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Snorkels
Although there is an abundance of snorkels on the market to choose from, we believe that you get what you pay for. Some cheap snorkels, plus budget mask and snorkel sets, offer snorkels which are not sealed correctly and therefore when bent and in use the snorkel lets in water not through the top, but through the centre. You won't find any of those here.
Diving Snorkels - The snorkels here are for scuba divers. Thus they naturally drop away from the diver's face because most of the time the diver will have a 2nd stage regulator in their mouth, not the snorkel mouthpiece. When the diver does use the snorkel the mouthpiece is bent up and into the mouth. This does place some additional pressure on the jaw and mouth compared to a snorkel for snorkellers that is designed to make this easier.
Snorkelling Snorkels - Some snorkels are designed more for snorkeling, rather than scuba diving. This means the snorkel is shaped so that the snorkel mouthpiece naturally comes close to the mouth. Thus the snorkeller has less pressure on their jaw and mouth. These snorkels are in our Snorkelling Snorkels section.
Note: For child and junior sized snorkels, please look at our Kids Corner.
For more information about snorkel features please read our advice on choosing the right snorkel for you in our Trusted Advice section.
Yellow Rock Beach
Reef Dive | 
Shore access
Yellow Rock Beach, Nelson Bay
Source: Portland Tourist Association
Depth: 5 m (16 ft) to 10 m (33 ft)
Level: Open Water and beyond.
Yellow Rock Beach (aka Nelson Bay 3 Beach) is a shore diving and snorkelling site on the western side of Nelson Bay, five kilometres south-west of Portland on Victoria's Discovery Coast.
Nelson Bay is a 4 km wide, south facing, rocky bay lying between Cape Sir William Grant to the east and Cape Nelson to the west. Deep inside the bay are three remnants of a once larger beach. Today the bay consists of 50 to 90 m high cliffs, composed largely of dune calcarenite sitting on top of basalt bases and rock platforms. Behind the beaches, the cliffs rise steeply to heights of 30 to 40 m and are capped with a veneer of dune sand. The dunes were deposited when a larger beach and backing sand ramp occupied the back of the bay, probably about 6 000 years ago.
The beaches are difficult to access. Norman Wade Scenic Drive (off Cape Nelson Road) runs above the western beach (Yellow Rock Beach or Nelson Bay 3 Beach) and there is a car park, walkway, viewing platform and steps down the bluffs to this beach. All three beaches receive waves averaging about 1.5 m, that break over a 200 m wide surf zone. An inner, rip dominated bar is usually detached from the beach, and the outer bar has larger rips. Rocks and reefs also dominate the inner surf. In addition, the narrow, high tide sand beaches are often awash at high tide. These are backed by cobble beaches at the base of the cliffs.
Diving and Snorkelling at Yellow Rock Beach
Off Yellow Rock Beach you'll discover a world of ledges, swim throughs and a vast array of marine life. Take your catch bag just in case you spot Black-lipped Abalone or Southern Rock Lobster (aka Crayfish).
Yellow Rock Beach Parking
© Google Street View
Location: Norman Wade Scenic Drive, Nelson Bay, Portland, Victoria 3305
Parking: There is a car park off Norman Wade Scenic Drive. It's roughly 200 metres from the car park down the steps onto the beach. Before gearing up check out the water. If you see lots of white water, head on home.
Entry/Exit: Enter and exit from Yellow Rock Beach.
Ideal Conditions: Best dived in good conditions with a low swell with light offshore winds. See WillyWeather (Nelson Bay) as a guide for the tide times and the height of the tide.
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Abalone Dive Site
© Mark Norman, Museum Victoria
Divers have the opportunity to catch Abalone at this dive site. Remember your catch bag, legal abalone tool, current Victorian Recreational Fishing Licence, and abalone measure. Please abide by all current fishing regulations if you intend to catch abalone.
See article-catching-abalone for practical abalone hunting advice from The Scuba Doctor, plus melbourne-abalone-dives for a list of other Abalone dive sites near Melbourne.
Crayfish Dive Site | © Ian Scholey
Divers have the opportunity to catch Southern Rock Lobster (aka Crayfish) at this dive site. Remember your catch bag, current Victorian Recreational Fishing Licence, rock lobster measure, and cray tags. Once you get back to the dive boat, or shore, make sure you clip the tail and tag your Crayfish as per Fisheries requirements. Please abide by all current fishing regulations if you intend to catch crays. See article-catching-crayfish for practical cray hunting advice from The Scuba Doctor, plus melbourne-cray-dives for a list of other crayfish dive sites near Melbourne. For tips on cooking your Crays, please see article-cooking-crayfish.
Gunditjmara country
Traditional Owners — This dive site is in the traditional Country of the Gunditjmara people of far south-western Victoria which continues over the state border into a small part of south-east South Australia and is bordered by the Glenelg River to the west and the Wannon River in the north. This truly ancient Country extends 100 metres out to sea from low tide and also includes Deen Maar (aka Lady Julia Percy Island) where the Gunditjmara believe the spirits of their dead travel to wait to be reborn. We wish to acknowledge the Gunditjmara as Traditional Owners. We pay respect to their Ancestors and their Elders, past, present and emerging.
Yellow Rock Beach Location Map
Latitude: 38° 23.289′ S (38.388155° S / 38° 23′ 17.36″ S)
Longitude: 141° 34.918′ E (141.581961° E / 141° 34′ 55.06″ E)
Datum: WGS84 |
Google Map
| Get directions
Added: 2022-05-20 20:24:41 GMT, Last updated: 2022-05-23 16:19:22 GMT
Source: Google Earth
Nearest Neighbour: Flat Rock, Cape Nelson, 1,371 m, bearing 223°, SW
Nelson Bay, Portland, Discovery Coast.
Depth: 5 to 10 m.
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DISCLAIMER: No claim is made by The Scuba Doctor as to the accuracy of the dive site coordinates listed here. Should anyone decide to use these GPS marks to locate and dive on a site, they do so entirely at their own risk. Always verify against other sources.
The marks come from numerous sources including commercial operators, independent dive clubs, reference works, and active divers. Some are known to be accurate, while others may not be. Some GPS marks may even have come from maps using the AGD66 datum, and thus may need be converted to the WGS84 datum. To distinguish between the possible accuracy of the dive site marks, we've tried to give each mark a source of GPS, Google Earth, or unknown.
![Halcyon Infinity 30lb System [SS Small Backplate]](/diveshop/images/halcyon/Halcyon-Evolve-Wing.jpg "Halcyon Infinity 30lb System [SS Small Backplate]")
