Joy Create Okinawa Tida

This shop is also known as TEADA or TEA-DA. The number of guests on the boat was more than I expected. So there was not enough shaded comfortable seating space. Guests' belongings are stored in under-seat cupboards, each guest wanting to access their bag needs to bother other guests, because the cupboard cover is wide. In the midst of snorkelling, I was scolded by a staff for being too far away from the boat. There was no prior instruction of how far to go. In the beginning, I only heard an instructor saying the general direction (relative to the boat) to snorkel at. "Behind the boat has better coral." The scolding instructor also said I should have been looking at the boat every 15 seconds. Maybe this was told earlier to other guests while I was out of earshot. This shop can bring guests including children around 9 years old for "Discover Scuba" (i.e. from zero experience) to about 5~10m depth from the boat. Gloves are given out so that Discover guests are told to grab on to (non-colorful, hard) coral, and crouch at the bottom. Although a child guest told me that she felt afraid to grip into a hole that the instructor wanted her to grip, fearing for hidden reef life that may pinch / bite / sting. Discover-guests' bouyancy vest is operated by the dive instructor. Discover-guests are then "carried" by instructors to relocate them between a few points of interests and photos taken. It looks like each pair of Discover-guests is minded by one instructor. Equipment functionality was OK. In June 2025, it was extremely sunny. There was ~15min wait time on the dock before they let us find shade in the boat. Waiver papers should have been online type. Suggestion to TEADA: - Please make the vomit bags freely available at least one location upstairs and one downstairs. There was a guest that suddenly urgently wanted a bag. There is no safe way to vomit out the back of the lower deck while the boat is moving. - Each staff member's name should be made known to the guests. - There should be no music playing, and engine should be stopped during announcements and instructions before guests go into water. - Pre-dive briefing should be given with something like a map or whiteboard, or handout paper copies if there is no space to verbally brief eveyone at once. Give more info about the undersea features, wind, water current. And the boundary where they want guests to stay within. This is something expected of most dive shops.

Jun 2025

While I enjoyed meeting the other divers and visitors, and the snorkeling experience was decent, the diving portion fell far short of expectations. **Lack of Environmental Guidance** The most concerning issue was the complete absence of environmental protection briefing. The guides never instructed participants to avoid touching marine life or coral. Instead, the pre-dive briefing focused solely on hand signals and paperwork. I was shocked to witness divers standing on and breaking coral throughout the dive, with no intervention from staff. The reef is already in poor condition, and anchoring the boat directly to the coral reef only adds to the damage. I regret not having my camera to document these practices. **Equipment Issues** Several masks were faulty, and I was fortunate to have brought my own gear. Another guest had specifically requested prescription goggles on their sign-up form but wasn't provided with them for the dive. **Safety Concerns** The semi-cave swim was particularly worrying. Participants were rushed through in single file with both instructors positioned at the front, leaving no one to monitor the group from behind. There was no safety briefing beforehand and no headcount when we emerged. **Recommendation** For a beginner-friendly operation, there needs to be significantly more emphasis on both environmental protection and diver safety. The care for marine life and coral preservation should be the top priority for any dive operator.

Jun 2025

Booked the snorkeling/diving tour in Kerama islands. If you are an English speaker be warned that even though they stated that the instructors speak English, they are NOT fluent. Therefore, some instructions were not so clear. Additionally, I found that some instructors didn't seem so friendly or welcoming. The instructor that took us to diving was rude and inpatient even though it was our first time attempting to dive ever. We did not have much time to practice or acclimatize to the situation like testing the equipment and breathing underwater with it. I was caught off guard as I was suddenly lowered into the water and panic because some water entered my mouth. The instructor asked if I was okay which I replied "No" and he shouted at me to get out of the water. I was not given another chance even though I paid the price for it. I was left on the boat sitting there and they ignored me until the session was over. I had a much better time snorkeling in Thailand and the price was even cheaper. I felt that they accepted abit too many people onto the tour and was abit difficult to walk around at times. I'm not sure if they ever did a head count before moving off because I didn't see them do it which can be really dangerous if someone was accidentally left behind. I also found it strange that the paying customers were not allowed to leave the boat and had to wait for them to unload all the stores before we could go. Bad experience here. Though, the view was beautiful and the photos and videos were free.

Mar 2025