The (DFB) shop is right on top of the cliff. You are walking a down a path to the bottom of the cliff. I is a good, stepped path, but there is a height difference. But it is not stairs. I would call the "effort on the path" about 1/3 of that at 1000 steps) and while I found the entry itself OK at both, I thought the one at Hamlet was a little easier (Compared to Salt Pier (not that that is "difficult) the Hamlet entry is definitely easier).
You enter the water with a rocky ledge available to steady yourself. You have to maneuver between some outcroppings before the water is deep enough to swim or dive. W/o much waves that is very easy and nice. Pending on you and what you carry, there will be a wave height at which that changes a bit. Easiest is to follow a pipe out and then either turn left or right...
We did one of our first night dives there, after having done a daytime dive there first. Approaching from the top in the dark, the waves sounded downright scary (they picked up a little). I could tell by my son's face that he was wondering whether he should do this. Once we were down there we found the waves were just 1.5 to 2 feet (to us they sounded at least twice that from up on the cliff) Well we were fairly new divers and there were "hard, abrasive things" in the water, so it was a consideration nevertheless. I told my son he should call it after thinking about it and whichever way he decides I'll be fine with it. My son watched for a while and decided it's a go. And it (and successive dives) were wonderful.
Although, while taking the fins off in the water on the way back to shore I thought I could have a little more wisdom in how I do this while being played with by waves (even while they are reasonably small), especially when wearing a shorty and focusing on protecting a camera + lights... - Beginners troubles...
