A Beginner's Paradise for Diving in Okinawa - Sunabe 砂边

Compared to popular overseas dive destinations among Taiwanese divers — such as Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines — diving on Okinawa's main island is still relatively unfamiliar to many. Searching for "Okinawa diving" online mostly turns up posts about a single site, the Blue Cave (青の洞窟), or the Kerama Islands, celebrated for their famous "Kerama Blue." So let me introduce a dive site that rarely gets the spotlight online: Sunabe 砂边, where I work every day.

Sunabe stretches along roughly one kilometre of coastline and is blanketed in an extraordinarily dense mix of soft and hard coral reefs. Around 200 species of coral have been recorded in Okinawan waters — and when I casually counted during a discover scuba diving session at Sunabe, I came up with over 40 species on the spot! (The exact number is yet to be verified, but I'm sure the real figure is far higher than my casual tally.)

A side note: Sadly, Typhoon Trami at the end of September 2018 caused irreversible damage to parts of Sunabe's reef. Combined with climate change and increasingly erratic ocean temperatures, as someone who makes a living from the sea, the feeling hits deep. Watching a dive site you've visited over a thousand times change day by day makes it impossible not to worry about our future. Saving energy is everyone's responsibility!

Quick Facts: Sunabe 砂边

Maximum depth does not exceed 25m, with the most beautiful coral gardens at 4–15m — so who says a discover scuba diving experience has to be spent kneeling on the sand?

Water temperature: 21–23°C in winter (Dec–Feb), 23–26°C in spring (Mar–May), 28–30°C in summer (Jun–Aug), 25–28°C in autumn (Sep–Nov)

Visibility is better in the morning than in the afternoon, and better in winter than in summer — averaging 15–20m

Commonly spotted marine life: sea snakes, flame scallops in abundance, damselflies, damselfish, six species of Amphiprion (Clownfish), various common reef fish, goldband fusiliers, barracuda, various sea hares, pipefish, ghost pipefish (legend has it there are pygmy seahorses here, but I haven't been lucky enough to find one yet)

Sunabe has three main dive sites

1、Sunabe No.1

Sunabe No.1 is an extremely easy entry point — just a few steps down some stairs. That makes it ideal for beginners or uncertified discover scuba divers, as you can find your footing, get your mask and regulator on, and take your time adjusting before the instructor gently guides you deeper. After entering the water, heading west takes you into a channel terrain with iron chains that divers can hold onto when there's a bit of current. Simple as the channel sounds, it's home to a surprising variety of creatures — common tropical fish as well as a few stonefish, so please keep your hands to yourself!

At the end of the chain, depending on the tide, there's a small drop-off leading to a sandy bottom at about 6–8m deep. In the centre of this sandy area sits an underwater post box — bright red about five years ago, now rusted to a dark crimson. It's no longer in postal service (though it used to be!), but it makes for a great photo prop.

If you skip the chain route and have solid neutral buoyancy, you can grab a torch and swim through the tunnels winding through Sunabe's coral sea — and honestly, this beats the Blue Cave by a mile! When sunlight filters in and lights up the Priacanthus inside, it's simply breathtaking. Sometimes a large lobster even ventures out from a crevice.

The typical dive route continues westward along the coral wall: coral cliffs on your right, sandy/rocky terrain on your left, with a maximum depth of about 20–23m. Heading north up over the drop-off reveals a wide coral plateau at 4–8m deep — so your 5-minute safety stop at 5m is anything but boring!

On a lucky night dive here, you might just encounter this shy little creature with a deadly venom!

2、California

California is a site I'd rather not dive when the tide is actively flooding or ebbing, because the reef walk to the entry is much longer than at No.1 — though compared to Orchid Island, Green Island, or even Chaojing, it's nothing, haha.

That said, once in the water the depth increases gradually along a channel rather than dropping off a ledge like at No.1, making it even better suited for uncertified divers who are nervous about depth, or anyone with sensitive ears.

The marine life and depth here are much the same as No.1, but the terrain is quite different — more like a series of coral valleys. Before Typhoon Trami struck, there was a cheeky, bottom-up Shīsā statue at 12m depth; the typhoon smashed it to pieces, and who knows if a successor will ever appear.

There are also a few small swim-throughs here. One at 10m is quite easy to navigate and gives you a chance to encounter a Whitetip Reef Shark. In fact, back in the summer of 2018, two Whitetip Reef Sharks practically took up residence there — you could even spot them from the entrance during a discover scuba diving session! After the typhoon, though, they seem to have gone travelling somewhere. Batfish and an enormous Chinese trumpetfish now call the cave home.

In the channel you can find ghost pipefish.

On top of all that, a few emperor fish live here, and one of them absolutely loves following divers around!

I call him A-Long (I have a habit of spontaneously naming the locals). A-Long has a black spot on his forehead, so next time you spot him, be sure to say hello — he loves making friends!

3、In Front of the Water Treatment Plant

This site has a wonderfully no-frills name — clearly because the entry point is right in front of the water treatment plant, haha!

It's not ideal during low tide or when there's a bit of swell, as you'd have to walk a long way over the reef at low tide, and any waves create a lateral current.

It's also not the best for checkout dives, and visibility tends to be slightly lower than elsewhere — roughly 8–15m.

That said, this site features a birdcage-shaped artificial steel reef (the birdcage once had an underwater sign-in book inside!), a turret-like tower, and a barracuda wall that you're almost guaranteed to encounter. I wouldn't call it a tornado every time — sometimes there are more fish, sometimes fewer — but it's always impressive.

The terrain is mainly large boulders with scattered soft coral reefs, and a small sea turtle also lives here. You'll need a bit of luck to spot it!

The best season at Sunabe, in my opinion, is April to June. That's prime time for nudibranchs and sardines — and Erica absolutely adores nudibranchs! Come autumn, you have a good chance of encountering large schools of goldband fusiliers, and as long as no typhoons crash the summer party, conditions are wonderfully comfortable. That said, warmer water tends to bring jellyfish, so don't even think about sliding into Sunabe in just a bikini for that perfect Instagram shot!

Stop queuing for the Blue Cave — come have fun at Sunabe instead!

Related links:

• Cave diving, sharks, and stunning coral reefs — uncovering Okinawa's hidden dive gems at Cape Manzamo

• Step outside your comfort zone and travel the world through diving!

• Okinawa diving isn't just the Blue Cave! 5 insider Okinawa diving secrets you need to know

• The most complete Okinawa diving guide ever — stop saying diving in Japan is too hard!

• Author: Erica 痞客邦

• Author's fan page: 小島日常-islandvibes studio