Weeki Wachee mermaids know how to stay fit

Ask a group of Weeki Wachee mermaids if they consider themselves to be athletes as much as they are performers, and you will hear a resounding “Yes!”

Although the mermaids are adored by audiences the world over for their beauty and charm, they’re not sure their admirers always realize the level of fitness that’s required for the job.

For a 45-minute show, the mermaids are in 72-degree spring water with a 5-mph current. Sometimes they stay in the water even longer if there’s a photo shoot immediately after a show.

“Sometimes when I get out, my fingers and toes are numb,” says Stayce McConnell, 30, a 10-year veteran.

To watch the mermaids perform is to watch an underwater ballet. They move with glamour and grace, each one always with a smile on her face.

“It looks easy; it looks like we are just swimming around,” says mermaid Cyndi Gay. “But you are using every muscle in your body. I’m exhausted when I’m done. People take it for granted how difficult it is when they watch a show because the goal is to make it look so graceful.”

Like McConnell, Gay, 31, has spent a decade in a mermaid tail. She is the mother of two sons, Josh, 9, and Justin, 6.

She doesn’t take her physique for granted, she says. She works at it three days a week at Gold’s Gym in Spring Hill. Those workouts are in addition to the hours of swimming she does throughout the week practicing and performing for shows.

“As I’m getting older, I’m finding that coming to the gym helps,” she said. “It makes me feel stronger, and I can hold my breath longer.”

Experienced mermaids can hold their breath under water for two to three minutes. Gay says she also swims for exercise, and she runs and takes spin-flex classes, which mix bursts of speed on a stationary bike with lifting weights. The spin-flex classes help with breath control, she says, because they make her breathe heavily.

Recently, Gay was toning up at Gold’s Gym in Spring Hill in a body definition class led by Heather Dono, director of aerobics. Sometimes Gay works out with weights on her own, but she likes the structure of the class and working with Dono.

She and some of the other mermaids work out between shows, swimming laps in the spring and doing Zumba, she says. “It’s healthy competition.”

Like most women who have had children, Gay put on a few pounds during her pregnancies. But being a mermaid has its advantages when it comes to losing that baby weight, she says. “You immediately take 10 pounds off when you get back into the water.”

She says doing a 45-minute show is comparable to running two miles. Multiply that by three shows a day, and she figures it’s like six miles of intense jogging.

“I’m in better shape now than when I was 18,” says Gay, who performs two days a week at Weeki Wachee. “I feel healthier now. I have more energy to take care of my children.”

Along with her commitment to exercise, Gay watches what she eats.

“Before, I could eat Cheetos and lay around. Now, it’s protein shakes and health food,” she quips, though she admits she sometimes cheats on weekends.

Gay realizes she can’t be a mermaid forever, but she wants to do it for as long as she can.

Newbie mermaid Kayla Kruft, 19, started working at Weeki Wachee in January. The Spring Hill resident says she’s wanted to be a mermaid since she was a child.

She took swimming lessons as a youngster and became a certified diver at age 14. “I had a good start because my dad is a scuba diver,” she says. Kruft never competed on a swim team, but she took gymnastics and dance.

The most important thing for her tryout, she says, was being comfortable underwater and being able to hold her breath for as long as possible.

“It was a lot harder than what I’d expected,” Kruft says. “We look so calm, but it takes a lot of work and training. After my first couple of shows, I was so sore afterward.”

Most of the mermaids are taught by McConnell. “I watch them swim and put everything together – the singing and swimming,” she says. “I want them to look comfortable and pretty, and I watch for their levels in the water.”

Wyatt Cloinger, 20, is one of two men who play the part of the prince in “The Little Mermaid” show.

He says the men’s training is similar to the women’s but not as extensive. “We learn a few ballet moves and how to breathe from the hose,” he says.

The Weeki Wachee mermaids are sort of like the Marines: There are few good men, three to be exact, and not many more women – 16 women currently.

And they are proud.

There’s very little turnover, and when a spot does open up, it doesn’t take long to recruit a new mermaid because so many are eager do it.

John Athanason, marketing and public relations director, said the park has hundreds of applications on file, and he gets at least one e-mail a day from a young lady, usually with an attached photo, expressing her interest in joining their ranks.

Gay summed up what it’s like to be a member of an elite force of women who are as fit as they are feminine.

“I want to look attractive; that’s part of the image of being a mermaid,” she says. “But the most important thing is to feel good about yourself.”