The one bucket list item I had for Iceland (aka a non-negotiable must do), was SCUBA diving in Silfra.

Silfra is located in Þingvallavatn Lake in the Þingvellir National Park (which we had first traveled to the day before on the Golden Circle Tour), and is a rift that is part of the tectonic boundary between the North American and Eurasian plates.

My sister and I were picked up by Dive.IS early in the morning and driven out to the site. They were a fantastic company and I highly recommend them. They provided us with everything we needed (including cookies and hot cocoa), and were equal parts fun and professional.

Our group was a small one, just the guide, me, and a professional photographer (my sister was snorkeling a bit later). We donned our dry suits and gear, and walked to the platform where you enter the fissure.

Now I had worn a dry suit before, but had never been diving in one. My guide gave me a brief run down of how it worked, and I was able to pick it up pretty quickly.

The reason this is a dry suit dive instead of a wetsuit dive is the temperature of the water. Being that you’re diving in Iceland, you can’t expect the water to be all toasty and soothing. It was about 3 degrees Celsius, or 37 degrees Fahrenheit when we went.

Fun fact: A wetsuit keeps you warm by letting in water and trapping it between the neoprene of the suit and your body. Your body heat then warms up that layer of water. Dry suits, on the other hand, are more like giant onsies that have tight seals around the wrists and neck to keep water from entering. The air that you pump into the suit (along with a giant fleece onsie on top of your warm clothes), is what keeps you relatively insulated.

We were the very first group of tourists to enter Silfra that day, and I almost felt bad for disturbing the complete stillness of the water. There was no silt stirred up, no waves, no movement.

The water was crystal clear. I’m not sure exactly what the distance of the visibility was, but it was extremely far. I’ve never seen or been in water that clear before.

Not only was the visibility incredible, the color of the water was so vibrantly blue and green at times (usually at shallower depths).

Fun fact: The water here is is fresh water, and it’s so pure, you can drink it while you dive! The water enters the area via an underground spring that is filtered through volcanic sand. As I was diving, if I got a bit parched, I’d just take a quick sip out the side of my regulator!

Not long after we got started navigating through Silfra, we came upon a relatively narrow gap. It was here we got to take our pictures with one hand on North America, one hand on Europe.

There was a lot of up and down in this dive, which my ears hated, but it allowed me to get the hang of the dry suit much quicker.

We’d dive down into the fissure when it got wide and deep, and then swim up over parts of it, almost floating on the surface, before diving back down again into the ravines.

I was pretty frozen by the time we exited the water for our first dive. I needed help getting my gear off, and my lips were swollen from the cold (they refer to this as Angelina Jolie lips). Some hot cocoa and cookies helped warm me up in preparation for the second dive.

Our first dive was 40 minutes long, which was a good amount of time. Our second one? 45 minutes. Normally second dives are shorter. To say I was frozen by the end of that one was an understatement. I could barely kick my legs!

The photographer who was on the tour with me was great, but he took his sweet time and was constantly lagging behind, causing us to have to sit and wait for him. It was the non-movement that killed me that second time around.

It was pretty cool though exiting the water and being surrounded by snow capped mountains though. Not something one generally sees while diving.

Diving in Silfra was the most amazing dive I’ve ever done, and I would go back in a heartbeat. Maybe next time I’ll take the official drysuit course offered by Dive.IS so I can drysuit dive elsewhere in the world!

Silfra Diving Tour Facts

COST:

39,990 ISK or approximately $315 USD

AVAILABILITY:

All year around, daily. You can also do the tour alongside someone who is snorkeling, like my sister and I did.

REQUIREMENTS:

• be at least 150cm tall and weigh at least 45kg
• be at least 18 years of age
• be a certified diver at the level of PADI Open Water or equivalent
• bring proof of diving certification
• be physically fit
• be ready to wear a sometimes tight & constricting dry suit
• not be pregnant

Dry suit diving experience is recommended but not necessary.

INCLUDED:

• Free hotel pick up and return in Reykjavik
• Guide
• 2 guided dives (if temperature drops below 0°C we do only 1 dive)
• all necessary equipment
• hot choclate and cookies in the dive break
• entrance fee of ISK 1.000,- into Silfra

Would you go SCUBA diving in Iceland? Where is the coolest place you’ve ever been diving?

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