Come to Okinawa, Japan for World Class Diving

[Baracuda Smile]

I dived Okinawa when I was stationed with there with the Marines in 1981. Made lots of dives but don't remember all the neat stuff you've mentioned. I remember really neat wall dives and lots of sea snakes !!!!

I agree many Military Divers Dive the seawalls every weekend. There is nothing wrong with that as it is convient, easy, and cheap. I also spend a lot of time diving the seawalls but usually in the form as a divemaster supporting and instructor. When I dive for fun I love to get off the beaten path. I will do a boat dive, or drive to the far side of the island and try to find a new dive site. I use many publications both US and Japanese to find these dive sites. We dive for the adventure. Half the fun of shore diving is the adventure getting to the dive site. The dive shop I work for offers Dive and Drive where I can take you to these little known dive sites. My future plans include loading a bunch of tanks into my van and putting my van on the ferry and going to the outer islands for a weekend. If will cost me about $100 for the ferry ride. We will camp out on the white sand beach and be able to dive very remote locations.

Onna Village has some great wall dives. I like to do a shore drift dive. Using known current direction we enter at one point and drift in the current along the wall and exit out at a second point. We ground our gear on shore and I walk up and pick up the car and move to the second point to pick our gear.

We do have sea snakes and they will get any new divers heart pumping! Sea Snakes are pretty harmless especially if you are wearing a full wet suit. Last weekend I dove off the seawall with a large school of Baracuda (1000's) circling around with in a few feet of me, and that was a real National Geographic Momement right off the sea wall.

 

[Baracuda Smile]

If a picture is worth a thousand words then what is a thousand pictures worth? Here are links to not only my photos, but also my dive buddies photos, who is a semi-pro photographers photos. All of these photos were taken in Okinawa, Japan.

Enjoy,

Barracuda Smile

OkiFun's photos and albums on webshots

http://www.scubaboard.com/gallery/sh...0/ppuser/99256

 

[Baracuda Smile]

ALL,

Please share your favorite dive sites with all of us by plotting them on a google earth map. You can also add your favorite dive shop, decompression chamber, rental centers, and training facilities.


Plot them here

HotDive - information and social community scuba diving portal, diving, dive spots, dive sites

HotDive - information and social community scuba diving portal, diving, dive spots, dive sites

For your diving pleasure I have added over 100 dive sites for Okinawa, Japan

 

[Baracuda Smile]

I found this from the Okinawa Tourism Board. It is a pretty nice website.

"Thanks to the warm subtropical climate, one can dive in the sea around Okinawa year-round. The waters off Okinawa, which is located in the southernmost part of Japan, are known as one of the largest coral habitats in the world. Okinawa offers dive sites that are on par with such well-known sites as the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, the Bahamas, Palau, and the Galapagos Islands. In the Ryukyu Archipelago, which stretches as a chain of islands for 1,000 km from east to west and 400 km from north to south in between the Pacific Ocean and the East China Sea, there are 160 small and large islands, 48 of which are inhabited by people. As the landscape and water differ slightly between each island, what is attractive to most divers in Okinawa is the variety of sites, each of which has slightly different characteristics. You can also experience and enjoy the slightly different culture and habits of the people of each island."

Diving Paradise Okinawa:: mahae plus :: Okinawa Travel Information

 

[sabbath999]

I lived there when I was a kid... long before I leaned to dive, but some of my dad's friends were divers and they said that Oki was an amazing place to dive.

 

[Baracuda Smile]

It is still an awsome dive site. In my humble opinion one of the top 10 in the world. We had a coral bleaching a few years ago, but it is amazing to see the corals return. For instance the Japanese fishermen enplaced fish boxes last year and now there are corals growing on them!

 

[Baracuda Smile]

I lived there when I was a kid... long before I leaned to dive, but some of my dad's friends were divers and they said that Oki was an amazing place to dive.

You should dive in your fathers wake. From watching European backpackers your can travel around Okinawa and Asia cheeply sleeping in Hostels. The most expensive part is the airline fare. If you book it out far enough in advance it is not to bad. You would not imagine how much things have changed here. When were you in Okinawa? I have been here since 1997, and both of my kids grew here and they loved it! I got my son into diving and he loves to go out with his buddies. Read through the posts, the boat dives are actulally less expensive in Okinawa versus Florida and Hawaii, and you get better service.

 

[Baracuda Smile]

Yet another reason to come to Japan to Dive...

