Iceland - Silfra in September
Posted: Sat Jun 23, 2018 10:40 pm
Long and long overdue Dive Report Alert! You have been warned....
The name Silfra is legendary among cold water divers, and for good reason. In rugged Iceland, in Thingvellir National Park, ice cold clear water is filtered through porous underground lava, and into Thingvellir lake and on through a crevasse created by the slowly drifting apart (2 cm. per year) of two continental plates, the European and North American plates. The water is around 38 degrees, (2-4 centigrade year round) and crystal clear, even drinkable. Visibility is 300' plus, and it is a delightfully surreal experience to dive between the Continental plates for 40 minutes, at points being able to touch both.
I quickly run out of adjectives trying to describe these dives - among the most epic I've ever done.
My dive guide, Hedin Olaffson, is of Viking stock, grew up working with his Dad fishing in the north, and has been guiding dives here for 16 years, with over 4,000 dives on Silfra alone. Yeah, he knows his stuff. When I met him it was cold and blowing and he stepped out of his car in an unbuttoned short sleeve shirt. Yeah, Viking.
Hedin takes no more than 4 divers, and on both my diving days with him I was his only client. You can find him at diveiceland.com, and I would not hesitate to recommend him to anyone privileged to find themselves in Iceland with the opportunity to dive. There are a ton of cattle car operations diving Silfra, and yes, even here you can get silted out by rookie divers, so do your homework if you go. It is too epic and too expensive to not be "perfect", IMHO.
I lugged my gear to Europe for this September 40th wedding anniversary trip (more on Denmark diving in another thread), and was eager to dive Silfra in the comfort and security of my own gear. Hedin met me early at the park, and the larger operations were already preparing their gear for the hordes of tourist divers that would shortly descend on the place.
There are wonderful benches for gearing up, and well maintained restroom facilities. We geared up quickly and began the 150 meter walk to the entry. I had requested 15 litre steel tanks for my own comfort and weighting, and they were wonderful, with basically the characteristics of a HP 119 or LP 95
We quickly arrived at the entry, and I was amazed at the new, well built stairs going down to a small platform for finning up at perfect depth. It is really, really well designed and done.
Of course I am so excited I can hardly stand it, and am just awestruck at the clarity of the water. I put my face in the water as I put my fins on and came up laughing out loud. It was so clear that I couldn't tell I was underwater, and the belly laugh of joy was as genuine as it gets.
Sinking below the surface was one of the most joyfully surreal experiences I have ever had. My Weezle Extreme Plus kept me warm, but there is no escaping the 38 degree water on your face! But of course by this time I'm to entranced to even care.
My dear wife took these pics, and a few topside pics while she waited for me to return from dive #1.
The rugged Fall beauty of this magical place was amazing, and that is only above water!
And now we come to underwater. Wow. The dive varies from 60 ffw to a few shallow spots around 6 ffw. There are cracks, caverns, and caves, and you are pretty restricted to where you can go. By dive #2 my guide was comfortable enough with my skills that I did a little "exploring", and that's all I'll say about that.
I took my camera the first dive, but by the time came for the second dive I left my camera behind and just breathed in the wonder and glory. Hedin had a GoPro and took a bunch of stills, of which I will share a few here. As an underwater photographer I take lots of pictures! However, I have very few of myself underwater. So... here are a bunch! Hedin did a great job capturing the "feel" of the Silfra dive. Again, he is one of, if not the most experienced guide at Silfra, with over 4,000 dives on this site alone over 16 years. His individualized attention was perfect, and I would recommend him without hesitation to anyone considering diving here. Many operations are "cattle car" kind of outfits, not Hedin.
How can you describe this? I am told you can drink the water, but I was so entranced I forgot to try.
There are a few spots where the water shallows up, particularly near the end of the dive when you come into the "lagoon".
Between the Continental Plates. Are you freakin' kiddin' me?!? Running out of adjectives here....
And finally, coming back into the lagoon... hard to tell the difference between surface and sky, and these dives were on a very overcast day. I can only imagine if the sun were shining! By the way, this is place where Silfra could (and has) been silted out by divers. The bottom is sandy silt here, not rock.
And lastly, coming out at the other end of the dive at the incredible new platform they have installed - really nice. The silly Cheshire cat grin on my face says it all! These two 45 minute dives will always rank among my top 10. I am indeed a privileged person!
