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You may know Jenny as Elodea the Mermaid, a freshwater mermaid flipping my fins in California's Central Valley. A former professional mermaid with a Sacramento based company, she still loves the mermaid and pirate community in California. She loves to perform when she can for fun and with other companies, and has worked with our amazing organizers at Mermaid and Mom. Her history on the stage, many years as a ballet dancer and teacher, and her experience as a theatrical makeup artist led to her current passion for creating characters. She also enjoys Golden Age of Piracy and 18th Century reenactment, with a focus on continuously improving her historical accuracy. Her background as a seamstress and avid crafter allows her to create costumes from scratch or by repurposing existing materials. She also has a background in cosplay with a focus on wig making! 

 Judging Favorites: Craftsmanship and materials, with a focus on sewing and wig making. 

 Justin comes from well over a decade of piracy and gunnery reenactment background. While having an appreciation for period correct work, he tends to personally lean towards romanticized and larger than life costumes. He has been recently spreading out into Edwardian and circus rigs. Additionally, his experience as a competitive beardsman leaves him with an appreciation for showmanship and character.  Justin is also our convention's resident King Neptune, a character he has performed as at the Northern California Pirate Festival for many years, and premiered at the Promenade of Mermaids many years ago,

 Judging Favorites: Realistic or repurposed props, excellent makeup or mask usage, in-character presentations. 

When he's dressed like a pirate, you can call him Jay Fathom. He has been helping mermaids move about on dry land at nautical themed events up and down California for years. He has been a part of a traveling piracy museum, entertained festival crowds with piratical shenanigans, and he's been known to sing a shanty or two. When he's not galavanting about as Jay, he spends his free time writing and/or building immersive art installations. He's a DIY enthusiast and a grown up drama kid, which leads to costume parts all over the house, and a backyard full of ridiculous projects.

 Judging Favorites: Knowledge of construction, personal touch, character accuracy (when applicable) 

Over twenty years of theater experience has fostered in Diana a love for dramatic costumes and personalities.  Her recent endeavors away from theater lean more towards volunteer events and faires, where she has designed her rigs and characters to complement the occasion: Old West, Edwardian Ball, Circus Carnival, ComicCon, Pirate Invasion, or Wasteland Apocalypse.  She loves re-purposing elements from her old costume bin with original crafts commissioned from talented friends, turning her rigs into communal creations of her bizarre vision. 

 Judging Favorites: An enthusiastic story or tour through your creative costuming choices, show me all the secret pieces of your costume she might not notice at first glance -- details matter.  Definitely point out elements you made or designed yourself. 

The elusive Merman has often fallen into the shadow of the Mermaid. Where did mermen originate? What is their relationship to the mermaid? To humans? 

In this lecture, we will examine the mythological history and significance of the merman before moving into the modern profession and the pop culture representation. A short question and answer segment with Merman Jax will conclude the presentation. 

Robert Short’s love of the sea drew him to making mermaids and other sea creatures for films and TV.  As a designer, sculptor and diver, he has, over the past 40 years, traveled the world to bring iconic movie and TV characters to life.

His many creations include the "Beetlejuice" afterlife inhabitants (winning him an Oscar for best makeup), Madison the mermaid from "Splash", Snowflake the Dolphin from “Ace Ventura; Pet Detective, Ariel for Disney’s “The Little Mermaid’s Island”, “Herbie” from “Herbie Fully Loaded”, the inspirational heart light of “E.T.”, NIM from NBC’s “Surface” and the early development of the terrifying design of "The Predator". His recent credits include “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.” and “The X-Files” mini series and Marvel’s “Legion”.

“Were do you start when you know something is crying out to be created”? Relax with Bob as he shares his tips and tricks for creating original designs as he looks back at some of the challenges he has faced when creating memorable mermaids and monsters for film and TV.

National TV series Beyond Geek will be showing a sneak peek of its upcoming mermaids episode. Show creator/host Joe Gillis, AKA Merman Joe, will be on hand for Q&A. Join the audience and you just might end up in the episode!

Catch Beyond Geek on your local PBS/Public Television station or on Amazon Video.

