Bermuda’s “inspirational” scuba diving is a cover story in Sport Diver magazine, featuring several pages of colour photos of the Island’s shipwrecks and sights as the writer follows in the footsteps of the stars of the movie The Deep.And even more publicity is set to follow in the November issue when the magazine publishes a 16-page feature on Bermuda and a special guide to the Island.But the leading scuba magazine said it received no cooperation or advertising from the Tourism Department for either issue —- despite the fact the new National Tourism Plan specifically named diving and water sports as a new “destination hub” that Bermuda should be marketing.In fact, Sport Diver’s editor said they were only able to eventually get all the articles and guide produced by working directly with two dive centres and two hotels on the Island.The editor said Bermuda Tourism representatives in Britain had provided no help with the assignment, but that did not put his team off wanting to write about diving in Bermuda. In the end, the dive centres and hotels ended up funding the Bermuda guide, he said.“After much contact back and forth with the UK representation for the tourist board regarding sorting out an editorial trip to Bermuda, and the possibility of a 16-page ‘Guide to ...’, eventually it all came to nothing despite endless promises of assistance, and the only reason that we managed to get any articles on Bermuda — and a cut-down, 12-page ‘Guide to ...’ — was through the sterling efforts of two individual dive centres, assisted by two hotels,” said Mark Evans, editor of Sport Diver’ and Global Dive Companion.UK-based Sport Diver is the official magazine of PADI’s International Diving Society.The August article headlined “Bermuda in the movies” traces the steps of movie stars Nick Nolte, Robert Shaw and Jacqueline Bisset in The Deep, one of top grossing films of 1977, which was based on the true-life exploits of author Peter Benchley’s friend and treasure hunter Teddy Tucker.The article points out Bermuda is known as the “wreck capital of the Atlantic, with more than 300 historical wrecks scattered around the coastline”.Writer Stuart Philpott explores some of the Island’s shipwrecks, as well as locations from the movie, including St David’s Lighthouse, which he notes “unfortunately, was closed during my visit”.He wrote: “The majority of underwater footage was taken on the wreck of the Constellation and the neighbouring wreck of the Montana, located off the north-west coast. I took a taxi ride over to Dive Bermuda, a PADI five-star IDC centre, and made the arrangements to dive on the two wrecks. Dive Bermuda’s manager, Kevin Luton, paired me up with expat Alan Pearce. Sadly, there was no sign of any bikini-clad women wearing wet T-shirts, so I had to make do with Alan in my photographs.”Exploring the Constellation, he wrote: “I peered underneath the wreckage and wondered if this was where Jacqueline Bisset had been filmed with the first ampoule in her hand.”He added: “We jumped into the water and dropped down onto a massive pile of 20kg cement bags. There must have been thousands lying over the seabed. Alan disappeared behind part of the wooden hull and pulled out two small glass bottles that must have been part of the cargo.”Commenting on another famous wreck, the Marie Celeste, he wrote: “A huge storm hit in July 2011, uncovering bottles of wine and other rare artefacts. ...“Maybe the legendary Teddy Tucker hasn’t found all the shipwrecks around Bermuda. There could still be an uncharted Spanish galleon lying on the seabed just waiting for the next big storm to uncover her priceless cargo.”Approaching Hurricane Leslie perhaps?Mr Philpott ends with a “Did you know?” fact, noting that, in fact, as many Bermudians know, “While The Deep was set on Bermuda and the Island featured extensively both above and below the surface, much of the wreck-diving footage was shot on the shipwreck of the RMS Rhone in the British Virgin Islands, while the shark feeding frenzy was actually filmed off the Great Barrier Reef in Australia!”