Participation by Type of Sport (Diving)
Nearly All who enter this sport start by attending private diving schools to acquire diving certification (C cards). Each year around 70,000 people obtain their C card. As of 1992, about 500,000 divers have acquired C cards. Of this number, less than 100,000 dive on a regular basis, with 10,000 to 20,000 diving once or twice a month. In addition to this, many people join diving tours without holding C cards. There numbers are estimated at 400,000, annually. So, the total diving population might reach 1,000,000.

Among the recent C card registrants, 45% are female. The percentage of females has been increasing yearly. This was a sport once dominated by those in their twenties. Recently, the over forty group has taken it up, indicating a widening age dispersion.


On a boat dive in Japan your dive buddy has a 45% chance of being a well educated female scuba diver who is probably single and looking to get married.

 

[Baracuda Smile]

YOMITAN, Okinawa Commercial fishermen netted a pregnant great white shark in the East China Sea near Okinawa , drawing a crowd of onlookers Thursday to YomitanÃÔ Toya port, near Torii Station.

Seven live shark pups found inside the creature were taken to an aquarium in an effort to keep them alive.

The shark was about 16 feet long and weighed 2,866 pounds, according to Hideshi Teruya, of the Churaumi Aquarium at Ocean Expo Park in Nago. It was snagged in a commercial fishing net between Okinawa and the nearby Kerama Islands .

Teryua said the great whites are among the worldÃÔ largest predatory fish and ÅÂre known for being particularly vicious.

However, he added that they are also probably the most misunderstood creatures in the ocean. Even though several kinds of sharks have attacked humans in Okinawa waters over the years, most steer clear of humans, he said. The coral reefs that surround Okinawa usually keep the dangerous sharks at bay.

The shark caught Thursday was in open water.

Ūt was huge, said Emmanuel Lacoste, an Okinawa Christian School International teacher who was going to buy fresh fish at the port market when he spotted a crowd gathering near a fishing boat. Ūt drew quite a bit of excitement from people down at the port.

The carcass was loaded by crane to a truck and transported to the aquarium for study. Teryua said he was excited about the catch.

Ÿe know very little about great whites, Teruya said. ŵhis one was a female and was carrying seven babies. Since sharks need to keep swimming in order to stay alive, she died when trapped by the net. But the babies were still alive.

The average size of a full grown great white shark is 13 to 16 feet, with a weight of 1,500 to 2,500 pounds, although some have been measured at about 22 feet and weighing more than 4,400 pounds.

Teruya said he did not know how far off Okinawa ÃÔ coast the shark was caught. The fishermen told him the catch was accidental.

Ūt was probably looking for food, he said. Ūn the past, there have been perhaps a total of 10 great white sharks caught off Okinawa . The last one off Yomitan was 10 years ago, he said.

He added that in April 2005 a large pregnant great white was caught in a fixed net some 530 yards off Torii Beach , but she escaped before a crew from the aquarium could transport her to Ocean Expo Park .

Ÿe are not sure if the shark caught Thursday is the same one, Teruya said.

PS A pod Orca's were also seen in Okinawa this year. Spinner Dolphins are often spotted in the Kerama Islands. The Humback Whales are here (Late Jan Feb and Mar) and the cows will be calving until late March then they will migrate north.

 

[Baracuda Smile]

The Top Ten Reasons to come to Okinawa, Japan for scuba diving.
10. Water never gets below 65F and there are 100's of shore dives.
9. Coral Reefs are alive fed by Black Current, or Kuroshio which is bigger than the gulf stream.
8. Wrecks if the Bahama's are the grave yard of the Atlantic then Ryukan Kingdom who traded with Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Korea, Japan, China, British Emipire, US, and the Dutch. The Ryukan Kingdom ruled 500 years prior to Columbus discovering America has to be the Grave Yard of Pacific. Okinawa was the site of the largest invation in the Pacific only second to Normandy, France. We are still finding Unexploded Ordinance (UXO) every couple dives. Dive the USS Emmons a Destroyer that was sunk by 6 Kamakazi pilots.
7. 1000's of Nudibancs
6. Sea Turtles nesting in Jan-Mar
5. Rays to include Manta Rays (Iromote, Ishigaki,) and Eagle Rays
4. Dolphins... Spiner Dolphins were spoted near the Kerama Islands not far from Okinawa. You can dive with dolphins at the Renasannce Hotel on HWY 58.
3. Sharks Great White, Schooling Hammer Heads (Yonaguni) Black Tip, White Tip
2. Dugon Jugon Duggon a cousin to the Florida Manatee. Dugon might be extinct might still be in Okinawa come find out for your self.
1. Yonaguni Monuments possibly dating back 10,000 years 5000 years older than the pyramids to Egypt. Yonaguni is possibly linked to Inca in Peru.

What do you want to see on your dive vacation?