San Remo Jetty is the better-known of the two pier dives in The Narrows and the one Ian Lewis's Shore Dives of Victoria singles out as the place to learn this stretch of water before attempting the bridge drift. The jetty serves San Remo's commercial fishing fleet and the fishermen's co-op, with a deep channel across the pier front and the bridge pylons visible 200 m to the north. Underwater it is a classic Victorian pier: a forest of timber pylons on a sand and shell bottom of 3–8 m, but scoured and fed by tidal streams stronger than anything at Rye or Flinders.

That flow means the pylons carry a dense coat of filter feeders – orange and yellow sponges, colonial ascidians, hydroids and tubeworms – and the associated fauna is prolific: big-belly seahorses, decorator and spider crabs, hermit crabs, cowfish, pipefish, nudibranchs and, in winter, shoals of juvenile fish sheltering in the lee of the pylons. Rays, flathead and the occasional Port Jackson shark lie in the sand between rows, and schools of trevally and salmon patrol the channel edge. Because the slack is so brief, the dive is intense rather than leisurely: divers arrive to find water still sliding past the pylons, watch it stop, and have perhaps twenty minutes before it begins to move in the opposite direction.

Local divers use that character deliberately, going to the outer pylons while it is still and letting the returning ebb walk them back to the beach. Visibility is generally better than at Newhaven across the channel and can reach 10 m on a winter neap. For a diver who understands tidal timing this is a rewarding macro and photography dive with a very short walk; for anyone who does not, it is a site to avoid, because the same channel carried divers well out towards the bar before the rules of the place were understood.

San Remo is 125 km (about 1 hr 40 min) south-east of Melbourne via the Monash Freeway, M420 and Bass Highway. Turn off the highway at the roundabout before the bridge into Marine Parade; the jetty is in front of the fishermen's co-op and there is angle parking along Marine Parade and a larger car park by the foreshore. It is a 20–50 m carry to the small beach on the north side of the jetty.

Gear up on the grass, watch the water for the flow to ease, then walk in and swim out along the pylons. The pelican-feeding area and co-op are busy at midday, so early morning slacks are quieter.

Purely a slack-water dive. Streams of 5–6 knots run through the pylons on both flood and ebb, and the usable slack is typically 15–20 minutes at the end of the incoming (flood) tide, using the Newhaven tide predictions. Dive neaps in preference to springs, and time entry so you are under the jetty a few minutes before predicted high water.

Wind matters little except that a fresh southerly makes the beach entry choppy and a strong north-westerly pushes surface chop down the channel. Visibility is best in winter and after settled weather; it drops after heavy rain when the Bass River and Anderson Inlet run-off cloud the eastern arm. Diveable year-round.

Enter from the beach beside the jetty as the flood eases, swim straight out under the deck and go to the outer pylons first while the water is still slack, checking the deeper channel edge at 7–8 m. As soon as you feel the ebb begin, work back inshore along the pylons so the current is helping you home. Stay inside the pylon line and away from the co-op berths.

Ascend under the jetty and walk out on the beach. Experienced divers who read the tide well report 45 minutes or more by hugging the sheltered side of the pylons.

No dive shop or dedicated dive charter is based on Phillip Island. Sites are dived by Melbourne clubs (VSAG, Melbourne University Underwater Club, Frankston/Peninsula clubs) and private boats launched at Newhaven or Rhyll; Mornington Peninsula shops (Dive Victoria Group, Portsea; The Scuba Doctor, Rye) run occasional Phillip Island days. Ocean Adventures Phillip Island (Cowes) runs seal-snorkel tours only.