Okinawa dives!

We got the hook-up from the local dive shop on base (thanks Darryl). It's surprising how cheap their gear and rentals are. Our rental gear (we brought our regs, and BCD's.) was about 10$. At home with my Assistant Instructor rating it would be at least double that with discount. Plus free air fills... Thanks Uncle Sam!!

So far we have done 3 dives in Okinawa. We did a quick checkout dive the morning of the whale shark dive - to figure out how much weight we needed. It was a great, if quick, dive - and Jen spotted a Lionfish (cool! - no touch!!). Then we did an briefing at the dive shop and headed to the boat for the whale shark dive. What an experience! They had 2 whalesharks, but let one go just last week because it was getting too big. It was 28 ft, and the one we got to dive with was 17 ft. It's hard to imagine how large that is until it's right in front of you! They get 40+ ft - what beautiful animals...

We also did an afternoon dive at the "junkyard" today. Great coral and lots of fish! All 3 dives were on the West side of Okinawa in the East China Sea.

Whale shark dive:

Checkout dive and and "junkyard" dive.