Staff

Doug Bennett (NAUI Course Director)

Doug came to Okinawa with the military in 1990 and has stayed ever since. With over 9000 dives throughout Asia, his diving career has brought him from the Great Barrier Reef in Australia to Hainan, China and back to Okinawa. Founding Reef Encounters in 1995 as a small shop to provide quality training for dedicated divers, he has been working full time in the dive industry for more than 15 years. 

Doug holds certifications from NAUI, IANTD, PSI, GUE and is certified to repair most brands of SCUBA equiment. Throughout his career Doug has introduced 1000's of divers to the underwater world. He has also worked as the Diving Safety Officer for numerous films and documentaries. Especially of interest is his participation in many television programs on the underwater structures of Yonaguni.  Doug regularly leads our tours to Yonaguni to explore these structures and swim with the schooling hammerhead sharks found there in winter time.

In his spare time Doug explores the deeper reefs and caves around Okinawa.  Recent explorations have concentrated on finding wrecks around the island.   He got into technical diving back in the mid-90's when independent doubles were the norm, but since has progressed to the RB80 and other re-breathers.  Using his extensive knowledge of Technical diving, Doug can show his students the advantages and disadvantages of numerous set-ups from DIR to NAUI Tech and more.  Doug is our director of Technical training and offers classes from Intro to Tech to Technical Wreck Penetration.  Taking training from Doug you are learning from someone who has been there done that - with thousands of dives in his logbook many of them at the technical level his experience allows him to bring real world experinece to his classes.

Jim Winter (NAUI Instructor)

Jim became a NAUI Worldwide instructor here at Reef Encounters. He loves to teach classes and lead dives. He is also a dedicated professional underwater photographer. You can learn various techniques and tips about taking pictures from him. Be prepared, he talks alot, especially about cameras!
Jim is also involved in our search for wrecks around Okinawa and is an fast becoming an expert on WWII history and shipping information around Okinawa.  Jim is also our resident scooter expert as he racks up hours on his Cuda X-scooter exploring the near shore (and not so near shore) areas around Okinawa. 

Azusa Matsunoki is our resident Japanese instructor.  Azu finished her NAUI instructor course with us last spring.  Azu brings here over 1000 dives of experience to her classes and dive tours.  Azu is our expert at spotting the tiny critters such as nudi's and flat worms.  We have convinced Azu to hang around a bit before she continues here travels around the diving world. 

Reef Encounters Alumni

Chris Davis (NAUI Instructor)

Chris started his professional diving career at Reef Encounters in 2005 and received his NAUI Instructor Certification at the beginning of 2007. Chris also trained through NAUI Tech in Pensacola, FL to recieve Technical Diving certifications that include Decompression Techniques, Advanced EANx, and Helitrox. After teaching and guiding dives for Reef Encounters Chris has moved back to Arizona where his family and wife keep him busy but he still gets out and dives a quite a bit.

Kumiko Katsuya (NAUI Instructor)

Kumi is from the coldest area of Japan - Hokkaido. She learned to dive in the Izu Penninsula after doing an intro dive in Okinawa.  Kumi joined the Reef Encounters team to learn more english and to complete her NAUI Instructor training.  She is a great cook and enjoys singing karaoke in her spare time. Up until now, her best dive experience was in Hokkaido where she saw sea lions.

Toyoto Hirohashi (NAUI Instructor / Life Saver)

Toyo passed his NAUI Instructor Course here at Reef Encounters.  Even before learning to dive Toyo was a waterbaby working as a professional lifesaver and is an avid surfer. Once he decided to become a "dive bum," he joined the Reef Encounters Team and is very ambitiously learning English along with teaching diving. Toyo is currently studying English by wandering around various pubs in Australia, hopefully we will see him back here in the future.
Toyo's favorite dive sites are Kuef, Twin Rocks, and Ariga Cable.