Spot X is Byron Bay's least-visited notable dive site, a scatter of rocky pinnacles some 5 to 6 km north-east of Cape Byron that sees only a handful of trips a year, mostly through winter when a rare stretch of calm weather lines up with the local dive shops' interest in finding grey nurse sharks away from the crowds at Julian Rocks. Unlike Julian Rocks there is no permanent mooring here, so a visit depends on a skipper willing and able to relocate the pinnacles by GPS and echo sounder and drop a shot line directly onto the structure, which is one reason the site remains so lightly dived despite sitting only a short run from town. The topography is a series of rocky rises and ledges climbing from a sand bottom to around 15 m, generally comparable in scale to the deeper Julian Rocks sites but without any of the infrastructure — no mooring buoy, no regular boat traffic, and correspondingly none of the diver pressure that can make the sharks skittish elsewhere.

In winter this translates into good numbers of grey nurse sharks holding station in the current along the ledges, joined by wobbegongs, large schooling kingfish and mixed reef fish, with the occasional bronze whaler seen further out over the sand. What keeps Spot X off the regular charter list is exposure: sitting well offshore with no shelter from swell in any direction, it demands a longer settled weather window than the operators need for Julian Rocks itself, and a booking here is realistically at the mercy of a rare calm patch rather than a set schedule. Divers should also be comfortable descending on a shot line with some current running and ascending independently under a surface marker buoy, since without a fixed mooring the boat cannot simply be relocated to wherever a group happens to surface.

For experienced local divers chasing grey nurse sharks without the crowds of the more famous Tweed and Solitary Islands aggregation sites, Spot X is worth the wait for the right weather window, but it is not a site to book casually or expect to run on a set day.

Boat access only, launched as a RIB off Byron Bay's Main Beach/The Pass by Sundive Byron Bay or Byron Bay Dive Centre on the rare days conditions allow; roughly a 20-25 minute run north-east from Cape Byron. There is no mooring, so the skipper must locate the pinnacles by GPS and sounder before divers descend.

Byron Bay and the coast either side is exposed to easterly and south-easterly swell; the more remote sites away from the shelter of Cape Byron and Julian Rocks need under about 1.5 m swell and light winds to be diveable and are cancelled well before the rocks themselves. The East Australian Current runs strongly along this coast, especially November-May, and can add significant drift to any exposed pinnacle or headland site. Visibility improves after a run of settled offshore (westerly) winds and degrades for several days after the Brunswick River or Belongil Creek flood following heavy rain.

Winter (Jun-Sep) brings the clearest water, grey nurse sharks and migrating humpback whales; summer (Dec-Mar) is warmer with leopard sharks and more current. Because Spot X has no mooring and is fully exposed, it needs a longer, more settled weather window than Julian Rocks and is realistically diveable only a handful of days each winter.

Descend the shot line directly onto the pinnacle system at 15-18 m, work along the ledges and gutters checking for resting grey nurse sharks and large schooling fish, staying together as a tight group given the lack of a fixed mooring, and ascend on a lift bag/SMB rather than trying to relocate the anchor line in any current.

No scheduled charter — Sundive Byron Bay and Byron Bay Dive Centre will run a trip on request in exceptionally calm weather, mainly through winter for grey nurse sharks; otherwise dived by private boats and technical/spearfishing clubs.