Holding the world record for distance travelled in underwater caves as well as being the first person to cave dive in an Antarctic iceberg, Jill has been at the top of her game for 20 years.

Expert at traversing pitch-black freezing tunnels, full-time cave photographer Jill carries up to 300 pounds of equipment with her on each expedition.

Using technology more advanced than average scuba diving gear, the Florida based adventure cave diver makes use of electric heated wetsuits and unique carbon dioxide recycling aqua-lungs.

“The images of me with my team from Antarctica still bring back the excitement of that unique expedition,” says Jill, who lives in the much warmer climate of High Springs in Florida.

“That was a National Geographic jaunt to the B-15 iceberg, which at the time was larger than Jamaica.

“The aim was to become the first people to cave dive in an active iceberg.

“To say that it was fraught with danger is an understatement.”

The 2001 trip was denied endorsement by the United States National Science Foundation because they deemed it too dangerous.

As a result they had to travel under the flag of New Zealand whose government accepted the risk of the party

Travelling the 12 days by boat from New Zealand to the Ross Sea area, Jill and her team including National Geographic photographer Wes Skiles entered the dramatic caves.

“The thing with the iceberg was that it was constantly moving,” explains Jill who works as a professional photographer and filmmaker in Florida.

“Entrances and creases were opening and closing as the iceberg went through the motions.

“What didn’t help as well was the -1.2 degree sea temperature, that was something else.”

Usually carrying up to £30,000 of torches, cutting tools, rope, special ‘re-breather’ aqualungs in triplicate on her cave journeys, Jill’s motto is to never be unprepared.

Due to the delicate nature of cave diving even a series of bubbles released from her aqua-lung could cause rocks or ice to dislodge and trap her.

“The most obvious thing that could go wrong is to get stuck, in the dark and without any idea which way you are facing,” says Jill.

“It sounds glib, but do not panic. If you do you increase your chances of dying dramatically.

“It is a real test of mind over matter.”

Stunned by her experiences in the pristine, unexplored Antarctic, Jill’s fame in the cave diving world has grown since the mid 1990’s.

“I have been scuba diving for twenty years, but when I broke the world women’s record for distance travelled underground, underwater, then my career really took off,” says Jill.

“I pushed 10,000 feet in a lateral movement 300ft down in the Wakulla Springs cave complex in north Florida in 1998.

“I was experimenting with a 3-D mapping device that cost the best part of £470 million.

“It is the technology that one day Nasa hope to send to the underwater caves of Europa, one of the moons of Jupiter.”

Living with her husband of three years Robert McCellen, Jill admits that he gets worried when she goes off on another adventure.

“We have an agreement,” explains Jill.

“I call him the minute I surface. That keeps his worry under wraps.”

For the past 14 years, photographer and filmmaker Jill Heinerth has been exploring underwater caves around the world, from lava tubes off the coast of North Africa to icebergs in the Antarctic. Wired.com recently caught up with Heinerth to talk about some of her most exciting cave diving moments, as well as the recent technological advances that have made cave diving easier, safer and more accessible to recreational divers. This gallery showcases some of Heinerth’s best underwater images and includes captions adapted from our conversation with her.

Above: “My Neighborhood Cave” in High Springs, Florida

Heinerth snapped this photo of herself as she descended through the tannic water of the Santa Fe River into her neighborhood cave in High Springs, Florida. The swirling orange blaze above her comes from the mixing of river water, stained red by decaying cypress trees, with crystal blue spring water flowing from the cave. The giant black mask she’s wearing is connected to a special diving tank called a rebreather.

“Basically, it does the same thing as a space suit,” Heinerth said. “In normal scuba gear, you’re inhaling gas and exhaling a column of bubbles into the water. But in a rebreather, you’re actually recycling your air, with carbon dioxide getting scrubbed out of the mixture and oxygen getting added back in. With an electronic rebreather, you can tune the gases that you’re using, so that in deeper water you can use helium and other gases to get the optimal mixture of breathing gas for deep water.”

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The day finally comes that you find yourself on the deck of a dive boat; out to experience the depths of the sea, the haunting beauty of a lost warship or the mysterious network of underwater caves, you’ll feel a particular sense of pride at the overcome challenges of being a lady diver.

No one knows that you’ve taken ‘The Pill’ for three extra days so as to avoid any unpleasant cycles of nature while sharing a marine toilet with thirty five men. Not a single person has yet to notice the added weights stuffed in your under-suit bra because despite the otherwise perfect distribution you’re familiar with on twin 15 liter steels, feeling a little bloated means rearing up like a seahorse in an overhead environment.

You are confident, self assured and ready for the dive of a lifetime. ….Right up until someone switches out of your group. Sure, you might hear a mumble about it being bad luck, attracting sharks, or a question of capabilities, but recognize this behavior for what it is: Nothing more than growing pains of an industry that is improving every day, every dive.

We have undoubtedly experienced marked progress for women in the recreational field. Entire lines of equipment are now devoted to your slender, more curved physique. It’s possible to choose from a range of pastel colors for fins, masks and even second stage regulator covers. The world it seems, has taken notice of the lady diver and cashed in on what is still a relatively niche market.

