30.12.16

Bye Bye Basil!

We recently sadly said goodbye to our favourite Swiss potato Basil. Basil has been with TRACC for around 12 months as a dive master, underwater photographer, and reef making extraordinaire. He is now heading off to work in New Zealand for a while. Before he left we got him to talk about his time at TRACC. We also managed to steal some of the incredible photos he took while at TRACC (He has only been taking photos for a short while!). We are already missing you Bas!


Our Potato, Basil


Diniy, Jo, Bas and Allia
What brought you to TRACC? I worked as a Carpenter for 7 years in Switzerland. My friends and I decided to spend 3 months travelling through South East Asia. While in Singapore we were convinced by a friend to head over to Lombok in Indonesia. I fell in love with the Gili islands in Indonesia. I then returned home,but only lasted 6 months before I went back to Indonesia train as a dive master. While I was training I met someone who had been to TRACC and recommended it. I decided to head there for 6 weeks to see what it was all about. I was then convinced by Steve to do my A level, so I stayed another 3 months for that, and then extended my stay till august. After a break travelling in Asia I came back for another few months until now. Most memorable TRACC moment? It's hard to think of just one moment- there have been too many- so many silly dive stories. I like the freedom of TRACC- you can just grab a tank go diving without being constrained like you would be at a resort. It also made a difference having a great team- being on Pom Pom you can't really escape people, but the team and people were great and we really got on. We had similar ideas and would smash out hundreds of bottle reefs to fill house reef. A memorable, hard, but rewarding time was when we had a group of 30 Chinese students join us for a short time. It was chaotic organising everything but it brought the team together into a little family. Best dive at TRACC? North tip. Or over at Timba Timba island. Favourite marine animal? Coral Any departing words for future TRACC volunteers? You will not want to return. Go to TRACC and make a difference. It's about doing good. You also have freedom to do what you want- Thomas made an octopus reef. TRACC is about volunteers taking things on and learning. You will be surrounded by people who want help you and show you how to create things. Go to TRACC.


Coral growing on a bottle reef (Credit Basil)


Please contact TRACC if you wish to reuse Basil's photos