Thanks for reading this far, and if you love diving cold water, this should be on your list!
The name Silfra is legendary among cold water divers, and for good reason. In rugged Iceland, in Thingvellir National Park, ice cold clear water is filtered through porous underground lava, and into Thingvellir lake and on through a crevasse created by the slowly drifting apart (2 cm. per year) of two continental plates, the European and North American plates. The water is around 38 degrees, (2-4 centigrade year round) and crystal clear, even drinkable. Visibility is 300' plus, and it is a delightfully surreal experience to dive between the Continental plates for 40 minutes, at points being able to touch both.
I quickly run out of adjectives trying to describe these dives - among the most epic I've ever done.
My dive guide, Hedin Olaffson, is of Viking stock, grew up working with his Dad fishing in the north, and has been guiding dives here for 16 years, with over 4,000 dives on Silfra alone. Yeah, he knows his stuff. When I met him it was cold and blowing and he stepped out of his car in an unbuttoned short sleeve shirt. Yeah, Viking.
Hedin takes no more than 4 divers, and on both my diving days with him I was his only client. You can find him at diveiceland.com, and I would not hesitate to recommend him to anyone privileged to find themselves in Iceland with the opportunity to dive. There are a ton of cattle car operations diving Silfra, and yes, even here you can get silted out by rookie divers, so do your homework if you go. It is too epic and too expensive to not be "perfect", IMHO.
I lugged my gear to Europe for this September 40th wedding anniversary trip (more on Denmark diving in another thread), and was eager to dive Silfra in the comfort and security of my own gear. Hedin met me early at the park, and the larger operations were already preparing their gear for the hordes of tourist divers that would shortly descend on the place.
There are wonderful benches for gearing up, and well maintained restroom facilities. We geared up quickly and began the 150 meter walk to the entry. I had requested 15 litre steel tanks for my own comfort and weighting, and they were wonderful, with basically the characteristics of a HP 119 or LP 95
We quickly arrived at the entry, and I was amazed at the new, well built stairs going down to a small platform for finning up at perfect depth. It is really, really well designed and done.
Of course I am so excited I can hardly stand it, and am just awestruck at the clarity of the water. I put my face in the water as I put my fins on and came up laughing out loud. It was so clear that I couldn't tell I was underwater, and the belly laugh of joy was as genuine as it gets.
Sinking below the surface was one of the most joyfully surreal experiences I have ever had. My Weezle Extreme Plus kept me warm, but there is no escaping the 38 degree water on your face! But of course by this time I'm to entranced to even care.
My dear wife took these pics, and a few topside pics while she waited for me to return from dive #1.
The rugged Fall beauty of this magical place was amazing, and that is only above water!
And now we come to underwater. Wow. The dive varies from 60 ffw to a few shallow spots around 6 ffw. There are cracks, caverns, and caves, and you are pretty restricted to where you can go. By dive #2 my guide was comfortable enough with my skills that I did a little "exploring", and that's all I'll say about that.
I took my camera the first dive, but by the time came for the second dive I left my camera behind and just breathed in the wonder and glory. Hedin had a GoPro and took a bunch of stills, of which I will share a few here. As an underwater photographer I take lots of pictures! However, I have very few of myself underwater. So... here are a bunch! Hedin did a great job capturing the "feel" of the Silfra dive. Again, he is one of, if not the most experienced guide at Silfra, with over 4,000 dives on this site alone over 16 years. His individualized attention was perfect, and I would recommend him without hesitation to anyone considering diving here. Many operations are "cattle car" kind of outfits, not Hedin.
How can you describe this? I am told you can drink the water, but I was so entranced I forgot to try.
There are a few spots where the water shallows up, particularly near the end of the dive when you come into the "lagoon".
Between the Continental Plates. Are you freakin' kiddin' me?!? Running out of adjectives here....
And finally, coming back into the lagoon... hard to tell the difference between surface and sky, and these dives were on a very overcast day. I can only imagine if the sun were shining! By the way, this is place where Silfra could (and has) been silted out by divers. The bottom is sandy silt here, not rock.
And lastly, coming out at the other end of the dive at the incredible new platform they have installed - really nice. The silly Cheshire cat grin on my face says it all! These two 45 minute dives will always rank among my top 10. I am indeed a privileged person!
Thanks for reading this far, and if you love diving cold water, this should be on your list!
