Rip Bank is the most exposed of the Heads walls and, for many Victorian divers, the most dramatic. The Scuba Doctor listing calls it 'a fantastic underwater cliff just outside Port Phillip Heads on the south-east side', with large overhangs and 'beautiful colours', and a depth range of 16–60 m. It is the seaward face of the Nepean bank where the Rip channel meets Bass Strait, and the flow along the wall 'can be extremely fast' – this is where the tidal exchange of the whole bay accelerates through a gap little more than a kilometre wide.

The wall itself is a sheer face with deep, roofed overhangs at the terrace levels, the rock buried under sponges, zoanthids and soft corals in colours that photographers rate above the Lonsdale side because the water is clearer here. Southern rock lobster sit along the top of the wall in numbers. Southern blue devils occupy the overhangs. The listing singles out the sharpnose sevengill shark – harmless, up to 1.4 m – which divers frequently see swimming 10–15 m off the wall; broadnose sevengills and seals are also seen. Schools of sweep and, in summer, kingfish work the open water.

The conditions are the whole story. The listing states the dive is conducted only on slack water at the end of the flood, and even then only when conditions are calm outside the Heads; the slack itself may be 15–20 minutes. Standing waves form in The Rip whenever swell or wind opposes the ebb, and the entrance is a working shipping lane with pilot boats and the passenger ferry crossing it. Rescue of a diver swept out on the ebb is difficult. For that reason Rip Bank is a site for experienced Heads divers under a skipper who dives the entrance regularly, and it is on the charter schedule only when the tide and weather line up. When they do it is the best wall dive in Victoria.

Boat access only. Charter boats leave from Portsea Pier (Dive Victoria Group, Bayplay) and Queenscliff Harbour (Dive Victoria Group, Red Boats); run time is about 15 minutes. Private boats launch at Sorrento Boat Ramp (Point Nepean Road, Sorrento, all-tide concrete ramp with trailer parking) or Queenscliff Boat Harbour ramp (Larkin Parade, Queenscliff), roughly 18 minutes to the site.

The site is on the south-east side of the entrance outside the Heads; an alternative mark (Geoff Rodda) is -38.3008, 144.635317. Skippers must call Lonsdale VTS (Point Lonsdale) or listen to VHF 12 for shipping movements before dropping divers, and must carry a dive flag; anchoring is not permitted in the shipping channel, so a live boat and a drop-shot or drift float is the normal method.

It is dived only on slack water at the end of the flood (SWF), so that any current after the turn carries divers back into the bay rather than out through The Rip. Slack water at Port Phillip Heads does not coincide with high or low water: it falls roughly three hours after high or low water at Point Lonsdale, and the usable window is typically 20–40 minutes. Use the Ports Victoria / Port of Melbourne slack-water predictions for The Heads (also republished by charter operators and WillyWeather 'Rip Bank') rather than a standard tide table.

Being outside or right at the entrance, it is exposed to Bass Strait swell: anything over about 1.5 m from the south-west or south, or a strong southerly/westerly wind against the ebb, produces standing waves in The Rip and charters cancel. Northerlies flatten the entrance and give the best days. Visibility is best in late summer and autumn (Feb–May) when the water is clear and the westerlies have eased; winter brings 11–13 °C water and bigger swells but often the clearest days after a run of settled weather.

Heavy rain has little effect this close to the ocean. The listing is explicit: 'the currents through here dictate this dive only be conducted on slack water at the end of the flood tide and even then only when conditions are calm outside Port Phillip.'

Shot onto the wall top at 16–18 m at the end of the flood. Descend the face to the planned maximum (30 m recreational; 40–50 m technical), swim with the wall on your shoulder along the overhangs for no more than 15–20 minutes, then come up the face to the top, launch a DSMB and ascend; the ebb will begin during the stops and set seaward, so the boat must be tracking the float.

Base 60 m; trimix below 40 m; all deco drifting under DSMB, likely on the young ebb; support boat must follow. Not a site for first deep dives at the Heads.

Dive Victoria Group (Portsea/Queenscliff) – runs the deep Heads walls for advanced and technical divers on suitable slack-water days; Red Boats (Queenscliff) – deep-wall and technical charters on request; otherwise private club boats (VSAG, Power House Underwater Club, Scuba Diving Melbourne). Not a routine training-boat site.