NEW BOOK: Into The Planet by Jill Heinerth

Readers of DIVER magazine will be very familiar with the name Jill Heinerth. Not only is she one of our regular columnists, cover feature writer, and Contributing Editors, but she’s a much revered diving celebrity. Unlike most celebs in our world, Jill has earned her status through decades of pioneering hard work, incredible expeditions, and an attitude that makes her humble, approachable and much loved.

Maybe we’re a little bias, she is after all one of our writers. But we don’t think we’re alone – people that the have met Jill, worked with her, or heard her speak, will be in agreement, she is a rarity. An explorer that is beyond compare, an educator to the core, and entertainer at heart. Never shy of a good story, never far from a camera, and never one to turn down the opportunity to inspire others.

Jill’s forthcoming book, Into The Planet may be her greatest work yet, and possibly her most inspiring, informative, and thrilling.

Blending memoir, adventure and science, Into the Planet is a riveting account of Jill’s journey. Or at least part of it. A life like Jill’s can’t be squeezed into one book, and one thing you’ll take away after reading Into The Planet, is a thirst to read more.

Jill also has an official book tour and book signing, dates of which can be found on her website, here. Until the release date arrives, the official synopsis will have to be enough to get you excited, and get you pre-ordering your copy!

As one of the most celebrated cave divers in the world, Jill Heinerth has seen the planet in a way almost no one has. In a workday, she might swim below your home, through conduits in volcanoes or cracks in the world’s largest iceberg. She’s an explorer, a scientist’s eyes and hands underwater—discovering new species and examining our finite freshwater reserves—and a filmmaker documenting the wonders of underwater life. She tests the limits of human endurance at every tight turn, risking her life with each mission. To not only survive in this world but excel, Jill has had to learn how to master fear like no other.

With gripping storytelling, and radiating with intimacy, Into the Planet will transport you deep into the most exquisite, untouched corners of the earth, where fear must be reconciled and the innermost parts of the human condition are revealed.

The hardcover is available in stores and online in the US beginning August 20, 2019 and Canada on September 11, 2019. 

More info on Jill: www.IntoThePlanet.com

DIVER Publisher Phil Nuytten will be reviewing the book in the Fall issue of DIVER.

Early praise for Into The Planet:

“From the opening pages we are immersed into a beautiful and incredibly dangerous world of subterranean water choked passageways that seem to twist deeply into an endless dark labyrinth. As light envelopes crevice’s long cloaked in darkness, it illuminates a world of mystery and adventure that mirror this incredible explorer’s life. Casting aside barriers and maneuvering through restrictions both above and below the water, Jill Heinerth’ s lifelong passion to explore the most hidden recesses of our world has driven her to boldly go where – quite literally – no one had gone before.

“Into the Planet” takes us along on her awe-inspiring adventures and is a revelation for those willing to forge ahead that there are still untamed and unexplored places awaiting; oceans of opportunity exist right beneath our very feet, if we are willing to push the limits of conventional knowledge, and explore what most will never see.

— “Shadow Diver” Richie Kohler, shipwreck explorer, author, and filmmaker.

“Into the Planet is a breathtaking thrill-ride into a deeper world that exists within this one. Few people have witnessed the sublime beauty of labyrinthine underwater caves or the inside of an iceberg—to venture in for even a glimpse is to put your life at risk—but Jill Heinerth knows these realms intimately. Her courage and heart are as evident in her writing as they are in her groundbreaking explorations. You will not be able to put this book down.”

— Susan Casey, author of The Wave: In Pursuit of the Rogues, Freaks, and Giants of the Ocean.

“I can guarantee you one thing: Jill Heinerth will not look back on her life with any regrets about a lack of bravery or passion. In this gripping, life-of-gusto story, we plunge into Heinerth’s eccentric world of death-defying caves, and into her inner sanctum forged by the thrill of discovery. I read wide-eyed, page after page.“ 

— Diana Nyad, long-distance swimmer and author of Find a Way.

“One sentence into the phenomenal life story of Jill Heinerth and you’ll be hooked. Be prepared for a wild, wonderful, and deeply inspiring journey into places few people get to know, let alone experience. Into The Planet is a beautifully crafted memoir that inspires us all to defy limits imposed, connect us to this precious planet, and follow our passions in life.” 

— Clara Hughes, 6-time Olympic medalist and author of Open Heart, Open Mind.

“By turns terrifying, exhilarating, and inspirational, Into the Planet celebrates the fine madness of deep-sea cave-diving. Talk about extreme adventure. If you don’t know the name Jill Heinerth, prepare to be dazzled and astonished. Move over, Jon Krakauer. This well-written memoir is destined to become a world classic of exploration literature.”

— Ken McGoogan, author of Fatal Passage and Flight of the Highlanders.

“Every form of extreme endeavor produces a pre-eminent practitioner: Messner in mountains, Honnold on rock, Ballard in oceans. As Into the Planet eloquently demonstrates, for cave diving it may well be Jill Heinerth. Her newest book chronicles, in chiseled prose, a lifetime pursuing science and discovery in exploration’s most lethal and least forgiving discipline. Time and again, Heinerth has ventured into realms where mishap can, quite literally, take your breath away. Just reading about her exploits can do the same—happily with less final results. And there is this: like all cave divers, Heinerth operated in the “overhead environment”—a ceiling of solid rock. Unlike them, she had to break through another overhead environment that was, if less deadly, certainly more insidious:  a glass ceiling of gender-based prejudice and animus. The fact that she prevailed against both makes her exploits even more remarkable and her story all the more compelling.”

— James M. Tabor, author of Blind Descent and Forever on the Mountain