Perched on a platform 27m above the ground, Rhiannan took a deep breath and threw herself off

Deep below the earth in Turda, Romania, Rhiannan Iffland shivered at the edge of an almost 30m drop.

Perched on a tiny platform 120m underground in the Salina Turda, one of the world's oldest salt mines, the Australian glanced down at the underground lake waiting below.

Then Iffland took a deep breath, turned around, and threw herself into freefall.

Watch the video above.

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"The scary thing about that was I didn't know how the impact was going to feel," she tells 9honey.

A world champion cliff diver, Iffland had been leaping from astronomical heights in unlikely locations for about four years when she tackled the underground mine dive in 2020, but it still gave her pause.

The high salinity of the mine water made it 17 per cent more dense than seawater, meaning Iffland – who travels at speeds of up to 75km/h during high dives – would decelerate shockingly fast when she hit the surface.

In layman's terms, it could hurt.

"That was one of the times where I thought, 'I don't think I'm actually going to do this,'" she admits. 

But minutes later, she was leaping from a platform secured to the mine's wall and plummeting downwards, becoming the first woman to ever complete such a dive.

It's far from her only 'world first' moment.

The world's most decorated cliff diver, Iffland alredy has eight world titles and 11 world championships under her belt despite only getting into the adrenaline-pumping sport in 2016.

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Born and raised in Lake Macquarie, NSW, she was an active and adventure-seeking kid obsessed with diving and gymnastics.

By her teens she was training as an Olympic-style diver with the likes of Olympic medallist Melissa Wu at the NSW Institute of Sport, before working as an acrobatic trampolining and diving entertainer on cruise ships.

Then stumbled across the wild world of Red Bull cliff diving and was immediately hooked.

"I was always super outgoing and adventurous, so mixing that with a sport that I was in love with for so many years was a pretty easy decision," she says.

"And it didn't just happen overnight. I've been training in the pool, in the gym, in the gymnastics school for 20 years."

Iffland threw herself into the sport and snagged a wildcard entry to compete in the 2016 Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series, diving from heights of more than 20m.

When she told her parents, they were gobsmacked.

"They trust that I know what I'm doing and they're my biggest supporters, but it obviously would make any parent feel a little bit nervous," she laughs.

Eight years into her cliff diving career, Iffland's convinced her mum still watches every dive with one eye closed.

The 33-year-old puts tons of work into staying safe, from hours of training in the pool and gym, to monitoring weather and water conditions at dive locations.

But there are some things she has no control over.

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"We hit the water around 75km/h and slow down in a matter of seconds, so the impact is quite hard on the body," Iffland explains.

"I've done everything I can to mitigate those injuries and to try and avoid them but unfortunately, you can't. It's just a part of sport."

She's yet to collect any serious injuries and isn't one to tempt fate, insisting that she can always say no to a dive if it looks too risky - but adds, "I haven't had to yet."

The risk is part of the thrill of cliff diving, as is the fear, which Iffland still experiences every time her toes touch the edge of the platform.

She says the nerves only make her perform better, forcing her into a state of hyperfocus where her body just takes over.

In fact, the only thing that really scares her after years of throwing herself off towering platforms or a moving hot air balloon (yes, she's done that too) is "standing in front of people and talking".

"It's way scarier than cliff diving," Iffland admits sheepishly.

But that's exactly what she was doing earlier this week as she launched her new swimwear collaboration with Budgy Smuggler, which all began with a message to Australian artist Karina Jambrak.

Jambrak partnered with Iffland to create the cossie of her dreams, which Iffland will wear to compete in the Red Bull Cliff Diving final in Sydney Harbour next month.

In the last decade, she's dived all around the world but nothing can compare to the moments before a 21m dive with the Harbour Bridge on one side and the Opera House on the other.

"It makes you feel alive … you can feel the wind in your hair, and then you hit the water and everything goes completely silent. It's an addictive feeling," Iffland says.

She hopes to score another title next month and after that, who knows?

The only thing that's certain is that Iffland isn't done yet, not by a long shot.

"I've said it to myself a couple of times, like, 'alright, I'm gonna settle down now. But every time I want more. It's never that easy to settle."

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