Shark Point is the serious shore dive of the Bronte–Coogee Aquatic Reserve, a wave-cut sandstone platform on the northern side of Clovelly Bay that drops quickly into some of the best reef on the Eastern Suburbs coast. From the point a kelp bed slopes off to a first drop at 10 m and a second at 13 m, below which lies a field of rounded boulders with swim-throughs and overhangs that continues out to the sand at 20 m. Everything below 15 m is thick with sponges and sea squirts, and the overhangs hold wobbegongs, cuttlefish and bullseyes.

Out on the sand edge the reef keeps going: a wall running south-west along the edge with ledges and indents, a deeper reef section at 26 m, and on the return a series of steep walls at 19 m and a prominent crack that leads back up into the shallows. The fish list is long for a shore site – blue groper, bream, snapper, kingfish, giant boarfish, longfin bannerfish in summer, firefish, roughies, angelsharks and shovelnose rays on the sand – and the reef is one of the better places in Sydney to find eastern blue devilfish under ledges and pygmy pipehorses and weedy seadragons in the weed. A grey nurse shark was seen in 2021 and a seal in 2005, and the odd bronze whaler passes offshore.

The point's name comes from the shark-net era rather than any current danger. It is a deep, long dive by shore standards and demands a genuinely calm sea for the entry and, more importantly, the exit; McFadyen's advice that it should never be dived by inexperienced divers without experienced supervision is sound. Strong swimmers and advanced divers with local knowledge get one of Sydney's best shore dives; everyone else should do it with a guide or from a boat.

Drive to the bottom of Ocean Street or Eastbourne Avenue, Clovelly (near the bus terminus) and park on the street above the northern headland of Clovelly Bay; parking is hard on summer weekends. Walk 100–150 m across the grass and down onto the rock platform at the point. Enter off the point in calm seas, or from the fissure in the platform to the east in very calm seas.

Exit is back at the point, or in an emergency inside Clovelly Pool – but note the outflow over the pool wall on an ebbing tide. By boat, anchor north of the fissure in about 18 m.

Only in relatively calm seas – the point takes the full force of southerly and easterly swell and the entry becomes a wave-swept platform in anything above about 1 m. The fissure entry needs flatter water again. Several helicopter rescues and lifesaver interventions have happened here, almost always to divers who entered in marginal swell or got caught by a rising sea on the exit.

Ebb tides create a dangerous outflow over the Clovelly Pool wall if you use it as an exit. A gentle current from the north is normal over the deep reef. Best in westerly winds in autumn and winter when visibility can reach 20 m; poor after heavy rain.

From the point head south-east down through the kelp and the 10 m and 13 m drop-offs into the boulder field, reaching the sand at 20 m. Follow the reef edge north then east past the overhangs to the 26 m section, turn at a third of your air, and come back west over the steep walls at 19 m, using the prominent crack to ascend into the kelp for the swim back to the point. The fissure route drops straight to 25 m sand and follows the edge north for 24–27 minutes before returning south-west.

Pro Dive Coogee, Abyss Scuba Diving and Dive Centre Bondi run guided shore dives here in calm conditions; Pro Dive Coogee also drops boat divers on the outer reef. Frequently dived by experienced independent divers.