Questions About Okinawa Diving

[vel525]

Hello,

My wife and I are planning a non-dive vacation in June to Japan and Korea. Well, it's almost impossible for us to not dive if there is good diving so here I am!

We are planning on spending 4 night in Okinawa and would like to get in 2 days of diving. Just had a few questions I'm hoping you can help me with. Thanks!

1. Is the majority of the diving shore diving?
2. Is it recommended I dive with a dive shop or can I just rent gear (planning on leaving our BP/W and regs at home) and tanks and drive around to dive sits and jump on in? My wife and I are comfortable with this option, but just wondering what the local way is.
3. I have Marriott points that I would like to use and there are two hotels. One in the city (Renaissance) and one 20 miles away (Marriott Resort). Which is better located for diving?
4. From my research it seems by June the water will be around 28C. Can someone please confirm?
5. Are there any "must see" dive sites in Okinawa?

 

[Katamuki]

Well, lets see.

1. There is lots of shore diving. Most of the nicer shore diving other than Sunabe wall you would need a local or shop to get to. Alot of times its a little dirt road behind sugar cane fields to the entry point. Also, Okinawa can have some weird longshore current patterns at times and because of the reef design what appears at times like a little 3 foot wave is hiding the power of the surge which can literally rake you over the reef edge as the water goes back out.

To me the best diving is by boat. The Keramas Islands are an hour away and full of turtles, sharks, fans, corals etc. Aguni is a little farther out but has huge fish populations and the occasional tiger, dolphins, tuna etc.

2. I am not sure which shop actually rents just gear. Maybe Ark Dive along the Sunabe Seawall does. The entry point by thier shop is actually a very nice dive as well. Generally very very flat and easy diving. The depth gets to 90 feet easily if you want to swim that far but the general depth is about 45-55ft. Lots of soft corals, fish, seasnakes etc.

3. I dont know about the hotel your asking about. The best resource for English speaking divers is easily Reef Encounters and they have a pretty nice website with local dive info and spots on it. Come to think of it, they rent gear too.

4. Yes, the water here in June can be a balmy 85 degrees. Its warm enough to wear just a swimsuit but I would recommend a .5mm suit for the little stingy things we have. Its not unusual to find box jellies that time of year out here. I actually wear a 2 piece 3mm all summe long but then my blood has thinned living out here.

5. Okinawa has many gorgeous dive sites full of little and big animals and corals. If you pick the right operation to go with you will end up with lots of great memories and photos. Unless you speak Japanese you will more than likely end up with Reef Encounters as almost all the Japanese shops dont want to work with foreigners. This isnt bad as Reef Encounters actually tends to stay away from cattle call dive sites and hits the more unusual sites on a regular basis. One of the sites that I would recommend while here is to dive the USS Emmons with North of Nago dive operation. Its an hour and a half drive north from Sunabe area but well worth the trip. The Emmons is a very historical destroyer if you look her up and now sits in water with the top rail at about 120 feet or so. The dive operation that runs there is run by Chuck Decesari who is a top notch guy.

 

[Tat2_Diver]

My dive shop (Blue Ocean Scuba) rents dive gear, schedules shore trips to all the local dive spots as well as boat trips to Karamas and the boat sites on the north part of the island. Chuck does run the northern Okinawa trips and I work with him on a continued base. I do the popular drive and dive tours where as I will come to any hotel on island and take you directly to the dive site and back to the hotel in the evening. I can arrange transportation for you and your bags from the airport as well. I will say since I am active duty military most of my tours are done on the weekends or evenings. Let me know your dates and I think I can work something out so you have enjoyable diving vacation in Okinawa.

