BRYAN, Texas — When’s the last time you’ve seen a mermaid?
If I was a betting woman, I’d put a lot of money on the last time you turned on the Little Mermaid.
While this may sound familiar to a lot of us, if you open your eyes, you just may find a few swimming in your own backyard.
In fact, all it took was one headband for her scuba mask for Sarah Sittenauer to realize there were more people like her in her own community.
“There was one with scales on and I just half mentioned like, 'Oh, I want that one, it's got mermaid scales', because I do mermaid on the side,” Sittenauer explained.
She was at Aggieland Scuba, a small scuba shop on Harvey Mitchell Parkway in College Station.
That’s where she met Megan Bob.
“She runs out and grabs her tail all super excited,” Sittenaur recalled after meeting her newest friend.
“We got some pictures together, we’ve been best friends ever since.”
That was a year and a half ago.
'What happens when two mermaids meet in a scuba shop in College Station, Texas?' isn't just the start of a joke. Rather, it’s a true story about two women who laugh together all while sharing the same love for water.
“I should have been a Navy SEAL because no matter how cold the water was down at [my grandparents] place, it could be 60, 50, doesn't matter, I was going in the water,” she said, thinking about her time with family spent in Destin, Florida.
“Nothing would stop me.”
Megan Bob is a Professional Association of Diving Instructors certified trainer and mermaid instructor.
“I teach the basics of free diving, dynamic and static apnea,” she began.
“Then I also teach about what your body does under the water and how to just experience the underwater environment a lot more.”
She also teaches swimming safety.
”Layers of protection, right? You've got swim lessons, you've got assigning a Water Watcher,” she said.
”Things like that, making sure your child is proficient in the water, always knowing where they're at.”
She works with all age groups.
“I teach all levels of mermaid,” she said.
“We have anything from Discover Mermaid all the way up to mermaid instructor.”
She gives parents, and potential friends a new current to explore.
“It's really important to be able to allow and get more kids introduced at an earlier age so that they can have access to it and allow them to swim more often,” Sittenauer said.
When asked for the biggest piece of advice she has for those who may have cold feet getting involved, here's what Bob had to say; "There's nothing you can't do."
Again, there’s different levels of mermaid classes and other types of classes as well!
Anyone interested can head to their websiteand inquire about what they're interested in.