Smiths Beach is best known as one of Phillip Island's surf beaches, but on the rare northerly-wind, high-tide mornings when the swell drops away it offers one of the island's better shore dives. The cove is a kilometre of sand facing south-west between basalt headlands, and reef extends off both ends: east to the rock gully below the car park and west towards Smiths Point and YCW Beach. Scuba Doctor describes bommies, vibrant corals and sponges and large overhangs, with rock shelves and reef structures that can be explored east and west from the entry points.

The outer reef at 8–14 m is the highlight – a line of low basalt bommies and shelves undercut into ledges, their ceilings coloured with encrusting sponge, zoanthids and small soft corals, and their shadows sheltering crayfish, draughtboard sharks and blue devils. Port Jackson sharks are common in the gutters and triggerfish are noted among the fish, along with the usual south-coast cast of wrasse, morwong, sweep and leatherjackets. Inshore the reef is kelp and coralline turf with a sandy channel, and the eastern gully gives a somewhat protected route in and out.

Spearfishing is permitted and practised here. The site's advantages are practical: a proper car park with change rooms, toilets and an all-access ramp, a short carry, and a choice of routes so a group can split into east and west teams. Its limitation is the surf.

Any swell above a metre makes the beach a surfing venue rather than a dive site, and even on flat days there is usually some surge on the outer reef. With YCW Beach 860 m to the west and Sunderland Bay and Surfies Point to the east, Smiths sits in the middle of a run of south-coast shore dives that are all governed by the same rule – wait for the northerly.

From the Phillip Island Tourist Road turn south at Smiths Beach Road (signposted, about 8 km from the bridge) and follow it to the car park on the 20 m bluffs at the eastern end of the beach. An all-access concrete ramp leads down to the sand, so the carry is short – 100–150 m. Two entries are used: a rock gully at the eastern end that gives somewhat protected access to the reef, or a straight walk in off the sandy beach and a swim out to the bommies.

The reef runs east towards the gully and west towards Smiths Point.

Smiths is a surf beach that faces south, so it is only diveable with an offshore northerly wind and a small swell – under about 1 m – and, per Scuba Doctor, best at high tide when there is water over the inshore reef and the gully. South-westerly swell wraps into the cove and produces surf, surge and rips, and the beach is patrolled in summer for good reason. Early mornings before the sea breeze are best.

Visibility suffers for a day or two after any southerly blow. Diveable year-round on the right day; autumn northerlies give the most reliable conditions.

Enter via the eastern gully at high tide, follow the reef seaward and then west along the outer bommies at 8–14 m, exploring the overhangs. Turn at half gas or when the surge builds, return along the inshore edge of the reef at 4–6 m and exit through the gully or onto the sand. A western variation works the reef towards Smiths Point and back.

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.