Some children want to be firefighters when they grow up. Others want to be doctors or rockstars. But not Cat Kailani. Instead, she dreamed of becoming a mermaid.
"I'm from California," Kailani says. "I grew up right by the beach, so becoming a mermaid was always meant to be."
Today, Kailani's childhood dream is a reality — she has a tail and a pod full of merfolk, friends and found family.
In 2020, Kailani discovered the mermaid community — people who dress up as merpeople — and sought out local mermaid wannabes to form her own pod in the Inland Northwest.
"I scrolled through #SpokaneMermaid on Instagram and started reaching out," she says. "A lot of my friends started to move away from the area, so I was mainly looking for friends. We started with like four or five people coming to the meet-ups and swims; now we have about 25 people in the pod."
The Spokane Merfolk Pod doesn't just swim around in local lakes and pools, though that's part of the fun. As of late, the pod has been attending events dressed as their "mersonas," hosting mermaid storytimes at local bookstores and even making appearances at area renaissance fairs.
Wait, did you say mersona? Yes! Just like every individual has their own personality, each pod member has created a character to play while dressed in mermaid attire.
Kailani goes by Mermaid Izira, often donning a technicolor tail and a matching crown. The other pod members lovingly call her Captain.
Spokane Merfolk co-founder Chandler Dean's mersona is Mermaid Minnow. She has an Instagram page (@MermaidMinnow) and a YouTube channel where she shows off her mermaid skills while making a splash in a bright green tail.
For Rose Brown, whose mersona is Maelstrom Ship-Breaker, a Russian mermaid known to pick on her podmates, an interest in mermaiding began as part of her health journey.
"I found out that I had a degenerative disorder so water therapy really helped my pain level," Brown says. "So I said, screw it — if I'm gonna be in the water forever I'm gonna have fun with it. I always wanted to have a tail, anyway."
In less than a year, Brown lost 60 pounds by taking up mermaiding as a hobby.
"I cannot say enough wonderful things about the body positivity in the community," Brown says. "We don't care what you look like — I don't care if you have an incredibly expensive tail or no tail at all. Everyone gets to be just as gorgeous and beautiful. There's no such thing as the right body; put on a fish butt and have fun!"
In order to become a mermaid, one must first be an extremely strong swimmer.
"We take safety very seriously," Kailani says. "A lot of people who are just starting out make mistakes that can be life-threatening."
One member of the pod, Laurel Radavich (Mermaid Nori), began her mermaiding journey on the wrong fin when she bought a starter tail from Wish.com.
The tail, which was made of non-waterproof fabric, became tangled in her feet and dragged her to the bottom of a lake. Luckily, she was able to kick it off, but she warns others to not make the same mistake that she did.
"I thought I was prepared," Radavich says. "I practiced swimming with my feet tied together for a month."
In order to decrease the likelihood of those scary experiences, Kailani is taking a certification course on mermaiding safety from the Professional Association of Diving Instructors.
In the course, she'll learn about the physical properties of water and how it affects you while swimming as a mermaid along with safety skills that could save the lives of her podmates.
"Safety is really everyone's first priority," Kailani says. "I'm pretty lenient on most things — we love to have fun — but if you put yourself or anyone else in danger while swimming with us, you're out for good. We're lucky that most pools allow us to use mermaid tails, but other cities have banned tails completely because of people nearly drowning. If you're not properly trained, you shouldn't be putting on a tail."
Once a Spokane Merfolk Pod mentor deems someone a strong enough swimmer, they earn their tail.
For those who don't have the financial means to buy their own tail, the pod has a number of loaners that are perfect for those just starting to ditch their sea legs.
"Things can get pretty expensive," Kailani says. "We want to make it as accessible as possible."
Silicone mermaid tails can run anywhere from $2,000 to $5,000 depending on the style, but you can snag a just-as-gorgeous scuba knit material tail for a little less than $300 if you're just starting out.
Once you're in a tail, borrowed or not, and making waves, the next most important step in mermaid training is to have fun.
When the pod isn't busy making kids smile at mermaid story times or swimming in Lake Coeur d'Alene, they're just hanging out as friends.
"As much as we love doing events, the pod is just as much a hobby as it is a social time for us," Kailani says.
Whether they're in the water or on dry land, pod members are laughing with one another and bantering back and forth. They joke about creating a mermaid stand-up comedy show as a side gig, and they're always coming up with new ways to explain their legs to children who see them out of costume. Some even get involved in ocean conservation efforts.
"It's so multifaceted beyond just, like, dressing up and swimming around," Brown says. "It's about making real-life connections and trying to make change, too." ♦
