Strava turned the morning run or bike ride into something people could track, share and compare.
Now a Gold Coast entrepreneur is bringing a similar mix of route tracking, community and friendly competition to Australia’s waterways with an app for boaties and jet ski riders.
What began as a class assignment for Bond University student Fraser Lowe has developed over five months into GoCoast, which has launched on the Apple App Store.
The 20-year-old Bachelor of Entrepreneurial Transformation student first developed the idea as part of his Leading with AI subject.
He also benefited from the business coaching available through Bond’s Transformer program.
“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.”
Like Strava, GoCoast allows users to record and replay GPS routes, track their speed and distance and see popular trips posted by other members.
Users can also create events, send invitations, connect with other people on the water and find suggested food, snorkelling and marina stops.
The app includes leaderboards for speed and distance, as well as an SOS section with direct calling options for triple zero, Volunteer Marine Rescue and water police.
It also provides tips for common emergencies and guidance on explaining a user’s location to an emergency operator.
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.
The app can record trips elsewhere in Australia, with more regional and international information planned as the user base grows.
“I’d love to take this across the world, internationally for sure,” Fraser said.
He said the main challenge would be gathering enough information for each new location.
The project was inspired by Fraser’s part-time work at Gold Coast company Jet Ski Safaris, where he leads tours on the region’s waterways.
“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,” he said.
“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.”
Fraser said the initial version was relatively simple but developing it into a functioning app involved months of testing, troubleshooting and refinement.
The former TSS student said the flexibility of his degree had allowed him to continue exploring where entrepreneurship and technology might take him.
“My aim is to keep trying things while I’m young and see what works,” he said.
“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.”
GoCoast is free to download from the Apple App Store, with users able to upgrade to a paid subscription. An Android version is planned.