professional mermaid

Unlike most models, Linden Walbert doesn't need catwalks or a studio—the sea will do. This girl travels the world and moonlights as a professional mermaid. She wears a £10,000 custom tailor made for her. Linden, 32, is also a freediver and can dive up to 35 meters underwater and hold her breath for up to 5 minutes.

(Total 10 photos)

1. “I like the feeling of freedom and weightlessness in the water,” says Miss Walbert. “It's a completely different feeling. It is like a dream. And the strength of the tail is amazing.”

2. “I can move very fast. The feeling in my hair when I dive underwater is incomparable. Freediving is 70% psychological process. You just have to be very calm in the water.”

3. Linden always dreamed of becoming a mermaid, but this dream came true only after she met Hollywood special effects master Alan Holt.

4. They worked for seven months on a 16 kg tail, which was made of fiberglass. To make the tail hydrodynamic, a monofin had to be created.

5. Then thousands of fish scales were made from clay. Then they combined it all, made the final cast, into which silicone was eventually driven.

6. Linden was hired to perform at parties hosted by stars like Jessica Alba and Justin Timberlake.

7. “I swam with sharks and with my tail I am longer than most of them. Marine animals are very curious. They swam closer to me because I don't release air bubbles like other divers."

8. In addition to working as an underwater model, Linden uses her skills to educate children about environmental issues.

9. In some of these photos, she swims in Jellyfish Lake on the island of Palau, which used to be attached to the Pacific Ocean. Since the island became detached, millions of jellyfish settled here, because. there are no predators here.

10. This lake is already 12,000 years old and is the only place in the world where you can safely swim among jellyfish, because. they have lost their stings.