Dive Into the New York Times

It looks like the Grey Lady has come calling again, this time to shine a bright light on Bermuda’s world-class diving scene. The small piece in last Sunday’s New York Times Travel section is a departure from the newspaper’s larger coverage of the island, namely 36 Hours in Bermuda written by yours truly and an unflattering portrayal of the island called Hurricane Season, Bargain Hunting in Bermuda penned by Seth Kugel. As I’ve stated before I found his story grossly unfair and vastly under-reported, but in the writer’s defense at least he left a thoughtful comment clarifying his intentions. Ahh well. Today is all about diving and so onto the New York Times’ latest piece titled 6 Action Adventures in the Caribbean. Now before you jump on the snark bandwagon, complaining that Bermuda is not actually in the Caribbean, that it’s a mid-Atlantic archipelago, blah, blah, blah, consider the story’s first two sentences. “O.K., so Bermuda is not technically within the Caribbean Sea, but it is part of Caricom, the political alliance of Caribbean nations. And with more than 300 shipwrecks and one of the healthiest coral reef systems in the world, the island is ripe with diving opportunities.” Boom! Alright New York Times, you got it right from the start this time, but what else do you have to say about my fair island? “From June through October, Triangle Diving offers a night-diving excursion to the King George, a dredger built for the Bermudan government. In 1930, the ship was sunk off the coast, and it remains fairly intact, more than 45 feet below the sea.” Awesome fact, but you do realize it’s November, right? Anything else you’d like to say for yourself? “The marine life encountered on a night dive may look more frightening than during the day, but Mr. Christmas said there is little danger and that seeing sharks inside the reef is very rare. ‘Generally speaking, don’t poke it, and it won’t poke you,’ Mr. Christmas said.” Excellent advice my merrily-named friend. If you’d like to learn more about diving in Bermuda—and see a picture of yours truly in a tight-fitting wetsuit—then head on over to my Outside Television blog This Way Out where I’ve written all about a recent dive on Bermuda’s south shore. And yes, that picture above was taken in Bermuda's waters, just not by me (thanks New York Times photographer, Mike Nagle!).