The California Mermaid Convention strives to represent and make visible a variety of voices, experiences and identities from all over the seas.  We strive to celebrate the diverse beauty of merfolk from all 'swims' of life.

 Being a part of the Mermaid Community can be difficult enough, but some merfolk face additional challenges simply because of the way they were born. Whether a recreational mer or a working professional, factors such as age, race, orientation, mental/physical health, can all lead to increased difficulties and a much more complex daily experience. We will explore these important themes and issues, helping shed light on them and ultimately celebrate a greater understanding of our friends. It’s about more than just diversity, it’s about genuine Representation. 

Panel FAQ

This panel will take place from 4 PM - 5 PM  on July 13th, 2019. 

Panel will be located in the Sunrise Room,  on the Right Side.

Panel will hold a general discussion with a Q and A session following.

 Caribbean Pearl, The Pirate Siren, Jewel o' the Oceans has been a mermaid since 2009.  She was the first black, Puerto Rican pirate-mermaid in the East Coast. She worked as the primary mermaid for, The Pirates of the Treasure Coast crew, in Florida, from 2009 until 2011; which lead her to many others private gigs including Alabama, Jamaica, and the Bahamas.  She was named Ambassador for the MerPalooza 2013. In 2014 she was the first mermaid to appear on the November cover of Pirate Nation Magazine.  In 2015 she was invited as a  Special Guest Speaker at the 2nd Merfest in North Carolina and became West Coast Ambassador for Code Rum. 

Today, she continues mermaiding and working under The Dark Tide Productions, based out of Las Angeles.  She continues to do modeling, pirating, living reenactment, and cosplay.

 Born and raised in Northern California, Jack Laflin (Merman Jax) has been working Professionally as a merman for 8 years. Growing up multi-racial (first generation American on his mother’s side) and gay, he understood innately what it was like to be different. 

Through challenging and uninspired racial stereo-typing in the Hollywood entertainment industry, Jack found a new way to celebrate his diversity and the diversity of others: his event-entertainment company Dark Tide Productions. Now a go-to team for an authentic range of ages, races, backgrounds, and orientations, 

Jack is proud to do his part in bringing representation to the Mermaid Community and to the world in general.  

 Mermaid Nymphia has been delivering  professional aquatic mer-formances for almost three years and counting. She is often found swimming up and down the coasts of California, and performing for a variety of events, from children’s parties in San Diego to the magical nightlife of San Francisco. 

As a mermaid of trans identity, she does her utmost to spread the message that mermaiding can be a safe haven for those of different backgrounds as well as something that can be experienced by all.  

Brenna DeBartolo is a Deaf multimedia artist and entrepreneur based in California.  She is known for her photography, painting and graphic design. Brenna is an active participant within the Deaf community.  In 2016, she gained recognition as the "Mermaid" of the Deaf community. She has received additional recognition for her role as the founder of Forest Souls, a socially conscious apparel company supporting and restoring forest ecosystems.

In 2016, Brenna attended Dive Bar with some of her coworkers and learned about a competition called "Mermaid For a Night".  With the support of the Deaf community, she won the competition. A story about her victory was featured on Sacramento’s ABC10 news 

Lexi Stack, The Valkyrie Mermaid, began training in 2014 under mentorship of The Sacramento Mermaids. In late 2016 she adventured off in the realm of solo mermaiding, creating her own company. Lexi has participated in Sacramento Mermaid Weekend for many years prior to its evolution, The California Mermaid Convention. In 2018, Lexi won the Dive Bar’s final “Mer for a Night” competition after many persistent years of competing.

Being Curvy in any industry has its challenges, however it also has opened many doors for Lexi’s career. Being called things like FAT isn’t much different than a child calling a mermaid FAKE because they saw your tail seams.  Something that both the mermaid and modeling industries have taught Lexi is that no matter Land or Sea, when it comes to body positivity and self expression the worlds are the same. Actions will have both positive and negative effects throughout your career, as there will ALWAYS be someone out there who doesn’t appreciate you for who you are or what you look like. Society can make a choice to put aside its SELF-consciousness and instead direct that focus on becoming ECO-conscious.