Dive Review of All Blue Divers Okinawa in
Japan/Okinawa

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All Blue Divers Okinawa: "Three days of sub par diving", Sep, 2023, by Steven Belmont, AK, US ( 1 report with 1 Helpful vote). Report 12589 has 1 Helpful vote.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations	N/A	Food	N/A
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity	N/A
Dive Operation		Shore Diving	N/A
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	The owner of All Blue Divers Okinawa, Otaviao, is terrific. He is a self employed owner and does a good job of communicating before arrival. He also leads a safe dive. He gives the best dive briefing using maps that I have ever had. My recommendations would be to use his shop again, but the Okinawa diving experience left me unexcited. His first briefing was this "Japan diving is different". The dive boats are governed by fishermen Associations as are the dive sites. Thus the guide tells you which sites are available for that day on that boat. This was not a problem for me as I have never been to Okinawa. We met the boat at the marina. Most all the diving is done with steel tanks. It has been over 40 years since I have used a steel. Figure 4 pounds or two kilos less weigh on your belt or bcd. Set up of equipment is done by yourself. I did notice that Octavio assisted a more novice diver and also helped to adjust my tank straps to the larger steel tanks. With tanks and BCD's together, you carry them to the boat (a short distance). The boats will have other dive operation groups on it. We had four other groups on our first day of dives. Perhaps 20-25 divers. The dive site was about five minutes out of the harbor. The site was named Manza, Over Head Rock and/or Dream Hole. I figured it would be a check out dive since our second day diving would be a deep wreck. We arrived at the dive site and did a back roll in. The water read 82f on my Galileo computer. The bottom structure was a wall. The dream hole is a chute that goes into and up (or down) through the wall. It is a bit dark but can be done without a light. With all the other divers in the water, Otaviao opted to do it towards the end of the dive going from bottom up. Although the current was not much, you dive the site against the current and then us it to return to the boat. It was interesting and worth doing this dive site. We did see a turtle, an octopus and a large Travally. Also a large Tiger Cowrie. We returned to the marina for our surface interval where there were water barrels with pots with handles that divers used to rinse off. The second dive was on the same site only with a different entry point. The marine life mentioned above was seen on the second dive. Our bottom times were 45 minutes. Our second day was diving the WW2 wreck of the Emmons. It sits at the bottom at 140 feet with shallower depths at the decks. It lies on its side. It was damaged by five Kamikazes and eventually sunk by our navy. This to keep the enemy from getting the new radars on the vessel. We dove this wreck on 26% nitrox while the guide and another client dove it on air. The visibility was perhaps 60 feet We descended using the line attached to the wreck. It took a bit before we could see the wreck on the bottom. There is no penetration on this wreck as there remains unexploded ordinance on it. With the depth it was a short dive. We did two dives on the Emmons with both descent and ascent using the line. Our surface interval was just over an hour. Our third day of diving was to the Kerama Islands. It is an hour boat ride from Okinawa to the Islands. The boat was large and very comfortable. The back deck is roomy and has marine toilets. Hot showers are available. The salon was air conditioned, Smoking was allowed. The captain and crew were very efficient. Again there were four or five other dive operations using the boat. Perhaps 25 divers. This dive is a drift dive. We did a giant stride entry into blue water. The goal was to see the giant mantas that stayed in the area. Towards the end of the first dive we did see a flash of a manta. However with 25 Japanese divers chasing it with go pros, it was only there for a moment. The dive ended and our guide Octavio put up his submersible sausage. The boat came and picked us up. The second and third dives were the same. Blue water with no mantas. We did see some Giant Travelly, but three dives in blue water were boring and I would not do it again. A rain squall covered us on the trip back but again the boat crew did a find job of lowering the plastic curtains to keep the rain out of the dry areas. In conclusion, any dive is better than working. All of these were, however mostly uneventful. Again our dive operation was first class and I am sure there probably are many other better dive destinations on Okinawa. However I have been there and done that. Next trip is back to Palau and Blue Corner.
Websites	All Blue Divers Okinawa
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	Over 1000 dives
Where else diving	Okinawa Kerama Islands
Closest Airport	Naha	Getting There	Tokyo to Okinawa
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny	Seas	calm
Water Temp	79-82°F / 26-28°C	Wetsuit Thickness	3
Water Visibility	60-80 Ft/ 18-24 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	no
Enforced diving restrictions	Nothing except to follow the guide.
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	None	Mantas	1 or 2
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	1 or 2	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish
Large Pelagics
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter	N/A	Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities
UW Photo Comments	I do not photograph. The smaller boats did not have a camera rinse area. The larger boat on my third day had shallow plastic tubs that cameras would be placed in.

Report currently has 1 Helpful vote

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Dive Review of All Blue Divers Okinawa in Japan/Okinawa

All Blue Divers Okinawa: "Three days of sub par diving", Sep, 2023,

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Overall Rating

Reporter and Travel

Dive Conditions

Dive Policy

What I Saw

Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Dive Review of All Blue Divers Okinawa in
Japan/Okinawa