Celebrities
And their DIVE.IS stories
Ben Stiller
"Thank you honey, and kiss your mom from me"
— Ben Stiller
Our guide Jennie is a huge Ben Stiller fan and she was therefore chosen to guide him.
In the end she asked Ben "Can I get a photo with you, otherwise my mom will kill me." Ben agreed with a big smile and posed for photos with all of us. Before he left he went over to Jennie, tapped her on her sholder and said "Thank you honey, and kiss your mom from me" :-)
Bob Ballard
Bob Ballard the discoverer of the Titanic and many other famous wrecks came snorkeling in Silfra with us on a warm summer day.
Our guides AJ and Hanna enjoyed his company very much and the whole Silfra day was a great success.
However, when Tómas Knútsson, the founder of DIVE.IS heard that Bob Ballard was in Iceland he became very excited. He has been a great fan for many years and owns all the National Geographic magazines with Mr. Ballards stories & discoveries.
He grabbed them and arranged a meeting with him on the airport to get the magazines signed by the Master himeself. We know they both enjoyed their get-together very much.
Bill Gates
"Is the water so clear because there are so few particles or because there are so few elements dissolved in the water?"
— Bill Gates
Who else would ask a smart question like that?
This was the question Bill Gates asked Tobi after he had finished his snorkeling trip through Silfra on the walk back to the car park.
Wow, one of the best questions I had in over 1000 dives in Silfra, Tobi thought... but not quite sure about the answer.
"I think it´s first of all because there are so few particles in the water..."
Then David commented from behind "Well, no, a few years ago we had scientists here who examined the water and found that the Silfra water had much less dissolved elements than a bottle of shop-bought drinking water".
Karl XVI Gustaf, King of Sweden
As you might imagine there was quite some preparation involved in taking Karl XVI Gustaf, King of Sweden Snorkeling to Silfra. Certainly it was top secret even though he was to come here on a private trip with a couple of friends just to have a good time.
In the preperation meetings we were briefed to adress the king only in the third person with "Your Majesty"... We loved that :)
When the king arrived at Silfra with his friends he turned out to be very friendly and easy going, even more so after the first bottle of Champagne... after the snorkeling trip, of course.
It was a pleasure, Your Majesty!
Willi wills wissen
Willi Weitzel dives in Silfra
Willi Weitzel from the popular German children TV Show "Willi wills wissen" came to dive in Silfra with us for two days. He filmed the dive for the episode " Wo die Erde knirscht" where he explains plate tectonics in a child-friendly way.
The most interesting thing for us was when we had to take a couple of scenes again, because they would be too suspenseful for the target audience. Willi said he often gets letters from his young fan audience to check if he is still ok and ask him to please not do these dangerous things again :)
Tom Cruise
Mission accomplished
Here at DIVE.IS, we are big Tom Cruise fans and have seen most of his movies.
After his Diving Silfra Under the Midnight Sun Tom invited us for Hot Chocolate into his trailer that was parked at Silfra.
A friend of his was there as well and we had a nice chat. At some point Tom told a story where, a while ago he was on a film shoot and was hanging outside of a glass building in an enormous height... We don´t remember how he got to tell us about this? Was it the same visibility.
Well, we certainly remember the movie. :))
