Gold Coast student launches Strava-style app for Australian boaties
Gold Coast student Fraser Lowe launches GoCoast, a social boating app for tracking trips, events and water safety.
What’s Happening?
GoCoast, a new social app for boaties and jet ski riders, launched on the Apple App Store. The platform combines GPS trip recording, route sharing, events, safety information, and community features.
Gold Coast entrepreneur Fraser Lowe developed the idea through Bond University’s Leading with AI subject. What began as a class assignment grew into a working app following months of development and testing.
Fraser studies a Bachelor of Entrepreneurial Transformation and works part-time with the Gold Coast company Jet Ski Safaris. His experience leading local tours helped him identify gaps in how boaties find routes and organise group rides.
Why It Matters?
Strava gave runners and cyclists a place to record, share, and compare their activities. GoCoast applies a similar social model to boating and jet skiing across Australian waterways.
Fraser saw that large boating communities were already active online, but their information was spread across separate groups. Routes, events, and trip ideas could therefore be difficult to find.
“I noticed all these massive boating and jet ski communities on social media, with tens of thousands of people scattered in different places or organising events in different spots,” Fraser said. “I thought there should be a designated spot and a way to share the trips people are doing, because there’s not really anything like it.”
His part-time work leading tours with the Gold Coast company Jet Ski Safaris showed him another gap. Many riders stayed near familiar locations because they did not know where else they could go.
“Leading tours through creeks and other beautiful spots on the Gold Coast, I noticed most riders never made it past the well-known spots like Wavebreak and the Seaway. There was so much more out there that people just weren’t exploring, mostly because they didn’t know it existed or didn’t know how to find it. On top of that, the boat and jet ski community was already huge on Facebook, but there was no proper home for it. Groups were scattered, hard to search and not built for the way boaties actually plan and share rides,” Fraser told The GC Minute.
Local Impact
GoCoast gives Gold Coast riders access to community-recorded trips beyond the area’s most familiar waterways. Each recorded ride appears on the social feed, while community reactions determine which routes appear most prominently.
“Every ride a user records gets posted to the social feed, but the map features the top 10 most-liked rides. So the destinations on GoCoast are picked by the community itself rather than by us. Users can also sort rides by distance or fastest time,” Fraser said.
Alongside recorded routes, users can find suggested food, snorkelling, and marina stops. They can also create events, send invitations, and connect with other people on the water. Fraser selected the first regions based on the size of their existing boating communities.
“GoCoast currently has curated destination information for six regions: the Gold Coast, Brisbane and Moreton Bay, the Sunshine Coast, the Whitsundays, Sydney and Perth/Western Australia. I selected those regions because they are known for having large boating and jet ski communities. They are a starting point and I’ve always planned to expand into more areas,” he said.
By the Numbers
Fraser is a 20-year-old Bond University student and a former student of The Southport School.
GoCoast was developed over five months and tested with about 10 of Fraser’s friends before its release.
The app attracted around 400 sign-ups and several paid subscriptions before Fraser began marketing it.
Zoom In
Like Strava, GoCoast allows users to record and replay GPS routes while tracking speed and distance. Members can also view popular trips, join events, and compare results through speed and distance leaderboards.
The platform includes a marketplace and a service log for recording boat or jet ski maintenance. Fraser said this combination gives users more than a standard mapping app or Facebook group.
“Facebook groups only give you community. GoCoast combines community with GPS ride tracking, events, a marketplace and a service log for your jet ski or boat,” he said.
Other boating apps tend to focus on marine charts and route directions. GoCoast provides some route assistance, but its main purpose is connecting people and sharing trips.
Safety information has also been included through an SOS section and guidance for common emergencies.
“On safety, the app includes a built-in FAQ answering common on-water safety questions, plus an SOS mode that gives quick access to relevant emergency service numbers,” Fraser said.
The SOS section provides direct calling options for Triple Zero, Volunteer Marine Rescue, and the water police. It also helps users explain their location to emergency operators.
Developing these features required Fraser to build personal accounts for each user and meet Apple’s privacy requirements. He said the technical work behind the app proved harder than creating the initial version.
“The Leading with AI subject was where the idea first took shape, and I built the whole thing using AI-assisted development from there. The biggest challenge by far was the backend of the app, specifically building a proper account system so every user has their own login and data, and then getting the app through Apple’s App Store review process. That involved a lot of legal and privacy requirements I had to learn how to comply with,” he said.
Fraser continued working after completing the assignment, gradually turning the early version into a public app.
“I was thinking about it for my assignment, trying to find a niche that would be appealing, and then used AI to build the initial app. Then I just kept going, tested it with about 10 of my friends and got it into a place where it could be launched on the App Store,” he said.
Zoom Out
Although curated information is currently limited to selected regions, GoCoast can record trips anywhere in Australia. More regional and international information could be added as its user community grows.
Fraser said collecting enough accurate information for every new location would be the main difficulty. However, he wants the platform to move beyond its Australian starting point.
“I’d love to take this across the world, internationally for sure,” he said.
The flexibility of Fraser’s degree has allowed him to continue testing ideas involving business and technology. For now, he plans to keep building projects while considering where those interests could lead.
“My aim is to keep trying things while I’m young and see what works. It might be a job that doesn’t even exist yet. That’s why I’m trying to get on top of AI and entrepreneurship,” he said.
What To Look For Next?
GoCoast is free through the Apple App Store, with an optional paid subscription available. Fraser said its early response had been positive, despite little promotion since the launch.
“The feedback has been really positive,” he said. “We’ve had around 400 sign-ups and some paid subscriptions since launch, before I’ve even started marketing it. Android is coming in about a month. The testing process has just taken longer than expected. Looking ahead, the plan is to expand into more locations across Australia and eventually make GoCoast usable anywhere." he said