Shello everyone!
I hope you’re all doing fintastic in your neck of the ocean. As this is my first time writing on the site I figured I would introduce myself and give you a little backstory on how I became a professional mermaid. Because the number one question I am always asked is… How did you get into this business?
I always smile and say well, I was born and raised in Key West Florida and before I could walk or talk, I could swim. Because my father was also born on the magical little isle of Key West I washed up here by default. Being the firstborn child of my parents and I suspect my father wanted a boy…he would take me everywhere that he loved to go. Lucky for me he had a love affair with the ocean. As he still does till this day! He would take me on all of his adventures.
At one-ish I could swim. At four years old I knew how to dive with tanks. I think today they call that child abuse LOL. I would go on his back with my two twin mini dive tanks that held 15 minutes of air each and when I couldn’t decompress I would pull on his ear lobe and he would go up to the surface a little, and when I could decompress I would tug on his hear lobe again and he would stop.
As a little girl, my father was a commercial fisherman so I also spend many weekends and summers fishing on a commercial fishing boat. Well…at least I thought I was fishing. So my love of the ocean and of the water started at a very early age.
Lucky for me my sister Tally Ann was born 18 months after I was born so then, I had a mersister. She also learned to swim at a very young age, and we spent the majority of our time growing up here on the island in the swimming pool, the canal, or the ocean itself. We would bind our ankles with anything that we can find, shoelaces, scarfs, whatever would do the trick for us to perfect our mermaid form. BTW I do NOT recommend this! Luckily they are safer ways in today’s world to be a mermaid. We would play who could hold their breath the longest. That came in handy because we would put all of the patio furniture at the bottom of the pool and play tea party.
So when people ask me what is it like to be born and raised on the island of Key West I say well… I pretty much grew up waterlogged. So it’s no wonder that today I am that person that when asked what I do for a living I say I’m a professional Mermaid, an award-winning festival founder, mermaid and ocean conservation educator, mermaid instructor, performer, model, and expert content creator just to name some of the many tails this mermaid wears.
I hope you enjoyed my first blog on this magical site that is Mermaid Infinity. Until next time when I will share another one of my mermaid adventures with you. But until then…remember, always keep swimming towards your dreams.
#bepartofmyworld #splashdonttrash #thetakeoverisreel
All the best!
Florida’s Most Modern Mermaid
Mermaid Kristi Ann
www.keywestmermaidfestival.com