a few days worth of diving sunabe seawall - post-typhoon jelawat

[chile7236]

after typhoon jelawat hit okinawa, there was a lot of damage seen on land...there was even more underwater...giant, car sized rocks/coral heads/boulders moved all over the place. coral heads completely destroyed. some underwater landmarks obliterated so non-compass navigating fools like me have less reference points...here's a few shots from a few days of diving over the past week. unfortunately, my lens (and my ability to use it to it's fullest extent) limits how i shoot, so here goes:









on a lighter note, the carnation corals are in bloom again...



i thought these little buddies and their home had been washed away...

 

[charlesml3]

My favorite is the lionfish shot. It may be a tad underexposed but it has a terrific 3D feel to it. I love the depth into the background you have in this one.

The clown-anemone shot is also really good. Wish there was a tad more light in the bottom-right corner but it's still really nice.

 

[klausi]

Nice to see this pix, this was one of my favorite spots wen I was living in Oki!

 

[TONY CHANEY]

Oh man, I really hate to see the damage but the pictures look really great. Don't undersale yourself, you are doing very good work. I have several favorite dive sites there but Junkyards was one of my best. I'd check out the Sea cam and watch the conditions from work at Futenma. Call a fellow diver up and when we got off work we would head over to Tsunami and grab 2 tanks each. Drive to the seawall, gear up and get an hour dive in. We would then change out tanks and get a night dive in. Finish up and head home. Nothing like it has compared since. Tell Bob Z. Tony Chaney said hello. Stationed on MCAS Futenma 1984-1989 and 1999-2003. hopefully heading back next year to see family and friends. OBTW, Horseshoe and Bolo, life begains at 150 fsw. Thanks for sharing

 

[Blackmore75]

Bummer about the damage. Had many great times over there. Assisting with the students there off the seawall was a blast, and I miss diving Maeda. I hope not too much damage took place, and hope it is able to bounce back. Enjoy Oki!!!

 

[s_liptak]

I may be headed to Okinawa in December or January for about 10 days. Any recommendations, pointers to good sites, good dive outfits, good shore dive locations, what to expect in Dec/Jan (temp, viz, creatures, etc) would be much appreciated.

 

[japan-diver]

There are a ton of shore dive locations on Okinawa to many to list. Sunabe Seawall is probably the easiest to access with multiple entry points and tons of critters to see. In Dec/Jan water temps will be in the mid 70'sF. Viz will vary with sites from 10meters to over 40 meters. Dec/Jan is also when the humpback whales start showing up and some of the larger critters start cruising the area.

 

[Blackmore75]

Check with Doug at Reef Encounters unless you have base access and can get in with either Tsunami Scuba on Camp Foster, Kadena Marina with Kadena Air Force Base, or Torrey Beach Dive Locker on the Torrey Station base. Reef Encounters is in town near Kadena, and they do a lot of different trips out of there from local dives to the Outer Kerama islands. In January you will want at least a 3mm if not a 5mm wetsuit. They do have Box Jellyfish there and Stonefish are pretty common, so you will want to be sure you have dive booties if you are going in. PM me if you need other info, and I will do my best to get you hooked up with some other people there that do a lot of diving.

I may be headed to Okinawa in December or January for about 10 days. Any recommendations, pointers to good sites, good dive outfits, good shore dive locations, what to expect in Dec/Jan (temp, viz, creatures, etc) would be much appreciated.

 

[japan-diver]

Box jelly season ends in Oct- Nov so they will not be a problem in Dec/Jan.