Deep Freediving in Egypt, Sep- Oct 2010
Hanli Prinsloo returns to the Deep BlueAfter over two years of not competing, Cape Town based Freediver and Ocean Conservationist Hanli Prinsloo has returned to the small town of Dahab in Egypt. Freediving is the sport of diving as deep, as far or as long as possible on one single breath of air.
After only 3 days of training she competed in the International Triple Depth Competition this week where she on the first day broke the South African Free Immersion record with a dive to 52m and placed 3rd overall.
Hanli has been Freediving for over ten years and broken in total 9 South African records in various Freediving disciplines. The past years she has focused her attention away from the competitive side of the sport to develop her ocean passion into a working lifestyle: training the SA Big Wave Surfers to hold their breaths, teaching Freediving and ocean mindedness to beginners, founding the I Am Water Ocean Conservation Trust, doing Motivation Speaking and diving regularly with Marine Mega Fauna.
Hanli has now decided to return to Egypt for 5 weeks of training to better the standing SA records and attempt her deepest dives ever.
The deep diving Hanli will be focusing on during this time is the self-propelled disciplines: Constant Weight with Fins, where the diver swims up and down assisted by a monofin, Constant Weight no Fins, where the diver swims down and back up the rope using breastroke, and Free Immersion where the diver pulls herself down a rope and back up again.
The town of Dahab on the east coast of the Sinai peninsula is a famous location for Freedivers because of the Blue Hole, a natural phenomenon where corals have formed a hole approximately 80 meters in diameter and 90 meters deep. The crystal clear, calm waters of the Blue Hole offers the perfect freediving training location.
At the end of her training period Hanli will do further record attempts these to be announced later.
Regular updates on her training is available on Hanli's website: www.hanliprinsloo.com for hi-res images email hanli@iamwater.co.za, mobile Egypt +20197186957 Thank you to Power Balance and iGoal for making this possible!
Picture by Annelie Pompe
