Dahab, Egypt — Naomi Hill, from Perth, Western Australia has had her heart set on becoming an Australian record holder in freediving since late 2010. In January of this year she decided to do something about it and has been coached (remotely and in the water) by the current Womens World Record holder, Sara Campbell.
On March 31, 2011, Naomi pushed the Constant No Fins (CNF) record to 32 meters in 1 minute and :25 seconds. Then the very next day, on April 1st she proved she wasn’t joking with a picture perfect dive in Free Immersion (FIM) to 43m in just under 2 minutes. Naomi set her two new national records in the world-famous Blue Hole in Dahab, on Egypts Sinai peninsular. She arrived in Dahab on 18th March for two weeks of intensive training. The records were filmed for broadcast by Blue Eye FX Productions, and the record event organized by Freedive Dahab. A strong athlete with a background in half ironman and adventure racing, Naomi completed both dives with absolute ease and precision, and certainly has huge potential for pushing all depth disciplines much deeper in the future. Naomi said “I’m so excited to finally have these records, it’s a goal Ive worked hard to achieve. But I feel that Ive barely scratched the surface of what I can do and I’m really excited now to build on this amazing experience and start competing as much as I can.” Naomi initially hoped to set three records, including the deepest discipline of Constant Weight. However, having purchased her first monofin less than two weeks before the attempts, and with six days lost due to illness and lung squeeze, time was not on Naomi’s side. Despite the set-backs Naomi completed a monofin course in the first few days of her trip and already has a beautiful technique; it is simply now a matter of time before she can reach record-level depths in that discipline too. Sara Campbell said “It is thrilling to work with athletes such as Naomi as there is just so much raw potential. With only seven days in the water together, we not only had to hone her skills at depth, but also drill her intensively on competition rules and protocol. Since our first skype coaching session, Ive known Naomi will go far. The question now must be, how far?” Naomi also hopes to compete in the World Championships this year in Greece.
