Samoan-Maori free-diver leading the way for women in the sport.
Free diver Benedicta “Benny” Meredith has found her happy place.
“Diving in the moana, like especially at home you feel one with the water,” Benny says.
“You just feel free, like you feel so free and happy and it’s been my happy place.”
Growing up in Te Tairāwhiti-Gisborne, Benny has always been in or around water. But it wasn’t until 2020 when she took up free diving lessons that she was hooked on the sport.
“I just wanted to do everything. I just went guns blazing and they started calling me Benny the Bonito because I just wanted to do everything straight away.”
Of Sāmoan and Māori heritage, Benny continued to grow in the sport and this year she made a splash at the Freedom Depth Games in Cyprus, setting a New Zealand women’s record for reaching 47 metres below with fins.
“I was so proud, I was tired but I was also so proud. It had been a lot of months in the work,” she says.
And it’s hard work that also comes with risks.
“It can be dangerous, yes, however this is where you do the training and this is what I am so big on,” she says.
“When I am teaching freediving, or when I am talking to people that are new to spearfishing or just… never had the freediving principles apply to their spearing, it’s really important to be safe.”
And for her safety it’s the thought of her late mother Trudy that keeps her balanced.
“I see her in the water now, that’s my place to go now to find her,” she says.
“I’ve used the water in many other ways to heal and stabilise emotions and mental clarity and its therapy in many ways.”
Now she’s also using her knowledge and experience to equip others, like her niece Rosa Meredith, to test the waters.
“I’m really excited to learn a little bit about it,” Rosa says.
“I’ve seen all the work she’s been doing with her diving and her teaching and now I am excited that I am finally the student.”
It’s a ripple effect that Benny hopes will encourage more wāhine to enjoy all that the moana provides.
“There’s heaps of different groups now that are coming through that are really promoting and empowering our wāhine to connect to the moana,” Benny says.
“We are of this land and we are of this whenua; we are of the water you know, so it’s really important to bring back that connection, bring back that being able to supply for your whānau and for yourself and give you that confidence, you know?
“That I can go out there but I can do it safely.”
