Thank you Rachel Novak for joining me on my podcast!
Rachel Novak — Miss Mermaid Nevada, Freediving & Mermaid Instructor, Stunt Performer, Mermaid Performance Artist, Content Creator
Rachel Novak is a PFI and SSI freediving and mermaid instructor based in Las Vegas, Nevada. She was named Fire Entertainer of the Year 2016, Miss Mermaid Nevada 2022, and Miss Sea Queen of Nevada 2023. Rachel is no stranger to the stage or the camera! She works as a professional mermaid and fire entertainer, was an official commentator for the Vertical Blue 2021 freediving competition in the Bahamas, and worked as a stunt performer on Marvel’s Black Panther 2: Wakanda Forever, where she used her diving skills (both scuba and freediving) to perform underwater stunts.
Rachel is the owner and content creator for The Sailing Siren on YouTube, a freediving and travel vlog that highlights the freediving communities, sailing adventures, and unique freediving destinations around the world. She owns and manages the brand Aquanauts Freediving, which includes an athleisure clothing line for merfolk and freedivers, freediving and mermaid courses, and customized mermaid and fire performances. Rachel is a passionate advocate for freediving education and believes that those who care most about ocean conservation are those who spend time in the water. She is dedicated to helping others learn how to safely explore the underwater world on one breath. Rachel was invited to compete on season 15 of American Ninja Warrior, which films in spring of 2023.
FROM OUR INTERVIEW
Lisa Niver:
Good morning and welcome back. This is Lisa Niver from We Said Go Travel, and I am so honored and thrilled and excited to be here today with you with my favorite mermaid, Rachel Novak.
Rachel Novak:
Hi.
Lisa Niver:
Oh, my gosh, ever since we met at the scuba show I’ve wanted to talk to you more. I’m so excited to talk to an actual real mermaid.
Rachel Novak:
Well, thank you for having me on your show. I’m really excited.
Lisa Niver:
Let’s tell the audience about you: You currently live in Nevada, and you’re Miss Mermaid Nevada. Did you grow up in the desert and you were desperate for the water? Were you born in the water? How did this happen?
Rachel Novak:
It’s kind of this crazy path that I took to it. I’m a pharmacist and I also work as a circus artist. But throughout pharmacy school, I needed some sort of creative outlet and so the circus was my fitness, my social life, pretty much the other half of me. From there, I used to work as a fire dancer quite a bit. I got into mermaiding because eventually at some point in time I wanted to have another skillset to add to my repertoire of things to book me for. So, I got into mermaiding. Because of mermaiding that’s what got me into diving. I wanted to be a better mermaid, so it went from progressing into diving and going all the way up to dive master and then progressing into free diving and going all the way to free diving instructor. So, that’s kind of the long story for how I became a mermaid.
Lisa Niver:
You’re incredibly well trained and have a whole YouTube channel, The Sailing Siren.
One of the things I love about your YouTube channel is that you share your challenges. Could you talk about the video about failing the first time you were trying to be an instructor. For me personally, I think it’s really important that people who see you as this incredible mermaid and so talented and so skilled and an instructor know that it wasn’t just a walk in the park. You had struggles. Because people have struggles and think I’ll never be like her, but it’s very valuable that you’ve shared that it was challenging.
Rachel Novak:
For those of you who haven’t seen my YouTube channel, my YouTube channel started when I went from having no formal free diving experience all the way going through the instructor course. The reason why I wanted to document it is to give people an idea of what to expect in a course because you say, oh, it should take me two to three days to pass a course. I wanted to humanize the fact that — that is in absolutely perfect situations where somebody can equalize perfectly. For me, one of my biggest challenges was learning how to equalize properly in a head down position, because it’s different than scuba diving. So, it took me quite a while to figure that out.
I wanted to be able to share that with people. Especially on that video, people related to how they failed, too. Now that I’m an instructor, I can say you just have to put a little bit more time in, and it’s just about learning about your body and figuring out what works for you.
Lisa Niver:
I think that’s so valuable, and I really appreciate you being honest about that. We’ve all learned over time. And now you are a free driving instructor and a scuba instructor. Tell us about how you’re in Black Panther 2, the movie.
Rachel Novak:
Over a year ago, I saw a post on a free diving memes Instagram that I follow. It said looking for people comfortable modeling elaborate costumes on breath hold with no masks working in depths. I thought- I’m a mermaid. I got this.
I didn’t hear anything back, but I kept the dates on open and about four days before I got a call from the stunt coordinator. He interviewed me about my background, so said I’d like to hire you. I thought great, but what am I on? Because around that time Avatar was shooting. Every free diver hopes that they might get to be a stunt performer on Avatar. But that did not happen. I still did not know what I was going to be on. When I landed on site where we were going to be shooting, the contract was in my DocuSign, and it said Black Panther 2 Wakanda Forever.
