Semester 2 2026 Welcome Dive – Gold Coast Seaway

📅Sunday, 16 August 2026

Kick off Semester 2 with one of Southeast Queensland's most iconic shore dives! Whether it's your first time diving the Seaway or your thousandth, there's always something new to discover. Afterwards, we'll relax and debrief with hot chips on the grass.

📅 Schedule

7:00 am – Leave Brisbane (allowing around 2 hours to drive from UQ to the Seaway, as M1 traffic can be very unpredictable.)

9:00 am – Meet at the Gold Coast Seaway (sharp) for briefing. 

10:30 am – Enter the water

10:40 am – High tide

11:30 am – All divers out of the water

After the dive

• Picnic on the grass with hot chips and cold drinks (provided by UniDive)
• A nearby kiosk is available if you'd like a larger meal.

If you've borrowed UniDive equipment (excluding tanks and weights), please rinse and return them either that afternoon or at the following Thursday club night. Carpool drivers can decide what works best.

🌊 About the Dive

The Gold Coast Seaway dive site is one of the most popular shore dives in South East Queensland, largely because of the400+ species that call it home. It is a treasure hunt of macro life within the rocks, coral and plant life, while also feeling like an aquarium filled with schools of fish ranging from tiny reef species to enormous Queensland Gropers. It is also highly accessible, caters to all experience levels, and offers fantastic views of the Gold Coast skyline from the surface.

The site includes a rock wall that runs from the Gold Coast Spit (a narrow strip of land extending out into the ocean and well worth walking along to the lighthouse for beautiful coastal views) into the river system, as well as a pipeline that runs perpendicular from the rock wall towards South Stradbroke Island. Following the pipeline takes you into water deeper than 18 m, where you may encounter the huge Queensland Gropers.

💰 Cost

$35 per diver

Includes:

• Carpool fuel contribution
• One cylinder
• Air fill
• Weights and weight belt

All other scuba equipment must be loaned beforehand if required. Unidive events do get priority for loan equipment, but availability (particularly of exact sizing) can’t always be guaranteed. We will all do our best to ensure everyone is sorted.

🤿 What to Bring

Required

• Mask
• Snorkel
• Fins
• SMB (safety sausage)
• Whistle
• Cutting device (knife or shears)

Recommended

• Towel
• Warm clothes
• Drinking water
• Picnic rug or chair (if it fits in your car)
• Lawn games
• Your favourite scuba stories

🚗 Carpooling

Carpooling is essential to making this trip happen. Not only does it reduce fuel costs, but it also helps ensure that members without a car—which is common within our university community—can participate. Please indicate during registration if you can

• Drive other members
• Drop cylinders at the Woolloongabba dive shop after the trip
• Collect cylinders and return them to the UniDive shed the following Thursday

If you prefer not to carpool, that's absolutely fine. Please note that fuel costs for private travel cannot be reimbursed.

🎟 Ticket Types

There are two ticket types:

• Open Water Divers
• Advanced Open Water (or higher) divers willing to buddy with OW divers.

This is not a guided dive. UniDive is a social club, not a dive centre. Everyone is an equal participant—paying their own way, diving within their own training and experience, lending a hand throughout the day, and most importantly, having fun.

All participants are certified divers and remain responsible for their own dive planning, navigation and safety. This buddy system simply helps newer divers meet mentors, feel supported and ensure everyone makes a new friend.

If the event fills, please email training@unidive.org. Depending on how many members volunteer to help with running the event, we may be able to increase numbers or place you on the waiting list.

✅ Participation Requirements

Each diver must:

• Be a current UniDive member, medically fit to dive, and have a valid UQ Swim Test Certificate
• Have dived in the last 6 months
• Have an Open Water (or equivalent) dive certification from a recognised agency
• Dive within their certification and capability
• Ensure that they have all required dive gear, and are familiar with all aspects of it
• Dive with an SMB / "safety sausage", cutting device (knife) and whistle. Bring their own mask, snorkel, and fins. Note: These items are NOT supplied (you need to bring your own)
• If you need to hire other equipment such as BCD, reg, wetsuit, it is your responsibility to hire these before the trip (typically at the UniDive shed on Thursday night before the trip). There will be no time to sort out gear hire on the day of the trip.
  There's no need to hire tanks and weights, as these are included in the trip and will be loaded from the shed on the day.
• Follow instructions given by the Dive Supervisor, and other people in charge.
• Help out throughout the whole day
• Notify the Trip Organiser and Dive Supervisor asap of any changes to personal circumstances as declared in the event registration form
• Attend the trip meeting (usually on the Thursday beforehand at 6:15 pm at the UniDive shed)

If you have any questions about the trip, please contact the Trip Organiser Mia Santina on training@unidive.org . If you can't get hold of the Trip Organiser, email the Dive Officer dive@unidive.org.

We look forward to welcoming everyone to another fantastic semester of diving!