Diving in Iceland?

[Diveiceland]

We have a new video up of diving Silfra in Iceland! Yes you will need a drysuit, and yes, it is definetely worth it! Agust right now is not too busy, the airfares are cheap and the low exchange rates give you more bang for your money. This is an ideal time to Dive in Iceland.
The video we made recently of diving the amazing Silfra ravine.
Diving Iceland - Silfra - DiveIceland.com on Vimeo

[omcfadde]

Hey there everyone! Going to Iceland this Friday and they offer diving in the Silfra Ravine which is between the two continental plates of America & Europe. Has anyone ever done this? I'm asking if it's worth going cuz it's kinda pricey.

I have been on a diving trip to Silfra from Finland with some divers from my local dive center. It was very nice, I got a chance to put my new DUI suit to the test (4 degrees Celsius water) and it performed very nicely. My face did get a bit cold after 30-something minutes, though. :p

The topography of the Silfra crack is such that there isn't really any point diving down deep, because you'll just have to come up almost to the surface again in order to continue through. There was one point where we had our tanks sticking out of the water. :p

The visibility is amazing. I would say better than French Polynesia, and because there is a constant inflow of water it helps to clear out any algae kicked loose. Algae might not sound like the most amazing thing to see, but this looks a bit like florescent yellow spaghetti.

We were lucky enough to have the right conditions (some wind at the surface, and enough sunlight) that the water would refract light just like a prism, so we had rainbows projected all over the walls and bottom.

I would agree it can be a bit expensive, especially if you're going out to restaurants, doing a 4WD safari, etc. I would say it's worth the expense, though. I should upload my photos (unfortunately only above water, no underwater camera yet.)

[Sonic2011]

I have not been their but I have heard people saying great things about the place and wish you a great trip.

[ravisurdhar]

Just want to add...good god, Silfra is COLD. I was having a minor panic attack for the first 5 minutes or so of both dives as my hands and face felt like they were turning to ice. Eventually everything goes numb and you get over it and the thrill of the incredible water takes over...but the first 5-7 minutes were torture, even the second time, when I knew what to expect. I'm super happy I did it and I would recommend it to anyone with a decent amount of experience diving (you don't want to combine "oh wow, I'm breathing underwater!" with "oh my god, my face is about to fall off!")...but I'm SO glad my next dive will be in Hawaii.

[Piarco]

Returned from Iceland just over a week ago, and the Silfra dive was brilliant! Great bunch at DIVE.IS too. I did my drysuit speciality at the same time, so my first time in a drysuit (compressed neoprene, undersuit & wicking thermals) and I have to say I was toasty warm on both dives despite having clearly minor neck and wrist leakages I didn't even know about until I was out of the suit.
Ravisurdhar, you're right about it being cold, but it was a mighty 4C for me, the only time I felt anything cold was only on the exposed mouth area, and after going fairly numb pretty much prior to the dive I didn't give the temperature a second though.
The dive itself is just awe inspiring, we had 100m+ visibility - probably more if we had a further line of sight! When the sun is overhead the rocks are full of scattered rainbows from the water.
Next up is a 3 day dive tour in later August next year with some geothermal chimneys amongst other things