In Conversation | Ocean Advocate and AGULHAS founder, Hanli Prinsloo
Take part in our Mungo x AGULHAS giveaway and stand a chance to win an AGULHAS Mokarran Mask and snorkel, and a Mungo Cotton Changing Towel. Competition open until 6 December 2024.
Hanli Prinsloo is a South African freediver, ocean advocate and the founder of I AM WATER Foundation. Recently, she has launched AGULHAS – a sustainable freediving brand aimed at connecting people to the ocean – for good.
Through our annual Swim Club, a five-day early morning swim challenge designed to reconnect, refresh and raise funds for ocean conservation and community upliftment, we’ve collectively raised over R150,000 for Hanli’s foundation, I AM WATER. We last spoke to her after the wrap up of our 2022 Swim Club – read the story, The Art of Being Optimistic.
The last time I interviewed you, you had a newborn… What has it been like passing on your love of the sea to them? Have they taken to it as much as you have?
We try to spend as much time in nature with them as we can – in the ocean, in the mountains, visiting rivers… they love it. When we’re at the beach, Peter and I are like kids at the rockpools – just looking at life and spending time observing all the kritters – and the kids are exactly the same; they can spend hours exploring, talking about the little animals. My oldest is already an avid swimmer and is a very good little diver. And the youngest is so funny – at swim lessons he actually doesn’t even kick or practice his stroke – he goes into a little aqua trance and just floats and relaxes. So I don’t know if we’re paying for swimming lessons for him or aqua meditation but either way he loves being in the water!
Do you have a ritual around swimming or taking a dip?
Buying a nice coffee and taking it with me, tucking it into my towel while I go for a swim, and then just sitting quietly, watching the ocean and feeling the salt on my skin after. I also have this little ritual that as soon as I walk into the sea and my feet touch the water, I greet the ocean in Swedish. I started this ritual when I was living in Sweden and got into freediving. I’ll say, ‘Hey Havet’ before I dip my toes in.
Where’s your go-to swim spot if you want to take a dip?
If I’m at the office and I only have like half an hour to run down, then I’ll just jump into one of the tidal pools and have a peek at the kelp forest. Otherwise even jumping in Silvermine Dam or some of the amazing bodies of water around Cape Town. As long as I can get my gills wet almost every day, I’m fine.
Thoughts on the Mungo Cotton Changing Towel?
Coming out of the ocean you often just want to feel comfortable and warm, and get a little bit dry, but not too hot – I don’t like to put on thick things straight away. So the Cotton Changing Towel for me just felt like the perfect mix of cosy, soft and super absorbent. The colours are also so beautiful. I love the Kids Changing Towels – they are so cute. The colours, the feel, the fit – they just look like ocean gnomes and it’s adorable! I can’t wait for the whole family to be traipsing around in our towels all day.
What is the spirit behind AGULHAS?
AGULHAS was born from our own need for sustainable freediving equipment. Every year we would run expeditions around the world, teaching people free diving in the most beautiful places; speaking about conservation, and supporting conservation initiatives – all the while not being able to recommend equipment that’s friendly to the ocean and to the planet. Eventually we had spoken about this on so many of our trips, that friends of ours who had travelled with us on all our freediving trips said, “How about you guys design the product that doesn’t exist on the market?” So it really was a meeting of minds, visions and passions for more sustainable ocean exploration equipment. The name AGULHAS, like the Southern tip of Africa, speaks of a really wild, free ocean lifestyle.
AGULHAS defines itself as ‘business unusual’ – what does that mean?
In business as usual, it’s all about the bottom line. We’ve never been only about making money. It’s about preserving our oceans, finding opportunities for experience, and creating community.
How is sustainable design incorporated into an AGULHAS product?
Our flagship product at launch is our Mokarran Freediving Mask. Generally diving masks are made from a bunch of materials that are overmolded and designed in a way that they can never be taken apart and at the end of life it just goes into landfill. The Mokarran Mask is made in a way that’s fully modular – which means you can take the mask apart, and replace any damaged or broken pieces. Or the pieces that still work can be put towards a new product. So it’s about durability and repairability.
How does AGULHAS encourage making the ocean a place for all?
I’ve taught freediving for about 20 years, and working with thousands of people, I’ve really understood what the barriers are to the ocean – sometimes they are socioeconomic, which is a lot of what we work with at I AM WATER – making the ocean more accessible for others. But sometimes it’s about fear and being more comfortable in the ocean, and equipment plays a big role here. People often say I’m too claustrophobic to dive or I’d love to see the ocean below but the gear is so cumbersome. So to make beautiful, streamlined, comfortable equipment does make it more accessible for people who have not been able to find comfort in the ocean.
What’s something that keeps you grounded?
Staying connected to nature and the ocean in particular is what keeps me sane and able to keep going. Also prioritising living and working close to the sea – I see the ocean almost all the time and what a privilege that is. And deep, slow breaths – our breath connects us to the ocean immediately, and everytime we sit down and take a deep slow breath we calm our parasympathetic nervous system and remind ourselves that oxygen comes from the ocean.
Our 2022 story was entitled ‘The Art of Being Optimistic’ because that was such an apparent and inspiring theme to our first conversation. What continues to drive and inspire you?
I still choose to be optimistic – and it still continues to be a choice, right? Because there’s still as many things to be deeply pessimistic about as there are to remain optimistic about. I’m still very much driven by the joy of being underwater. But now, having small children, I’m even more driven by protecting the beautiful wilderness for them to experience one day and have in their lives.