Lisa Niver:
What an incredible experience. You’ve been so fortunate to do things all around the world. I know part of the free diving course you were living in the Philippines. Is that right?
Rachel Novak:
Yes. So, I was in the Philippines for about six months. That was where I learned to become a free diving instructor. I wanted to be able to see some family while I was out there. I’m half Filipina, so it was nice to be able to get back to my roots while also getting to explore a beautiful place. The ocean out there is amazing.
Lisa Niver:
It is beautiful out there. I would really like to go back again, but you also meet people for courses in Washington, right?
Rachel Novak:
Yes. So I teach courses in Las Vegas and in Washington state. Primarily in Washington state, it’s during the summer just because it is a lot chillier.
Lisa Niver:
A lot chillier.
Rachel Novak:
If you’re going to be spending time in the water, it’s nice to be able to have adequate thermal protection and relatively warm dive conditions. So I do teach there and then I do setup courses across the US or wherever there is interest if there are enough people to book out a course.
Lisa Niver:
But you teach all different kinds of classes, right? You teach free diving but don’t you also teach a bucket list how to be a mermaid class?
Rachel Novak:
Yes. So I teach SSI and PFI free diving and mermaiding courses. So if somebody wants to learn how to be a mermaid, we can go from just an intro of trying to put on a tail all the way up to I want to be an underwater model and I want to get free diving skills so I can have a longer breath hold, dive deeper in a mermaid tail, and mermaid out on the reefs with no mask on. So it goes all the way up from beginner to professional.
Lisa Niver:
That is incredible. One thing I would like to make a good pause here to talk about with mermaiding and free diving is the importance of not being alone. That people should not ever breath hold under water without an instructor, without skills and just think I’m going to see how long I can hold my breath. Can you talk a little bit about the safety concern?
Rachel Novak:
Yes. Absolutely. I say this with my free diving students as well. But while many of us are do-it-yourselfers, learn it off of YouTube and while I have a YouTube channel, is strongly say that a YouTube education is not going to be a complete education. So definitely take a course because if you’re just starting out, you don’t know what you don’t know and you don’t know the potential safety sides of things. Especially in the free dive community when people, if you hear about a free diving related fatality in the news it’s usually somebody who’s diving alone and often they don’t have diving education. So, this is something that we’re trying to stress in the free diving community, especially since free diving is becoming much, much bigger in the US. We also want to make sure that we have access to places to dive and places to train and that free diving has a good reputation as it grows in the US.
Lisa Niver:
Yes. Very important. I remember that you do something with free diving competitions.
Rachel Novak:
Yeah. So I dabble in free diving competitions as well. I was a commentator for Vertical Blue so it was nice being able to talk about the amazing accomplishments of people in the free diving community. Many of them whose deepest dives or their warmup dives are deeper than my deepest dives.
Lisa Niver:
That’s okay. It’s not a contest. Oh, it is a contest. Go on.
Rachel Novak:
But that’s the thing, especially with free diving, people are so approachable and there’s always going to be somebody who dives deeper than you. It’s all about the learning process and it’s all about going with what your body is able to accomplish at the time. So, I get into the world of competitions and it’s a completion against yourself. It’s how deep can I dive and how deep can I do it safely, know my body, and progressing at a safe level. So, I am starting to dabble more on the competitive side as well as continuing on the commentary side.
Lisa Niver:
So we see you behind the camera, in front of the camera, under the water, above the water. You’ve got flames. You’ve got the ocean; you’re also helping people look more beautiful in all of these things. Tell us about how can we find your clothing line and what’s in your clothing line?
Rachel Novak:
I’m also an avid backpacker and trail runner among other things. I often don’t have a lot of space in my backpacking pack. I wanted to have a modular clothing line, so something that I could use while out trail running–yoga pants and sports bras. Then I also provide thermal protection. So if you’re out on the reefs you’re not using sunscreens that are unfriendly to corals. You’re actually using rash guards that match with the leggings and the sports bras if you want. I wanted to have something that was ocean themed for free divers, mermaids, and people who are generally active. As far as where people can find that, they can find that at www.aquanautsfreediving.com. It’s like astronauts but aquanauts.
Lisa Niver:
And we’ll put that in the show notes so people can click through and find you. Give us an example, does it have mermaids on it or is it colorful or how do we know that it’s your aquanauts line? What’s special about how does it look?
