Hanli Prinsloo

Founder of the I AM WATER conservation trust, filmmaker and 11-time South African freediving record holder

‘Igrew up on a horse farm 65km outside Pretoria – nowhere near the ocean,’ says Hanli with a laugh. ‘My sister and I swam in dams and rivers, connecting with water in whichever way we could, despite being landlocked.’ A few years later, Hanli moved to Sweden to study acting and filmmaking. ‘Of all places to start freediving, I started in a fjord in Sweden! I was in a film there at the time and the editor suggested I try freediving. I swam to an underwater ledge and sat there for a while. It was so peaceful – exactly what I’d dreamt of.’ Hanli had unknowingly swum an impressive 20 metres deep!

She started training at 19 and went on to compete in freediving for over 10 years, setting multiple SA records.

Through diving, Hanli has discovered a love of underwater animals. ‘After swimming with dolphins, whales and sharks for the first time, I realised that that’s where I wanted to be. We have to have an emotional response to animals before we try to protect them. We’ve done that so well with terrestrial animals like rhinos, but people don’t have a mental picture of underwater creatures.’

That’s when Hanli started the I AM WATER trust. ‘I AM WATER is about education, awareness and advocacy. We work with kids from townships in SA and we run projects around the world.’ She also gives talks on topics like risk, fear, adventure, the state of our oceans and the human connection to the ocean. ‘We’ve launched I AM WATER Ocean Travel, where we take people to amazing places to swim with big animals. The funds from that go to the work we do with the kids.’

Hanli has seen people transformed by their experiences underwater. ‘People are intimidated by the ocean, especially when it comes to holding your breath, but we’re born after nine months of basically freediving. I often hear, “I can’t hold my breath; I can’t go deeper,” but by the end of the day they realise, “Well, if I truly believed all those things about myself, what else am I believing that isn’t true?” The other thing about the ocean is that you can’t speak underwater, which allows you to tap into your thoughts. It’s essentially meditation.’

An average day for Hanli often starts with an exploration dive nearby, like in the kelp forest in Kalk Bay. ‘There are these seven-gill sharks that look like swimming fossils – 3m-long prehistoric beings right here, and we don’t even know. I want to show people that world.’