If you’ve ever dreamed of having a pair of fins and being ‘Under the Sea,’ then here's your chance.
Wannabe Ariels have been having a flipping good time at new mermaid classes in pools across Lanarkshire thanks to Just Dive.
The company, run by professional scuba diver Laura Hamilton, began offering classes last year and they have been a splash hit with swimmers of all ages.
Laura has dived all over the world for the past 20 years, living in a variety of exotic places, and was inspired to set up her own company when she returned to Scotland.
Laura told Lanarkshire Live : “Nobody in Scotland seemed to be teaching scuba diving or mermaid classes.
“For our mermaid classes, you can be as young as six and just need to be confident in the water during the two-hour lesson.
"We can have anywhere between 10 to 20 mermaids in the water per class.
“We show you how to put on the masks, the duck diving and by the end of the lesson, we provide the tails and the fins and they get to put them on.
“I’m currently sourcing more tails and fins, trying to get fancy tails.
“At the moment we have 10 to 20 fins that we use every week. Some of the girls do want to buy their fins and tails and we work with a great company that does them.
“The children that come to the class don’t tend to have any fear. It’s often the older people that come that can be more frightened.
“It’s a safe process, it’s a lot of training before they get to do the tails. Safety is always the top priority.
“Swimming in Scotland is pretty poor. I think it’s a real hardship as a lot of people aren’t water confident and I believe that this empowers them.
“The classes allow children to do things that normal pools wouldn’t let them do.
“All the training is in different pools around Lanarkshire. The pools are different depths so if they choose to come back they can practise going deeper. It can make you more confident.
“The classes have been really popular and we only started this in January. It’s just myself and a few of my assistants running the classes.
“We’ve had one lady who was 73 who came along! She loved Splash and got to be Daryl Hannah. She had always wanted to be a mermaid.
“It’s like living out a fantasy - I think everyone has wanted to be Ariel or Madison at some point.
“We’ve been approached by the LGBT community with several men and transgender people who would love to become mermaids/merpeople as well.”
Just Dive has worked with children with autism as well as giving classes to a small group of people battling cancer to be comfortable in the water.
They’ve also been approached for the idea of hen/stag and mermaid parties and hope to be able to host them in the future.
Laura added: “The classes can open the world to you, when you become aware of the oceans and our impact on them, you become a bit of an ocean ambassador. I hope we can make a big impact in the next few years.
“You can learn diving skills from the mermaid classes, enough to do a little open water skill but not deep water. We can guide and coach people and we have connections with insurance for people that want to go swimming in the ocean with the tails.
“Some of our members are planning to go to Harris and plan to swim in the tails soon.
“We offer scuba diving lessons as well, where everyone can come and try it and learn skills.
"You can do a one-off lesson or a block, but at the end of the day I want it to be affordable for people, especially with everything going on and the rising living costs - everyone should be able to have access to them.”
Mermaid and scuba diving classes cost £20 for a two-hour lesson and Just Dive also offers a block booking programme.
These classes are carried out around Lanarkshire, with classes currently being held at the Time Capsule in Coatbridge, Campsie View in Blantyre and many more are planned
More information on classes and details can be found on their website.
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