Diver helps others discover
splendor that Okinawa’s waters hold
By Carlos Bongioanni,
Okinawa bureau
Carlos Bongioanni / Stars and Stripes
John Chandler takes groups out diving every weekend to sites around Okinawa that are
among the top dive spots in the world. |
EAST CHINA SEA — It could have been classified a four-Dramamine
boat ride.
Aboard a fast boat bounding over choppy seas, some passengers who had
taken only two of the prescribed motion-sickness pills looked ashen.
But not John Chandler, 47, a retired Marine lieutenant colonel.
“Yeee-hah,” he howled, as if he were at a Texas rodeo
instead of overseeing a scuba diving excursion in the East China Sea.
“Ain’t this fun?” he said as the boat lurched through
the air like a raging bull.
Diving fanatic Chandler delights in taking groups to some of the best
scuba diving sites in the world just off the coast of Okinawa. The rides out often are
relatively calm, but getting to a dive spot can mean traversing rough seas. But it’s
worth it, he says.
“I want to get people excited about Okinawa … This is just
good, clean fun,” he said as wind and ocean spray whipped across his face.
Chandler takes dive trips virtually every weekend of the year. This
particular weekend, he was heading to Ie Shima just off the northwest coast of Okinawa.
The boat dropped anchor, and on the lower deck, one passenger was on
his back writhing in pain from a sprained knee. He was one of the unlucky ricocheting off
the walls during the ride.
Things looked pretty bleak to some, but not to Chandler who had his
eye on water that looked like soft, liquid blue velvet. It was just the remedy needed for
a strained knee and to alleviate the seasickness some were feeling as the boat rolled side
to side with each passing swell.
“Isn’t it beautiful,” he said enthusiastically, while
donning his wet suit, eager to enter the serene underwater world.
Although he tried to assure everybody conditions would be better
below the water’s surface, Chandler eventually agreed it would be prudent to find a
calmer spot to anchor the boat. The dive spot selected on the southern side of the island
wasn’t as spectacular, but Chandler repeatedly encouraged the group with exclamations
such as, “Look how blue the water is!”
“Everybody else was talking about how uninteresting the dive
spot was or how cold the water was. I jumped in and started pointing out the positive
aspects like how blue the water is … I try to take people who see their cup as half
empty and change their way of thinking to see it half full.”
Julia Murray, 27, a Marine spouse, became “dive-ertified”
after taking classes from Chandler last year. She said he made the learning process
“easy and comfortable.”
“He gives a lot of positive reinforcement and is always telling
us the good things were doing,” said Murray.
Besides being an avid diver, Chandler is an accomplished underwater
photographer whose pictures regularly appear in diving magazines. His dive articles and
pictures run in local papers every week, and he is the author of two books about scuba
diving around Okinawa.
Last November, he published “A Diver’s Scrapbook,”
which showcases his photographic talent. The 40-page book is chock-full of colorful
pictures that capture the underwater marvels surrounding Okinawa.
In 1998 he published “A Diver’s Guide to Great Okinawan
Diving,” a book in which Chandler “divests” himself of 25 of his favorite
dive spots around Okinawa. Both books are sold at base exchanges around the island.
He regularly sponsors underwater-photography contests and gives free
photography classes. Those who know him say he exudes encouragement all the time and
especially when he’s offering photography clinics.
“He always finds something nice to say about a picture somebody
has taken,” said Robert Smith, a retired gunnery sergeant who lives and works in
Okinawa.
“John is a heck of a nice guy … He’s got the patience
of a monk,” Smith added. “He’s got a following of people who would have
given up on scuba diving and underwater photography from boredom. But he has a way of
keeping people interested.”
Smith met Chandler in 1985 when he took a dive course, and the two
are now dive buddies. He says Chandler has done much for the island, providing people with
a positive alternative from activities that center on alcohol.
Chandler fell in love with scuba diving 32 years ago, at a time in
his life when he was becoming “well advanced in the art of partying,” he said.
As a 15-year-old growing up in the party town of Fort Lauderdale,
Fla., in the socially tumultuous 1960s, he was on his way to becoming an alcoholic. He
routinely showed up drunk to his job as an apprentice butcher.
Mixing booze with sharp knives, saws and meat carvers was pretty
stupid, he said.
“Somehow I was lucky enough not to lose any of these,” he
said, holding up two immaculately white, dishpan hands and wiggling 10, long and slender
fingers wrinkled from his most recent dive.
A Marine friend of the family, who was concerned about his increasing
alcohol use, took him “under his wing” in 1968.
“He threw me into the pool and promised to teach me something
different to do,” recalled Chandler.
Six weeks later, Chandler was hooked on exploring what he calls the
“parallel universe” beneath the ocean’s surface.
He had to give up the drinking lifestyle, because diving and alcohol
don’t mix well, he said. Divers experience severe headaches when diving after a bout
of drinking.
Chandler joined the Marine Corps the day after he graduated high
school in 1971. He retired last September after 29 years of service completing his fifth
tour of duty on Okinawa. The island is a virtual scuba diver’s paradise and has
become home to Chandler and his wife, Teresa.
“The deep, rich colors of the corals and the exquisite details
of the fish” are the main lures that keep him returning to the deep.
“The underwater scenery is such a contrast to the above-water
scenes,” he said. “It’s like a constant Disneyland, only it’s
real.”
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