It Was Only A Couple Of Days Ago,

I mentioned the latest trend,

humans wearing animal tails, and just today I have seen the latest trend yet, wearing fish fins! I kid you not, apparently schools are popping up everywhere from Singapore to the United States, today being a mermaid is one of the hottest trends in China, to find out more about the sport, Dada Li, one of the country's pioneering mermaids and China's ambassador to PADI, the world's largest diving association, comments "Freediving beginners usually wear bi-fins, which enable both legs to alternately move, but a mermaid tail ties both legs together so they can't move freely," Li tells CNN Travel, photographs courtesy of Atlantis Sanya/PADI, (Professional Association of Dive Instructors), 

"Instead, we need to use our belly and waist to move like a dolphin. It requires practice to make this movement smooth and elegant like a real mermaid." Li's first underwater sea experience took place in the waters of Thailand's Phi Phi Islands, in 2012. From that moment, she was hooked, "The world below the ocean surface looks completely different from land; I was amazed by the underwater scene, colourful fish and corals, and also the sensation of being in the water," says Li," Since that trip, I was addicted to the ocean. Then I took a freediving course and became a free diver."

"(Mermaid diving) has the power to convert people on the spot," Lou tells CNN. "Upon seeing beautiful images from other mermaids, consumers almost immediately jump onto the activity itself. Within four short months after the official launch, mermaid courses now account for 30% of local certificates in China."

"It took off in China like wildfire," says Yan Lou, PADI's Greater China president, PADI, recently launched four new mermaid diving courses -- Discover Mermaid, Basic Mermaid, Mermaid and Advanced Mermaid -- all of which are already seeing huge demand in China, on April 28, 100 mermaids took to the waters of Atlantis Sanya's Ambassador Lagoon, why? to break the Guinness World Record for largest underwater mermaid show, part of celebrations to mark the hotel and resort's third anniversary, for the full story have a look here, crickey, I never thought that back in the 1980s when I was a PADI Divemaster I would have to teach mermaids how to swim!