Okinawa Diving, GREAT!

[munclematt]

Ok, so I know I am kinda new to the forum and to diving, but I wanted to put this out. Some people might know an Otis Richardson who use to Instruct on Oahu. He has opened a shop in Okinawa for diving and well I must say, it is great. I had an awesome time! And the diving was just as good as time.

Talk about cold. 5mil wetsuit with 5mil hood and vest and I was still freezing!. But the coral was so worth it. amazing colors and enormous vibrant life. It was some great diving. I got some video and pictures I will be posting on my blog when I get back from this little work trip I am taking. Saw a lot of Lion fish everywhere, clown fish, and got 3 or 4 sharks one day. The one that was the best was the 6 footer we saw at 120 ft. Too bad we hit deco and had to ascend... no pictures. I was a little disappointed with no whale shark...

All in all the diving out here was fantastic and Otis with reef encounters was exactly. He took the aloha mentality to Okinawa and puts it in his dives. If you ever get a change I strongly suggest shooting him and email.

 

[ScubaAndDreams]

Water Temp? Sounds like fun.

 

[habasabi]

Sounds like a great time! Can't wait to see the vids... In our years of diving over there.. we never encountered a shark... The whale shark we saw was on a trip through Torii Station's Dive shop..

 

[bcyber]

Same here. I lived there 5 years and dove may times. I even spear fished and hung the bag on my waist (day and night)...and never say one shark.

Where did you happen to see them?

 

[The Mushroom King]

Come on up to Tokyo!! a little bit cooler but still pretty nice diving (last weekend water was 19c)

 

[munclematt]

I did two days of diving. I know the first day was up on the north side of the island and we places like pumpkin rock and the bends. The bends was cool cause we hit 120 ft in like 3 or 4 mins. The next day was some islands off to the south west of the main island. It took about an hour to get there. I cant pronounce much less spell the name. I know one site we hit was twin rocks. Thats were we say the sharks. My watch said it was 73 dgrees F for the water temp, but that cant be right. I was freezing my buns off as soon I hit the water. I will have to ask the guys in the shop what theirs said.

 

[Kim]

The next day was some islands off to the south west of the main island. It took about an hour to get there. I cant pronounce much less spell the name.

Kerama islands. Glad you had a good time!

 

[munclematt]

Thats it! Thanks for the fill in there.

 

[japan-diver]

Water temps are a bit colder than normal this year but still in the mid-70's for the most part. We see sharks in the Keramas on a regular basis - you have to know where to look. Glad you had some good dives with Otis, hope to see you back down this way soon. While you were enjoying the fine Okinawa weather I was up freezing in Tokyo doing the boring side of the diving business.

Doug

 

[munclematt]

I was not use to being in quite a bit bigger wetsuit, jumping in and start freezing. Makes me miss hawaii...