in the social media game, I would, I would absolutely tell you to do the same thing. Just focus on YouTube. That's where you're getting the most attention. That's where you're gaining your audience. It's incredible.

That's important.

Raina: And I mean, this, the revenue got us, got my company through the shutdowns during the pandemic. You know, like I was a gig based business. We could have gone bankrupt, but because we had invested. Did all this work in YouTube and had sponsorships for social media. We were able to pay all the business bills, keep things going, keep our training active when everything was shut down, and we weren't allowed to take gigs and we weren't allowed to rent pools and things.

So, you know, I feel like even if you're not an influencer having these various, uh, streams of income and things like YouTube, you just, it's passive income, even if you're not going to, yeah. Pour all your resources into it, so it's definitely worth doing if you're the kind of person who enjoys that stuff.

Sidney: Ugh, man. Well, oh my gosh, now I just want to talk to you about being an influencer and content creating. Yeah, it's wild, right? But we have to end the show. Yeah. Yeah. So, I'll talk to you soon. Everybody, go follow Reina, HFXmermaid, on Instagram and especially on YouTube. Reina, The Mermaid, thank you so much for being on Explain Like I'm 30, I, yeah, can't thank you enough.

So we'll talk soon,

Raina: okay? Thank you so much for having me.

Sidney: That's our episode with Raina Mermaid. Raina, thank you so, so much for being on the show. It was absolutely incredible. If anyone has any questions for me or the entire Explain Like I'm 30 crew, you can email us at explainlikeim30 at human content com. And if you just want to hang out with me, I'm at sydneyraz all over the internet.

Or if you want to talk to anybody. From the human content team, you can follow us on Instagram and TikTok at human content pods We would really really really appreciate you leaving a review wherever you listen to podcasts So please do that It really helps the show grow and let us know how we're doing and if you leave a comment We might give you a shout out on this very show.

So please if you could do that for us It would be very very helpful We upload these podcasts on YouTube as well. So please, if you want to see my beautiful face after hearing my lovely voice, join us on YouTube at Sydney Raz, uploaded every single Thursday. Thank you so much for listening. I am your host.

Sydney Raskine, special thanks to our guest, the professional mermaid, Raina Mermaid, thank you so much. Our executive producers are Sydney Raskine, Aron Reuben Korney, Rob Goldman, Shahnti Brooke. Our editor is Andrew Sims. Our engineer is Jason Portizzo. Our music is by Omer Ben Zvi, our theme song is by Dr.

Music, Explain Like I'm 30 is a human content production, and remember, hydration equals happiness.

Raina: Explain Like I'm 30.