Tom Tate reveals plan to turn Gold Coast into extreme diving destination
Mayor Tom Tate wants to stage both platform diving and cliff diving competitions on the Gold Coast - with a cheeky video showing his enthusiasm.
Mayor Tom Tate has gone diving mad.
This masthead has obtained video, prepared for the Mayor, which has been shown to councillors as part of his regular monthly diary report.
The footage, which has been edited, shows Mr Tate talking to an overseas aquatic centre expert before leaping off a high dive platform – and disappearing below.
The City had been in talks about developing diving facilities and Southport Aquatic Centre.
“During my mayoral mission I met with Steven LoBue, High Diving Program Co-ordinator at Fort Lauderdale Aquatic Centre and inspected their state of the art 27-metre diving facility,” Mr Tate said.
“It has been confirmed that the existing diving pool at the Gold Coast Aquatic Centre doesn’t need to be altered to support a 27-metre diving platform here, which means we could host World Championships and other events.
“We are also investigating the opportunity to host a round of the Red Bull Diving World Series here.”
In the months leading up to the visit Mr Tate had been bullish about the Coast becoming a world diving destination.
After meeting with officials from the Diving Federation at the Southport facility, he believed the Evandale lagoon, a popular swim spot on summer weekends with families, also had a future as a top sporting venue.
The lake, which is near the Gold Coast Coast City Council’s chambers and neighbours HOTA, previously made headlines in 2017 when “Sharon” the stonefish was caught and removed.
Mr Tate had learned from talks with Diving Australia officials that there were three categories of competitive diving.
The first category was diving which started out up to 10 metres, then reached a higher level of 27 metres. But it was the third category which he hoped to introduce at a Gold Coast venue.
“I believe that we can do the 27 metres at the (Southport) Aquatic Centre. Then they said there is one more – cliff diving,” he said.
Mr Tate said he was asked about the height for cliff diving, only to be advised it was 35 metres or higher.
Cliff diving is an extreme sport where divers perform acrobatic moves before reaching the water. World championships have been staged since 1997.
Council officers had told him that Evandale Lake was deep enough, he said.
“I think we can hold cliff diving right there at Evandale with the backdrop of the Gold Coast, it will be another event that people can sit around the lake and cheer. I think it will be interesting.”
Asked at the time, if he would dive into the lake, he did not hesitate, replying: “Feet first”.
The latest edited video shows he has perfected the execution with the correct start.
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