Rachel Novak:
Well, some of them are like cheesy mermaid jokes, because if you’re in the mermaid community we have all sorts of mermazing and fintastic puns. So, if you are a mermaid and happen to see some of those on certain t-shirts, this is one of the shirts that I have on there. It’s fairly generic. I also have it on my laptop cover. Give me vitamin sea. I love spending time in the water and obviously being in a landlocked state I don’t get to do that as much as I’d like. I do get to spend a lot of time in the water. So, as far as leggings and sports bras, like I said, they are matching and modular so you can mix and match. But I have mermaid scales and then I have some other brighter colors as well.
Lisa Niver:
You have so much going on between being a movie stunt performer and a model and saving the ocean with no sunscreen, but you also are very active in ocean conservation. Are there some things where people could participate with you or maybe you could give tips like what can people do if they’re also in a landlock state but they care about the ocean.
Rachel Novak:
Absolutely. It’s not necessarily just caring about the ocean being in a landlocked state. There are so many beautiful waterways, especially here in Las Vegas. I spend a lot of time out on the Colorado River and Lake Mead and Lake Mojave. It’s nice to be able to do a dive site clean-up or a beach clean-up. There are definitely ways that you can get involved. As far as the most recent beach clean up that I’ve been a part of, if you’ve ever heard of the 321 Free Dive Conference that happened this year. It was the first free diving specific conference in the US or basically in North America. We were actually able to organize a beach clean-up in conjunction with 4Ocean. A lot of the participants were able to come, pick up trash, and then also learn about free diving from free divers from all over the world.
Lisa Niver:
That’s amazing. 4Ocean, they’re the ones that have the bracelets made out of recycled things that they’ve taken out of the water at the trash clean-up?
Rachel Novak:
Yes. The organizer of that event, Jennifer Morgan, she was in contact with 4Ocean, and I believe for every…there’s a certain amount that they’ll actually pledge to pick up Ocean plastic for everything that you purchase from them. It’s just nice to be able to know that you are supporting and being supported by a company that also cares about the ocean.
Lisa Niver:
That’s very exciting. Now I know there’s something new and exciting coming up for you. I mean already we’ve said you’re a free diving instructor, you’re available for events, you mermaid at events, you do photos, but now you’re going to do something different on television. Tell us what’s going to happen next because this is one of my favorite shows. I can’t wait to watch you.
Rachel Novak:
I am going to compete on American Ninja Warrior. I’m really excited, but at the same time I’m a free diver and most of the time I’ve got little chicken arms. I do like rock climbing, but it’s a very, very different technique. I don’t know if you can see it, but I’ve got blisters on my hands from all the pullups that I’ve been doing in the ninja gym. But I’m really excited to be able to go on this show and just do the best that I can with the six weeks that I have to train. We’ll see where it goes from there.
Lisa Niver:
I think it’s so beautiful that you’re always challenging yourself in different ways.
Rachel Novak:
I interact with flame. I interact with water and now American Ninja Warrior to me is like interacting with crazy obstacles.
Lisa Niver:
What made you decide you wanted to be a ninja next?
Rachel Novak:
I used to watch that show as a kid. I applied and when I was out free diving with a friend in the springs in Florida, I got a phone call from a casting director from American Ninja Warrior. “We’d like to extend an opportunity for you to compete.”
Now I have six weeks to train. I am going anywhere between two to six hours a day.
Lisa Niver:
Oh, wow. A lot of training. Well, we will all be rooting for you. That is for sure. So which thing started the journey? Was fire dancing the beginning of circus or how did you get into circus in the beginning?
Rachel Novak:
At age 16 I was living in a small town in Southern Oregon and I saw somebody spinning basically balls on a cord. You see this primarily in Polynesian cultures. It’s called poi. I was like oh, my gosh, you spin poi. I have to learn how to do that. We ended up becoming friends. He taught me and from there it was a progression of picking up skills and getting better as I was progressing through pharmacy school. Once again, I said with pharmacy school you’re so busy all day that you really don’t have time to go out and have a job, at least during the day, and so I would be doing shows at night. In between my sets you’d have four to five sets a night. In between sets I’d be stretching in the green room and studying my pharmacology.
So, that’s kind of what started everything. Along with pharmacy came circus and then when I graduated and got a job as a pharmacist part-time. Performing is something that I’m very passionate about. I’m very happy that I took the jump and worried that my boss was going to think I’m the weirdest pharmacist ever, but they were really accommodating. So, I was able to have a career both in circus and in pharmacy. From there, I moved over to Vegas because I wanted to be on a show here, and I was able to book out a contract on a show. Now I’m doing it freelance because you are able to set your schedule.
