Dynamite Pass cuts through Cormorant Reef immediately north of Ribbon Reef No. 10, and the tide that pours through it feeds some of the best coral on the northern Ribbons. Lizard Island Resort's dive team rates it as having the best coral of all their outer sites, with a magnificent wall drop-off, and Spirit of Freedom runs it as a drift along the reef wall.

The wall starts a few metres below the surface and falls to around 30 m, with sea whips, gorgonians and soft corals growing thickly where the current is strongest. Small caverns and overhangs are scattered along the face, and the sandy bottom of the pass has garden eels and lagoon rays. When the tide runs, the dive becomes an effortless ride past the reef; at slack water it is a relaxed wall dive where you can take time over the caverns and the smaller life.

Fish life is typical of a productive pass: reef sharks patrolling the edge, green turtles, sweetlips, mackerel, jobfish, groupers, parrotfish and schools of fusiliers. Moray eels and cuttlefish are common along the wall, and flounder lie camouflaged on the sand. Nigel Marsh, writing for Divernet about a Spirit of Freedom trip, described it as a pretty coral wall with sea whips, gorgonians and soft corals and plenty of fish action.

Because the site depends on the tide, it is not dived on every trip; crews choose the window and may substitute a nearby mooring if the flow is too strong. It is a good introduction to drift diving for divers comfortable with buoyancy control, and a nice contrast to the static pinnacle dives that dominate most Ribbon Reef itineraries.

Liveaboard only (or fly-dive via Lizard Island). Mike Ball Dive Expeditions' Spoilsport and Spirit of Freedom depart Cairns (Trinity Wharf / Marlin Marina) in the evening and steam north overnight, roughly 12–14 hours and 200–250 km, to reach the Ribbon Reefs by morning; some itineraries fly Cairns–Lizard Island (about one hour, scenic flight along the coast) and board or disembark there. Trips run 3–7 nights and include Dynamite Pass as a drift when tides suit.

Divers enter by giant stride from the dive deck at the mooring and descend the mooring line. Lizard Island Resort also dives the pass on day trips (about 45 minutes each way). Because it is dived as a drift, divers usually drop from a tender at the up-current end rather than from a mooring, and are collected at the end of the drift.

The Ribbon Reefs sit on the edge of the continental shelf and take the full south-east trade wind from April to October. Lagoon-side moorings stay diveable in 20–25 knot SE winds, but reef-front sites and passes need lighter winds; liveaboards shelter behind the reefs overnight. September to December is usually calmest.

Tidal flow through the gaps between the Ribbons is strong on springs, so exposed pinnacles are timed for slack water. December to April brings rain, lower visibility and cyclone risk; box jellyfish and Irukandji are possible November to May. Dynamite Pass is a tidal pass: it is dived on the run of the tide as a drift or at slack water, and on big spring tides the flow can be too strong.

It is exposed to SE wind against tide, which raises a short chop in the pass.

Drop from the tender at the up-current end, descend quickly to 15–20 m beside the wall and let the current carry you along it, keeping the reef on one shoulder. Look into the caverns and under overhangs as you pass. Begin a slow ascent up the wall at half gas, deploy a surface marker buoy, and do the safety stop in the lee of the reef top for pick-up.

Mike Ball Dive Expeditions (Spoilsport) – Ribbon Reef, Cod Hole and Coral Sea itineraries from Cairns, several departures a month; Spirit of Freedom – 3-, 4- and 7-night trips from Cairns/Lizard Island, weekly; Lizard Island Resort dive shop – day trips when tides suit.