There are gender friendly live-aboards that offer cabin arrangements for all preferences, orientations and comfort levels. Companies have gradually become aware and started offering a choice of instructors based not just on linguistic abilities, but customer comfort level as well. This is important when taking a dive holiday abroad where the attitudes towards women may vary.

Perhaps the single most important achievement in repetitive dive medicine for the female world is the availability of Diflucan; (Floconazole) a one-time treatment orally administered that halts Candida in its tracks. A less than romantic side to discovering the depths of the blue is that the female anatomy wasn’t meant to wear a wetsuit for hours at a time. By speaking with your doctor and placing a single innocent tablet in your first aid box, you can enjoy your much anticipated vacation, assured that a yeast infection won’t be creating misery when you ought to be having the time of your life.

By never taking no for an answer, women have forged ahead and forced manufactures to sit up, take notice and find solutions to our diving differences. The advancements that have been made in recreational diving, however, still have a long way to go in technical diving.

Once past the 40 meter/120 foot line though, it’s all a boy’s world. This is evident not just in the gear options and color choice, but in the mindset and physiological differences between the sexes. Harnesses aren’t meant for the 32 in. / 81.3 cm. chest size if it’s accompanied by a 24 in. /64 cm. waist.

Extra training and practice must go into learning how to clip and unclip a cummerbund, crotch strap, weight belt, deco bottles, reels and basically anything that sits below your chest while visually impaired or outright blocked by your breasts. Add the bulk of counter-lungs over them for rebreather diving, and vision limitations are second only to the possible feelings of suffocation that accompany literally being unable to look down. While this doesn’t apply to everyone, the variation in female shape makes it much more likely that your technical kit will not be ready to wear without a lot of customization and adjustment.

Quality harness modification is essential to having a safe dive, and if you’ll be spending hours upon hours in it during deco, comfort is a necessity. Finding an industrial grade sewing machines such as those used by leather works can save you a lot of frustration and insure a strong seam. For a fee, many small businesses are willing to do alterations to even the thickets webbing. Don’t expect to get it right the first time. Test all modifications in a pool before attempting any overhead or decompression dives. You might discover that a little bit of pinching in one place is just mildly irritating for a few minutes, but after hours, it can become a disabling pain. Before you set out, make sure all your equipment is suited for your form. It might cost a bit of extra money and time, but investing in your gear is investing in your safety.

From here, things only become more embarrassing of a struggle. Without the luxury of P-valves in the female dry suit, cold water diving is decidedly in the male’s favor. It isn’t possible to find a bit of privacy on a rib or even a beach dive. Biological functions become an epic event requiring at least another pair of helping hands to get you re-zipped. Even in the sphere of medical technology, women are still trailing. As bottom times increase, the trend has turned towards catheter use. For what is no more difficult than slipping on a condom for men, it involves hair removal, leakage protection and adhesive for women. If this doesn’t have you cringing, consider the alternative: A less involved but much more debatable method is an indwelling, or internal catheters. When forced to choose between gluing odd plastics to your most sensitive area (and the need to subsequently remove them later) or having a tube shoved literally into your bladder, the question of your dedication, determination and passion for the ocean is no longer question. Ever again.

After all the struggles you’ve faced just to get here, don’t let something so small knock you down. Underwater, in 100 lbs. /220 kg. of dive gear, no one will be able to see gender. Pull your weight, don’t show off and pretty soon you won’t be singled out for being a lady diver; you’ll be respected as a technical lady diver

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Woken at 6 am to the smell of fresh coffee, french toast and bacon as Cory had already packed the Taxi with all the gear and had been furiously cooking breakfast for everyone.

The resort we rented has a fully stocked kitchen allowing the customers to have breakfast at their leisure with a fully stocked food cupboard and fridge. Along with a BBQ for evening meals if so desired.

After breakfast it was off to the peir of the dam to load up the 2 longtails (1 for gear and 1 for the divers) and head off to our first cavern. Our first cavern, called “Peters Cave” is a bit more like a cave than a cavern however with access to surface it’s debatable if it’s even an overhead environment at all. However with stalagtights and stalagmites throughout and complete darkness the effect is created. This would be the students first introduction to diving in these conditions and much like any initial training dive everything didn’t go to plan. After a debfriefing and a review of conduct with a  line and reel it was off to “Temple Cave” which is the most stunning of all cave systems in Khao Sok. This multiple entry limestone cavern/cave system extends from 4m to 25m with exits throughout into the lake. The sheer size of the cave is awe inspiring and even after a 60 minute dive only 15% of the system had been explored.

During these dives each student would take turns leading the dive and using the reel along with practicing propulsion techniques and guidelines use.As the training dives concluded and the technical divers returned from the lake bed looking at the sunken forest it was back to the peir and off to the clinic for James’ daily antibiotic injection to his buttock for his staff infection in his leg.

This evening Tia, our taxi driver would treat everyone to BBQ fish meal with vegetables and rice while everyone drank wine and beer and enjoyed the sunset melodised by the slow drone of the compressor being operated by a sweaty Cory Lewis.

Tonight over 15 people would dine together including the resort staff, long tail drivers, customers and dive staff who all work together to make these trips happen and all of whom have become quite close in such a short period of time.

The relaxed mood would continue into the evening with playing cards, music, too much beer for some and sleep calling early for many as tomorrow would be an early start as all are eager to get back into the water.