HELMET DIVING IN BERMUDA'S CORAL GARDENS

So you want to explore the underwater world? You've tried snorkeling, but you inhale more water than air. And forget scuba diving. You can't swim. Besides, without glasses, you can't even see a barracuda in front of your nose.

Well, before you resign yourself to a life of Jacques Cousteau reruns and glass-bottomed boat rides, consider helmet diving.

A diving helmet works like a glass turned upside-down in water. Fresh air is pumped in through a hose, and bubbles out of the open bottom. Your head stays dry and you can reach in and touch your face or adjust your glasses. You need no lessons or swimming ability — just a sense of adventure.

Heavy helmets feel weightless

We signed up with Bermuda Bell Diving, a company that routinely takes visitors, ages 5 to 85, on three-hour excursions aboard the Cameron. Located in Flatt's Village, it’s easy to reach from either Hamilton or St. George's by taxi, public bus or moped.

Partners Paul Pike and James Outerbridge assign us to the first group of six to take the plunge. Two by two, we climb down the ladder until the water is at shoulder level. As James lowers the helmets over our heads, we hear bubbles rising in the water, and step down to the sandy ocean floor, 10 feet below.

Diving helmets enable visitors to walk underwater in Bermuda's coral reefs.

Photo © Barb & Ron Kroll

The helmets, which weigh 14 to 18 pounds above water, feel weightless down here, but they do keep us from floating back up. Paul hands us a six-foot-long grab bar, to keep our group together so the underwater video cameras can film us. (The remaining passengers watch our exploits, on board, as they await their turns.)

Underwater walk

Paul gives each of us an open mussel. Instantaneously, a troupe of sergeant majors and butterfly fish attack our offerings, voraciously gorging themselves.

Blue angelfish, red squirrel fish and an iridescent parrotfish, named Helen, accompany us. They flicker their fins tauntingly in front of the glass windows of our helmets and swish their tails and swim off as we reach out to touch them.

Sleeping coral

Paul communicates with us using small signs. "Walk forward," says one. He then makes a "C" with his thumb and forefinger, to indicate coral. We see a sleeping coral that looks like a tree on a winter day, with its smooth and naked branches.

Another coral is awake. It is brown, fluffy and bristling with tiny blossoms, wide open and waiting for plankton (microscopic sea life) to float by.

Paul gives each of us a magnifying glass, to hold up to our helmets, as he offers the coral a tiny piece of fish. Minute tentacles quickly grab the food and devour it.

Breathing sponges

As we stroll along the soft sand, Paul points to another coral, shaking his hand and mouthing the word “Ouch!" Obviously, a stinging coral, which uses its power to paralyze plankton.

We stop beside a sponge. Paul points to its breathing holes and sprinkles sand above them. The sand scatters, as the sponge exhales a puff of water, having filtered out the plankton.

All too soon, it's time to head back into the boat, for hot showers, dry towels and stories of close encounters. (On our dive, we spotted a sea cucumber. Paul held it so we could stroke its soft skin.)

Close encounters

Five-year-old Vicki excitedly raves about "the great big fish" she had seen underwater. "Of course, dear," says her mother, "I'm sure you did see some big fish." What the mother didn't know was that Vicki had seen Theodore and Samantha, two giant hogfish who love mussels. Whenever they show up, a few lucky people hand-feed them.

The most rewarding moments for Paul and James are when they bring down amputees, paraplegics and the blind — people who've only dreamed of diving. On one occasion, a large grouper nestled right into the arms of a blind man, allowing him to feel its whole body. When the man climbed out of the water back into the boat, he joyously exclaimed, "I saw everything!"

Underwater Bermuda is awesome for those who can see and swim. It's even more so for those who can't.

TRAVEL INFORMATION

Bermuda Bell Diving: www.belldive.bm