Photos: Darren Meredith.
Underwater, nothing else matters for freediver Benedicta Meredith. Either spearfishing and collecting seafood or diving to record depths, Benny, as she’s known to everyone, is at peace, connected to her late mother Trudy, who first instilled in her a love of the ocean.
“When I started freediving, I really tapped into the mindfulness that comes with it, being aware of my body and the breathing technique,” says Benny, 36. “Now I can clear my mind, and calm myself and nerves in stressful situations. Before I didn’t have the tools to do that.”
The national women’s freedive record holder, after diving 47 metres with fins in Cyprus last year, Benny has come a long way from the version of herself who was terrified to start a freediving course in 2020.
“I was so scared, going by myself and not knowing anyone,” she recalls. “I didn’t have any gear and had borrowed an old wetsuit, fins, mask, snorkel and a weight belt. Regardless of my extreme nerves, my drive to learn for myself was more important than letting fear hold me back.”
It was also during a 13-year relationship ending that Benny decided to take a leap and try freediving.
“I was really feeling lost, sad, hurt and questioning, ‘Who am I?’ Water was always healing and connection for me.”
And she never looked back. In July 2023, she left her long-term, successful advertising career to pursue her passion as a professional diver and instructor. Since then, Benny has travelled to Cyprus, Fiji and Mexico to train and hone her skills before the record-breaking dive in the Mediterranean last year.
Cyprus marked the culmination of months of training five days a week on land and in the water. It was time spent relentlessly improving her physical skills and mental ability to cope with the task ahead. But when the chance finally came to attempt the record, things did not go to plan. Benny was so sick with the flu that she missed the first two days of the three-day competition.
Determined not to go home without the record, on day three, she got in the water. She had just one dive to prove herself.
“I was smiling on the boat, telling myself, ‘I’ve got this,’ really relaxing trying to focus and take my mind elsewhere. It wasn’t my most beautiful dive, but I did it – I smashed it and got the record.
“Everything I worked for, and the time and sacrifices made in the last months, had paid off. My mum had been in ICU when my competition was on. So, it was really rewarding not just for me but for my supporters to be proud of me.”
Many times Benny wanted to come home while overseas to be with her mum, who taught her to gather kaimoana as a child growing up in Gisborne. “But she had such stubbornness to see me achieve my dreams,” she laughs.
Nine months ago, after suffering chronic myelomonocytic leukaemia, Trudy passed away.
“If I was the same person I was prior to freediving, I don’t know if I would have been able to see a light at the end of the tunnel,” reflects Benny. “It hasn’t been easy, but the moana [ocean] has been a really good distraction. It has helped me not to run away from grief but to embrace and learn from it.
“Mum was such a giver,” says Benny, who regularly shares her catch with her community. “She gave the jacket off her back to someone when they said they liked it. She would also give kai and knit for people. Now I get to give back by gathering kai for others and it feels like a continuation of what my mum would do.”
Back in Aotearoa, Benny has moved home to Gisborne for the first time in 23 years since living between Auckland and Sydney, to help with the care of her father Joseph, who has dementia, reconnect with her culture and teach others to spearfish and freedive.
“It’s a skill, a taonga [prize], where I can pass on the knowledge I have,” she tells. “Seeing others achieve things they never thought possible has been so rewarding, especially seeing wāhine flourish.
“You see their nervousness at the beginning of a course, then they’re building confidence. And when it clicks at the end and they have achieved something they were so nervous to do, you see this huge change. It’s emotional and moving.”
Follow Benny on Instagram @bennymers
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