Every June, the guides who lead travelers into the crystal-clear water of Silfra trade places with their guests and become students again. On 12 June 2026, DIVE.IS once more hosted the Annual Silfra Safety Workshop at Þingvellir National Park, bringing together guides from every tour operator working the fissure, alongside the park’s rangers and Iceland’s paramedic professionals. The goal is simple and uncompromising: that anyone who guides at Silfra, no matter which company logo is on their drysuit, works from the same high standard of safety.
It is a tradition DIVE.IS has championed for years, and one that reflects how we have always approached this site, not as a competitive advantage to be guarded, but as a shared responsibility for the whole industry to uphold.

Setting the standard at Silfra since 1997

DIVE.IS was the first PADI Dive Center in Iceland, opening in 1997, and in 2013 became the only PADI 5 Star IDC Development Dive Center in the country, a title earned through years of meeting the highest safety and service criteria. We are also the only dive tour operator in Iceland officially certified by the Icelandic Maritime Administration to conduct both scuba diving and snorkeling tours at Silfra, and we have held Travel Agency status, certified by the Icelandic Tourist Board (Vakinn), since 2009.
Just as importantly, DIVE.IS helped write the rules that keep everyone at Silfra safe. We introduced the guiding ratios of one dive guide per three divers (3:1) and one snorkel guide per six snorkelers (6:1). These standards were later written into Icelandic law for diving and snorkeling in Silfra. Hosting the annual Safety Workshop is a natural extension of that role: we believe leadership means raising the standard for the entire industry, not just for ourselves.

Inside the 2026 workshop

Date: 12 June 2026
Where: Hakið and the Silfra meeting point, Þingvellir National Park
Hosted by: DIVE.IS Lead Guides James Azzopardi and Sara Bendicho
Who took part: Guides from all Silfra tour operators, Þingvellir Park Rangers and paramedic professionals

The day opened at 13:00 at Hakið with a keynote presentation by Höskuldur from the paramedic team, setting the tone with a professional briefing on emergency response. The group then moved to the Silfra meeting point at 14:30 for welcome and introductions, before splitting into rotating stations, where station leaders first demonstrated each skill and then supervised participants as they practiced it themselves, both on land and in the water.
The workshop is deliberately hands-on. It is one thing to read a risk-assessment plan; it is another to rehearse a real rescue in the same cold water our guests snorkel and dive in. By running realistic scenarios, guides build the muscle memory that makes the right response automatic when seconds count.

What the guides practiced

This year’s program covered the full chain of emergency responses, from the first signs of trouble on land to the recovery of an unconscious diver from the deeper sections of the fissure:
• On-land situations, recognizing and managing thermic shock (“full flood”), fainting, and treating cuts and other injuries.
• At the entry point, administering oxygen using various types of equipment in use across the site.
• In the water, area recognition and safe exit routes when a U-turn to the lagoon isn’t possible, towing techniques, and evacuating an unconscious or stressed snorkeler through an emergency exit.
• At the exit point, lifting techniques for an unconscious snorkeler, AED simulation, and CPR practice on a manikin.
• Unconscious diver rescue, a specialist station, limited to experienced dive guides, covering full unconscious-diver recovery, familiarization with the deeper “big crack” areas, and site clean-up.
Running through all of it was a shared focus on knowing every emergency exit along the fissure and practicing the firemen’s lifts used to bring someone safely out of the water, the unglamorous fundamentals that matter most in a real incident.

Stronger together: cooperation across the industry

What makes the Silfra Safety Workshop special is who is in the room. Representatives from every tour company at Silfra take part, working side by side with Þingvellir Park Rangers and paramedics. It is a rare opportunity for professionals who are usually competitors to exchange knowledge, compare best practices, and just as valuably build the friendships and trust that make cooperation effortless if a real emergency ever unfolds on site.
When every guide at Silfra has trained to the same standard and knows the others by name, the whole site becomes safer. That is the outcome DIVE.IS works toward every year.

What this means for you

If you’re planning to snorkel or dive Silfra, the Safety Workshop is a quiet reassurance that you may never see on tour, but it is there in everything we do. Our guides are certified PADI Divemasters, Instructors or higher, all trained in Emergency First Response and Rescue Diving, and they keep those skills sharp through workshops like this one. Your safety is, and always will be, our highest priority.