Thomas
AKA Tat2diver
Cell 090-3123-7903
Blue Ocean Scuba

 

[mongodives]

here is a list of other english speaking shops that may be of help

North of Nago Boat Charters Hedo Dome, USS Emmons, IE Island northofnago@ezweb.ne.jp 090-3790-2924 ask for Chuck

Oki Diving Seragaki Onna Village okidiving@gmail.com CPT David 090-5290-9232 CPT Chris 090-9788-0282

Far East Marine Dive Company fareastmaridiveco@gmail.com 090-9786-0543

Reef Encounters International http:reefencounters.org info@reefencounters.org 098-995-9414 090-1940-3528

O2 Dive Okinawa http://www7.ocn.ne.jp/~02dive 098-956-7791 mobile 090-5389-7275

Asian Dive Tours Asian Dive Tours! Contact: 098-964-4007 or 090-5025-3153 and ask for Nancy or E-mail asian_dive_tours@hotmail.com

the Okinawa visitor burea also has a few english speaking dive shops listed Diving Paradise Okinawa-Diving Shops For English Speakers:: mahae plus :: Okinawa Travel Information
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[revjlw]

I know the two hotels you are talking about Vel525. The Renaissance is NOT in the city, it is right on the shore and a beautiful place. While I have not stayed, my son and I did stop there and wander around at Christmastime 2007. We ate in the restaurant - excellent, walked out to the dolphin enclosure and wandered around in the lobby while a group of Sumo were hanging out there waiting for the transport to the next stop. (THEY ARE BIG GUYS!!!) We thought it was a lovely place.

Also, we dove with Reef Encounters and I could not have been happier. They spoke English and Japanese, so our dive group was mixed - which I appreciated. We dove off the boat and our dive master was really good with me - it was my first dive and He was especially mindful of that and stayed with my son and I the whole dive, while other pairs were less closely supervised. Their rental equipment was included in the cost. They offered pick up at my hotel, but I was on island for two weeks and had rented a car. Besides, my son was on base and so I swung through there to pick him up. Their post diving brief was informative and they had a number of books for us to look up the critters we saw. Additionally, our guide took quite a few photos and sent them to us free of charge. We spent two days/ 5 boat and 1 shore dive with our guide and I would absolutely dive with them again if I went back to Okinawa.

While you are there, be sure to visit Kokusai Street and the pottery district right off that area called Tsuboya - both in Naha. If you are looking for a guide of Okinawa, the best one I found was found through a web site Okinawa Explorer,com (used the coma instead of a period to fool the posting rules...) and is called "Okinawa Explorer" - written in English by an American transplant to the island who loves the place and shares lots of valuable info and history in a usable format. I stayed at The Hotel Palm Royal, right off Kokusai, and it was a terrific location albeit very basic. I spent little time in the room - only to sleep and have breakfast at their very Okinawan buffet! But if you want to use your Marriott points that won't be your choice.

Hope this is helpful info. Enjoy the island - I came to love it in the two weeks I was there.

 

[vel525]

Wow, thanks for all the great responses. I was on vacation for a long weekend and did not have internet access. I just got home and was very excited to receive so much great info. I will update you all with what I end up doing. The trip is slowly coming together!

 

[japan-diver]

Just back on island from Yonaguni and can now connect to the web again. I would reccomend the Renaissance as it is central to all the diving. As Katamuki posted the Keramas is one of the best sites around with a huge variety of sea life and sites to pick from. Depending on your diving dates we may have Aguni diving available as a day trip also which is an awesome place also- large schools of jacks swirling around in crystal blue water, sharks and great reefs to explore.
Check our webpage out for more info Okinawa Diving, Japan - Reef Encounters - Japan's Tropical Dive Paradise with World Class Reefs! We are the only international full service dive shop. We run trips 7 days a week 365 days a year with boats going to all the best sites every day. We also have gear available for rent inlcuding a limited number of backplates.

 

[vel525]

Just back on island from Yonaguni and can now connect to the web again. I would reccomend the Renaissance as it is central to all the diving. As Katamuki posted the Keramas is one of the best sites around with a huge variety of sea life and sites to pick from. Depending on your diving dates we may have Aguni diving available as a day trip also which is an awesome place also- large schools of jacks swirling around in crystal blue water, sharks and great reefs to explore.
Check our webpage out for more info Okinawa Diving, Japan - Reef Encounters - Japan's Tropical Dive Paradise with World Class Reefs! We are the only international full service dive shop. We run trips 7 days a week 365 days a year with boats going to all the best sites every day. We also have gear available for rent inlcuding a limited number of backplates.

Thanks for the response. I have an email out to you.
Oh, you rent BPW! Nice, I am planning on leaving mine at home, so that would be great if I can rent one.