Lisa Niver:
Wow. One of the things I most loved when I first met you at the scuba show is that you have built this incredible mosaic for your life. You’re figured out that these are the things I need to do to make my life work. I make money in different ways. You’re always looking for new adventures and new skills and bringing people along. It’s really so inspiring. I think that people will be so interested.
Let’s say someone is interested in free diving and mermaiding and said to you–but if I’m a bit afraid of this idea but I’m also a little bit curious. What would you recommend to people? How do they get started?
Rachel Novak:
This is something that works for rock climbing, for skydiving, for scuba diving, for free diving. A lot of different activities that I already do. It’s really about just taking the time to educate yourself. So, for fire dancing I started out with different tutorials on YouTube without the fire. Then when it got to the point where it was a potentially scarier or riskier part that’s when I took on mentors and when you have a mentor who’s able to help you through some of the potential safety issues of whatever you decide to do or if you’re scared they can at least validate what you’re feeling and then tell you whether or not from their experience that is something that you should be afraid of or something that you should slowly and sequentially challenge.
It’s the same thing with free diving, too. When people are in a free diving course, a lot of the time they’re worried about the depth, but you build the foundation, and you say you know you have breath hold that will take you all the way down to the depth that you need to do and you tell them the safety aspects of it.
So, if you notice this then you turn back around. So, it’s basically like having a mentor and educating yourself if you want to summarize things.
Lisa Niver:
I do and that was really beautiful, but you snuck something in there that we didn’t talk about. You’re also a skydiver?
Rachel Novak:
Yeah. I have an A license, so I am a baby jumper. I have 38 jumps under my belt solo, but once again that is another amazing community to be a part of. I would say that I’m a baby skydiver as well.
Lisa Niver:
I don’t know what I am if you’re a baby because I did 50 challenges before I turned 50 and for my 50th birthday I did one tandem jump, so I’ve only been one time. I think you’re way bigger than a baby to be honest. Thirty-eight sounds like a lot of jumps.
Rachel Novak:
It’s just like free diving or just like mermaiding. There’s always somebody with more jumps than you, too. You have to find somebody that you can learn from.
Lisa Niver:
It’s true and you are literally so inspiring and I’m impressed that you have been part of major motion pictures. You’re going to be on American Ninja Warrior and you’re working hard to save our planet and help people make their dreams come true by either being a mermaid that they can meet or training people to be a mermaid.
Before we let you go because obviously you have to go back to the gym and get underwater and get the fire and jump out of a plane. It’s a busy time. Remind everybody what are the best ways to find you and follow you and book you and learn with you and jump out of planes with you.
Rachel Novak:
If you are interested in following my journey through American Ninja Warrior or want to find free diving and travel-related content you can look me up on YouTube and Instagram @thesailingsiren.
Then if you want to book a course with me, whether it’s mermaiding, free diving, or you want to book me as a mermaid or an entertainer at your next event you can look me up at www.aquanautsfreediving.com and you can also find me on Instagram and Facebook under those handles, too.
Lisa Niver:
And tell us the last thing with being Miss Mermaid Nevada, is there an event? Can we watch the next Miss Mermaid Nevada or how does that work?
Rachel Novak:
There are mermaid competitions out there and mermaid pageants. A few years ago, it was during the pandemic, and I applied to win a title and once again it was — whatever happens, happens. I was awarded a title to compete and then there is a conference called Mermagicon, a convention for merfolk to get together. It was an actual pageant there. There I scored top 10 and won some runway awards for modeling and from there, there were title holders that were able to continue to advocate for the different volunteer platforms. There are ways that you can participate in those but that’s a whole other can of worms.
Another thing is I won the title of Miss Sea Queen of Nevada. There was a competition with Virgin Cruises and there is more information that I’m not allowed to talk about yet, but I can say stay tuned for later this year if you want to see something on the big screen.
Lisa Niver:
Oh, my goodness. You’ll have to keep me posted. I knew you’d have more stuff going on. I’m so excited that you’re telling us a little tidbit. Again, everyone, we’ve been spending time not quite underwater with our favorite mermaid, Rachel Novak, and you can find all her information on The Sailing Siren, and we are wishing you so much luck. We hope that we see you on the top of the mountain at the end of the season for American Ninja Warrior.
Rachel Novak:
I hope so, too. If not, maybe next year but I’m definitely going to do my best. Thank you so much for having me and letting me share some of the things that I love talking about.
Lisa Niver:
Thank you so much, and I look forward to blowing bubbles with you soon.
Rachel Novak:
Yes. Absolutely. Take care.
FOLLOW RACHEL: YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and her clothing line
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