Only Athletic Beauties Need Apply : ‘Mermaids’ Asked to Take a Dive

The mermaids of legend glided effortlessly through the seas, tempting mortal sailors with their beauty and grace. It’s not so easy in real life.

At Weeki Wachee Spring, hundreds of young women seek work as mermaids each year, but few have the athletic skills, confidence in the water and good looks required to perform in the depths at one of Florida’s oldest attractions.

“It’s tough, there is no doubt about that,” said Genie Young, mermaid supervisor. “We have some strict requirements, and only a few of the ‘girls’ actually go on to become mermaids.”

The enormous freshwater spring, with startlingly clear water more than 100 feet deep, was developed for tourists 42 years ago. “Mermaids” wearing skin-tight suits that taper to dolphin-like tail fins use air hoses while performing choreographed routines that are viewed from a subterranean amphitheater.

Soggy Sandwiches

“We’ve done a lot of different things,” Young said. “We’ve eaten bananas and drank Coke under water. We’ve recreated scenes from movies. One of the hardest things was eating a sandwich. It gets soggy pretty quick.”

For beginners, “the toughest part is learning to only take in only about half a lung full of air,” said Young, who performed as a mermaid from 1961 into the early 1970s. “Otherwise, you will float to the surface.”

Weeki Wachee also features an exhibit of photos of living mermaids and a shrine to athlete-actress Esther Williams, who filmed a movie at the spring and made numerous guest appearances.

Despite the specter of discrimination suits, Weeki Wachee remains extremely selective about its mermaids, who now number 26.

A mermaid must have an attractive figure and shoulder-length or longer hair, said Young. And most women who have the right look get shipped back to land following the swimming test.

“The first thing we look for is if you’re afraid of the water,” said Young. “If you’re nervous being under water, forget it.”

Applicants must swim for 30 minutes and perform simple underwater ballet and acrobatic moves, such as back flips and deep dives. Applicants who pass the aquatic test go on to begin serious training and instruction in how to use the air hoses and swim in various costumes.

They start at $4 an hour and it may take up to a year to pass the apprenticeship, said Young.

Marti Worsham, the veteran mermaid of the staff with 16 years of swimming behind her, recalls watching the mermaids swim around large flowers when she was a little girl.

“From then on, I always wanted to be a mermaid,” said Worsham. “I never expected I would one day be the one here the longest.”

At the end of a show, after the theater was empty, a mermaid scrubbed algae from the windows with a steel-wool pad. A turtle swam nearby.

“This is part of the job the tourists don’t see,” said Young. “Cleaning up isn’t part of the myth of the mermaid.”