- 236 Senaha Yomitan Okinawa 904-0325
- info@sunkisseddivers.com
- +81 098-800-2139
- +81 080-4691-5036
The most-dived shore site in Okinawa
The Sunabe Seawall is a 2-kilometer concrete seawall in Chatan, Okinawa, just north of American Village. It was built decades ago to protect the coast from typhoons, and today it’s the most-dived shore site on the island.
For divers, it offers more than a dozen easy shore entries, an underwater post box, and an enormous soft coral field full of macro life. For everyone else, it’s a sunset stroll, a mural-painted concrete promenade, and one of the few spots in central Okinawa where you can swim without driving to a beach.
At a glance: shore entries, max depth ~20m, average ~5m, beginner-friendly, calm most days, dive-able year-round.
The Sunabe Seawall is one of our favourite spots for shore diving and snorkeling in Okinawa. It’s easy to reach: park right at the waterfront, or come by public transport.
The coastline is lined with restaurants that have English-speaking staff and good sea views, from sandwiches and waffles to grilled lobster. Plenty of people come down here just for sunset or lunch, with no fins in sight.
If you’re coming to scuba dive in Okinawa, you’ve found the most memorable place there is. The Seawall with its underwater mailbox, and Gorilla Chop with its memorable views, are two of the most remarkable underwater experiences on the island.
Diving the Sunabe Seawall has one feature no other dive site in Okinawa can match: a working underwater post box.
How often can you go diving and send a postcard to your friends and family from the seabed? The post box sits at a depth of around 7 meters, so even first-time Discover Scuba divers can reach it. Snorkelers can usually spot it from the surface on a clear day.
The other headline feature of the Seawall is the soft coral field, roughly the size of five football fields, full of octopus, sea snakes, shrimp, and the macro critters Sunabe is famous for.
No two dives are the same here. For underwater photographers, especially on a night dive, it’s heaven.
All entries are from the shore. Maximum depth is around 20 meters with an average of 5 meters, which makes the Sunabe Seawall ideal for beginners and perfect for the Open Water Diver course.
Diving the Sunabe Seawall is easy because you enter the water straight from the shore. The headline sight is the soft coral field.
Soft corals (Alcyonacea) — also known as sea fans and sea whips — resemble plants or trees with their soft, bendable shapes. Most are non-reef-building, with wood-like, fleshy skeletons instead of the hard skeletons of true corals.
Look closer and you’ll find the macro life: nudibranchs in every colour, juvenile frogfish, octopus on the hunt, and the occasional turtle drifting past.
Water at the Sunabe Seawall stays warm and dive-able year-round.
In summer, temperatures sit around 83°F / 28°C: thin-suit weather, comfortable in shorts and a rash guard. In winter, the water drops to about 68°F / 20°C, when a 5mm wetsuit keeps things comfortable.
There’s no off-season here.
Night diving at the Sunabe Seawall is one of the best after-dark dives in Okinawa. Once the sun drops, the wall changes character, octopuses come out hunting, crustaceans crawl into the open, and you’ll routinely see species you’d never spot in daylight.
We offer night dives as part of the PADI Advanced Open Water Course for a small extra fee, and as fun dives for certified divers.
The video here was filmed at the Sunabe Seawall during a night dive, in the company of a beautiful juvenile batfish.
Yes — with caveats. The Sunabe Seawall is not a beach. There’s no sand and no shallow wading zone.
Entry is via concrete steps and ladders that drop straight into 2–3 meters of water. Swimming at the Sunabe Seawall suits confident swimmers and snorkelers, not families looking for a sandy shallow.
On calm days the swimming is genuinely beautiful: clear water, reef within a few fin-kicks of the wall, and snorkel-sized pockets of coral you can usually have to yourself.
Before you swim:
The most affordable price
Location: Sunabe Seawall, Chatan
Prerequisites: Open Water Diver
Number of dives: 1–4
Price: 10,000–20,000 JPY
Rental camera available on request — and you can keep the memory card 😀
The most favorite places
Our Sunabe Seawall dive schedule is flexible. We work around your holiday plans and the day’s tide times.
If conditions permit, we can dive any time of day. Send us the dates and times that suit you, and we’ll build the rest around it — restaurant recommendations included. Like your own personal island guide.
Since Sunabe Seawall dives are shore entries, seasickness is rarely an issue. If you’re sensitive, over-the-counter motion sickness tablets from Drugstore Mori work well.
Otherwise, your average beach-going toolkit is perfect: water, towel, sun cream, and swimwear.
Price: 10,000–20,000 JPY
Number of dives: 1–4
Entry: shore
Prerequisite: Open Water Diver
Duration: 4 hours
GoPro rental available on request.