The Pittwater side of Palm Beach is the calm face of the peninsula: a strip of sand from the Palm Beach wharf and the netted Palm Beach Baths north past Snapperman Beach to the sandy causeway that joins Barrenjoey Headland to the mainland, facing west across the estuary to Ku-ring-gai Chase. Vizzbud recommends entering 'from the beach at Palm Beach Baths on the Pittwater side for the easiest access' and describes a sheltered bay with a sandy bottom and scattered reef, suitable for beginners, with octopus especially active on night dives. It is the only Pittwater shore dive with any published description, and it stands in here for the estuary's other undocumented spots at Careel Bay, Clareville and Bayview.

The bottom is sand and Posidonia and Zostera seagrass with patches of low rock and shell, the net and pylons of the baths, and the moorings of the Palm Beach fleet; depth is 2–4 m for most of it and 6–8 m out toward the channel. The life is estuarine: White's seahorses and pipefish on the net and in the weed, stingarees and small rays on the sand, flathead, whiting, bream, luderick and leatherjackets, cuttlefish, octopus and blue-ringed octopus among the rocks, and, in the seagrass, the juvenile fish for which Pittwater's beds are a nursery. Little penguins from the Lion Island colony fish through here at dusk.

It is a snorkel, a first dive or a night dive rather than an objective in itself, with tide the only thing to plan around and the ferry wharf the only hazard. It suits families, beginners and macro photographers, and pairs with a boat dive on the Valiant or the Barrenjoey reef for a full Palm Beach day. Depths and layout are generalised from Vizzbud and local knowledge; confidence is low.

From Barrenjoey Road at Palm Beach turn onto the Pittwater side at Iluka Road/Barrenjoey Road north to the Palm Beach wharf and baths area (Governor Phillip Park car park at the northern end, paid; street parking along Barrenjoey Road). Walk 50–100 m onto the sand beside the netted baths and wade in; the seagrass and reef lie north toward the Barrenjoey causeway. The Palm Beach ferry and seaplanes operate from the adjacent wharf, so stay inside or north of the net.

Exit onto the beach.

Completely sheltered from ocean swell, the Pittwater side is affected only by westerly wind chop across the estuary and by tide: the flood brings clean water in from Broken Bay and the ebb drains the Hawkesbury's turbidity past the point, so dive the last two hours of the rising tide. After heavy rain the whole of Pittwater is brown for a week or more. Ferry, seaplane and small-boat traffic around Palm Beach wharf is constant in summer; the net and the shallows keep divers clear of it.

Enter beside the baths net, check the mesh and pylons for seahorses at 2–3 m, then follow the seagrass and sand north along the shore toward the Barrenjoey causeway at 4–6 m looking for stingarees, flathead, cuttlefish and octopus in the scattered reef, and return along the same line inside the moorings.

No operator; independent divers, snorkellers and Pittwater locals. Fills at Dive Spear and Sport, Mona Vale.