Okinawa Scuba Diving
Having been home for almost a week now, I miss hopping on and off dive boats and dare I say it even the horrendous tan lines from the short wetsuits. When I had stepped off the plane in Okinawa, I was a little nervous but also excited at what my diving experience would be. After all, the people I was with and the instructor is crucial to how one’s first experience develops.
Scuba diving has never really been one of those things that really intrigued me in the past. The idea of being in open water relying solely on the tank of oxygen on your back for your survival actually terrified me. I have never been an extremely good swimmer; sure if you threw me into water asking me to get from point A to point B (given that it isn’t hundreds of meters apart) I’ll be able to get there with a series of mixed strokes and doggy paddling. The main idea is that I won’t drown if thrown into water but by no means am I a good swimmer. This had always prevented me from being interested in scuba diving as I’d always thought that you had to be an excellent swimmer in order to dive. But having done some reading and online research (mainly other blog posts about their experiences) I decided that I would challenge myself and see where it brought me.
I had chosen Okinawa to do my course after weeks of procrastinating researching dive shops and playing around with several ideas. Okinawa was my first idea but I somehow managed to bounce around all over Southeast Asia before eventually returning to my original idea… Hong Kong was out of the question due to how full the courses were and how bad the visibility in the waters here were. And everywhere else that I had looked into just didn’t sound as appealing as Okinawa. I chose it for it’s relatively low prices and crystal blue waters but the amazing Japanese food definitely came into account.
Much like everyone else looking for a dive shop, I headed towards google and found a couple that had the highest ratings on tripadvisor. (Let’s be honest, I really just clicked on the first one that popped up) A couple minutes later I had decided on Piranha Divers located in Onna Village. And during my 5 days of diving with them, I never regretted that decision. My instructor, Rich, was an extremely patient and funny guy who was always helpful and made sure we understood what we were doing. His carefree personality allowed for him to get along with people easily which made him well suited for his job. I also had the pleasure of meeting a couple other members of the Piranha crew; Jan was the owner of the dive shop and his clear passion for diving is so evident and Gyorgy was just an amazingly hilarious guy who always had something funny to say. I didn’t get to meet everyone else but I’m sure that they were just as kind and amazing as Jan, Rich and Gyorgy.
The first time that I flipped off the dive boat, I was surprisingly calm. I can barely remember it because that’s just how mundane of an experience it was. But the second I got into the water and looked around at the aquatic life around me (keep in mind that I was probably only like 3m underwater at this point) I realized how different the underwater world is. We were visitors in someone else’s home and all the aquatic life around was just seemingly minding their own business. Everything was so much more vivid and it was then that I knew that I made the right decision to try scuba diving. During our time underwater for the next 5 days, I got the opportunity to see baby sharks, marine turtles, clownfish (NEMO) and so many other types of fish that I really can’t name. Aquatic life is something that you really need to experience yourself and trust me when I say that it’s worth every single tan line that you get and all the training (not that much really) that you have to endure.
I have been able to meet some amazing people through this trip and some of which are people that have changed the way in which I view myself and my journey. Rich is seemingly living the life that I have been dreaming of. He’s been able to travel the world and live in many places experiencing their culture firsthand and now he’s in Okinawa with a job that allows him to do what he loves. In talking with him, it seemed as if he was almost unsatisfied with where he was in life. He says that he’s reached the point in his life where he just wants to settle down and start making real money. I don’t know if that point exists but the idea of it surely does. It makes me think about the life that I want to lead in the future. I still don’t know whether or not I wish to pursue a traditional career. I still don’t know what I really want to study in college. Hell, I still barely know what I’m going to be doing next year. All of these open ended questions lead up to my future and I’m scared of making the wrong choice. I also got the chance to meet Andy, my scuba diving buddy. We were both novices at the sport and learned through our mistakes together. He studied biochemistry in college which allowed him to gain a job working in a lab after graduating. But after a year there, he realized that biochemistry wasn’t something he was passionate about and made a complete career change and became a flight attendant. The fact that he’s paved so far away from his original aspirations really makes me worried that I’ll make the wrong choice. I want to study something that I’m interested in but I also want to be able to do what I love at the same time as being able to support family. There was just so much food for thought on this trip through the people that I got to meet.
On my last day diving, I also met Corinne. She was a college student from Australia who had saved up for a long time for her Okinawa trip. She inspired me to really go after the things that I want with my own power and to save instead of spend. Now that I’m home, I really want to be able to make money to fund my own travels instead of having my parents support me through my dreams. It’s really important to me that I put in the hard work that’s needed to become a better person.
So honestly, to all the people that I got to meet in Okinawa: thank you so much. I’ve been able to reflect on my journey during that time. And for Okinawa, I’ll definitely be back. I fell in love with diving there and I just know that nothing can keep me away from that beautiful island.
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