Sunabe Seawall

The entry is the wall itself. Steps drop from the seawall onto the beach and you walk in; at Sunabe No. 1 there is a chain running out to deeper water that try-dive and course groups hold on the way, which is a fair measure of how gentle the ground is. The California Side, one entry south, is the quieter of the two. Either way there is no boat, no mooring and no crossing to make, which is why the strip carries the traffic it does and why the shops in Chatan and Kadena all base themselves here.

Out from the wall the bottom is soft coral, and it is the reason to dive Sunabe rather than an incidental: the growth on the California Side is rated among the best on the island, a field of pink, orange and yellow. Damselfish come at you first — sergeant majors and their relatives — then clownfish, three species of them including the anemonefish everyone recognises. Mackerel scad pass in midwater. Nudibranchs, tube worms, anemone crabs and shrimp fill in whatever the guide slows down for.

Keep swimming and the coral gives way to sand at around 20 m, and the sand is the other half of the site: yasha and blackray shrimpgobies at their burrows, jawfish holding station, broadclub cuttlefish in season. The good parts stay shallow, so a long, slow dive works better here than a deep one. It is also the standard night dive on this coast — the shops nearest the wall run it as their first choice after dark.