An Ocean Ambassador

The worlds oceans cover over 70% of the worlds surface, from the frozen poles to the warm tropics and human kind has pushed itself as far as possible into every corner. Every part of this one interconnected environment is different, unique and requires a special knowledge, an equally unique lifestyle, and an incredible kind of person to live in it. For generations, the skills for survival were sharpened, the tools of leisure were crafted, the ability to study, utilise and create advantage in the worlds oceans was developed. For the people of the seas, the ocean is as much a part of their lives, as they are a part of it.

Lucas grew up barefoot, wandering the rainforest, bush and the coastlines of Australia. A peter pan of society, he has spent his years pegging back the closing frames of the age of exploration. A childhood spent making spears to catch fish out of the rivers, building bush huts when the sun went down grew into a passion for the wild. Chasing the final frontiers, Lucas learned to freedive, following his curiosity of the unknown to where ever the wind took him and his breath let him. From surfing the waves of bells beach, hand feeding wild sharks over an active underwater volcano, escaping whirlpools in the Malaka Straight, hunting with his indigenous friends to free diving deep sea pinnacles in the Andaman sea, Lucas has hitch hiked, crewed, walked, sailed and swam to get there.

With a marine biology degree under his belt, and a law degree almost completed, Lucas has supported himself as a Freediving instructor, dive master and a model. His rugged looks and cheeky personality have landed him appearances in campaigns for Indigenous Tourism of Australia, Tourism Queensland and as the iconic Australian Iron man on cereal ads to name a few.

His lifestyle in the water has connected him with people in every part of this watery world. The experiences of meeting them and appreciating their lifestyles and environment became what he was about.  –

I think the most incredible experiences you can have is being embraced by a community, a community totally foreign to your own, based solely on generosity, kindness and good-will. I spent a while travelling through the islands, and everywhere I went I would walk into the village and ask if I could dive and catch fish on their reefs. When I would return I would share out the fish with the people of the village and I’d be invited in to share it with them and meet their families. I found the people with the least in the world often gave the most, and the happiest times in my life are probably sitting in the dirt, under a dilapidated stilt hut, sharing a fish with a bunch of incredible people.”

Wanting to promote a global approach to ecologically sustainable development, Lucas is both a humanitarian and an environmentalist. He sees environmental issues as a global prerogative, and has assisted campaigns to force inquiries into better management of our precious marine resources as well as assisting in the hands on research. He insists that the answer is in respect, community, collective ambition and reliable science. People the world over all utilise this incredible resource in different ways and for different reasons and if we, as a collective people have the ambition to maintain those ways of life, to continue to enjoy diversity, individuality and the environment intrinsically, then we have to assure that we can do it in a way that doesn’t ruin it for other or future generations.  It’s a very difficult thing to balance, however the best way to understand our objectives for management is to understand all the people who use it, what they value, what their needs are and what they stand to lose if suddenly our oceans were gone.

Lucas aims to celebrate diversity, to show the vitality, creativity and adventure in the people of the worlds oceans, to show how they link to this precious resource and why it is so important to them. Lucas takes a look at the locality itself, the community that he is existing in, how the people interact with the ocean and environment and how inturn it reacts with them.

Ultimately his goals are to unify a positive understanding of our oceans and its people. He wants to show that there is beauty in diversity, and there is incredible value in the wilds of our earth. He aims to show through experience, the joy of cultural difference and community.