Steve Davis.

Top diver Tony Stewart has pulled off an underwater tour-de-force with his first foray into the unknown waters of film.

Stewart -- an ace underwater with a natural feel for camera work -- combines with musician Steve Davis to provide an underwater odyssey which gives the viewer everything but a wetsuit and a tank on their back.

And -- for those unable or unwilling to take the plunge themselves -- A Bermuda Underwater Experience provides the next best thing to actually being there yourself.

The video, available at stores across the Island, was a competitor in the sub-sea category at a recent California film festival -- blowing the trumpet fish for the secret Bermuda all around which has remained relatively unknown for far too long.

The 48-minute video, which seems a lot longer, not because it's dull, but because of the Zen-like calm it produces, is bound to be a winner with locals unaware of the treasures off the Island's shores as well as visitors keen to take home memories of Bermuda.

The perfectly-paced work starts off with Stewart describing the sights to be seen just below the surface.

And it ends with a series of beautiful images accompanied only by Davis' score which echoes Japanese harmonies in places, underlining the sense of peace the traffic-clogged `Isles of Rest' can now only produce in fits and starts.

Stewart -- who clearly has a journalist's eye for detail -- starts the film with a potted summation of Bermuda's unique position as the most northerly coral reefs in the world.

The Island , just a few hundred miles of the east coast of the US and thanks to the warmth of the Gulf Stream, boasts 48 of the 64 corals found in the sunnier climes of the Caribbean.

And -- the Island's major bonus only now being properly sold as a tourist attraction -- Bermuda has between 350 and 500 ships wrecked on its gorgeous, but treacherous reefs, providing a world-class site for wreck diving.

The eerie fascination of sunken boats is probably best summed up by Stewart: "When I dive on a wreck it's like a window on history.'' And Bermuda can boast more history than most, with wrecks ranging from recently-sunk yachts to the unknown site of the Sea Venture somewhere off St.

George's -- the ship which started Bermuda's modern history in 1609.

Even the 1943 wreck of The Constellation , a cargo ship whose prosaic deck cargo of bags of concrete have taken on a bizarre beauty with time, offers a certain thrill.

Stewart's narrative captures the odd feeling of viewing someone else's disaster when he speculates on the dying moments of the ships which rammed Bermuda's reefs and the panic among the crew when there's nothing left to save but lives.

But the video isn't just about history and wrecks -- the life going on all around Bermuda's beaches is examined in close-up detail.

From the Sergeant Major, which lives up to its warlike name by pecking at ears and hair to protect its spawn, and the tiny fish which find refuge inside the sac of a jellyfish, it's all here.

And the wonders of adaptation seen in the natural world are snapped in the `leaf fish' -- a fish which looks like a leaf and floats on the surface, only springing to life when unsuspecting prey ventures too close.

Those who have never dived before might be surprised by the literal day and night difference in sub-aqua sights, depending on the hour.

Night-time diving offers the cameraman a black background -- and the lobsters, squid and octopus which tend to lie low during daylight hours.

Stewart's narrative says: "Diving gives me the chance to go places where no-one else has been.'' But `A Bermuda Underwater Experience' gives everyone a chance to see the sights -- like the cloud-like surface of sunlit sea beyond gently-waving coral and even the patterns created by tide and sand -- which ought not to be missed.

Even if the closest you've ever got to the alternative universe of sub-aqua is sitting on a beach.

Raymond Hainey