Hometown: I was born in Chicago but consider the Seattle-Edmonds area my home.
Years diving: More than 21
Favorite destination: Her next trip
Why I’m a diver: “Because no matter where I am in the world, DAN is available 24/7 for my equipment and me.”
Annie Crawley often uses “Ocean” before her first name, just in case her overwhelming enthusiasm for the underwater world doesn’t knock you over the instant she speaks. Crawley’s goal is to help people enrich their lives by empowering them to follow their dreams. We spoke just after the publication of her latest series of e-books for the iPad and educator guides, which Crawley hopes will change the way kids view the ocean and themselves.
AD: Annie, you wear a lot of hats: educator, filmmaker, author, photographer, scuba instructor. How do you see yourself and your role in the dive industry?
Crawley: It’s true — I can’t even believe it. I’ve become a queen-of-all-trades out of necessity, but if I could narrow it down to one thing, I’d have to say the role I relish most is being a mentor to our younger generation. I started my company, Dive Into Your Imagination, because all my friends and family had young kids, and back then, in my opinion, there was nothing on the market that did justice to the subject. Scuba diving and entering the underwater realm changed my life so profoundly that I wanted to share that with others. Scuba divers are about 1 percent of the population. It didn’t take me long to realize I should use my talents to broadcast a message to the 99 percent who didn’t have access to the environment.
AD: What was your “aha” moment?
Crawley: I remember hearing some prediction about how long it would be before there were no more fish in the ocean and wondering how I could get people to understand what that meant. Then I realized a love for the ocean had to come first. Underwater photography and video, especially in the digital age, provides access to that environment for everyone and has become one of the biggest means through which marine education is implemented. Photography and video are the best tools for demonstrating to children and adults the beauty and the complexity of the marine world. Children are 40 percent of the world’s population but 100 percent of its future. I want to inspire them to love the ocean through my art and my deeds.
AD: Is this the life you planned and studied for?
Crawley: Not at all. Growing up in Chicago, I would never have imagined this role for myself. But from my first breath on scuba in a pool, I knew this was something I wanted to spend my life experiencing.
AD: So as a young woman from Chicago, how’d you make it happen?
Crawley: Well, I was lucky that my mom taught me how to manage money. I always worked, and after college I traveled on money I had saved. After I had lived and worked overseas for several years, I returned to the U.S. and got a corporate job, but I stayed connected to the ocean by working on dive boats, first as a deck hand and then as a captain.
AD: Is that when DAN entered your life?
Crawley: That was when DAN began having an important impact. I believe DAN has the best insurance policies for traveling divers, and I travel a lot. Also, I feel more comfortable traveling with my equipment because of the equipment policy DAN offers. This summer I’m working with kids at Beach Camp in Puget Sound, and I’ll use DAN first aid kits and oxygen units at the camp as well as DAN educational materials when we discuss diving safety.
AD: When you’re working with kids, teaching them to dive and watching their first interactions with the ocean, what else do you stress besides safety?
Crawley: When I worked in an office, I missed the freedom of traveling and being in nature most of the time. I made a conscious decision to change my life and do what I dreamed of doing. There have been a lot of ups and downs, but I never second-guessed my decision. Because I believed I was capable of fulfilling my imagination’s wildest dreams, I was able to parlay a love for diving into a successful career.
AD: So believing in yourself is perhaps your most important message.
Crawley: Yes — I’ve learned that people with vision prosper. What I want is to instill the idea that we all can prosper, the planet can prosper, if we do what we do out of love and with passion. This is the message we must use to empower our youth to become environmental stewards with heart. Imagination drives innovation; I believe that we can do whatever we dream.
© Alert Diver — Q3 Summer 2013