variety of luxurious and beautiful ornamental fish: Scuba Diving

Thursday, December 3, 2009

Dive Into Your Imagination!

Annie Crawley, AKA "Ocean Annie," has become one of America's leading ocean-environ educators. Founder of www.DiveIntoYourImagination.com, her company changes the way new generations view the ocean. As an underwater cinematographer and educator, Annie has become a Les Brown Platinum Speaker.

CWIC Founder & President Cindi Walters met her at the DEMA Show 2009 in Orlando, Florida and realizing she is a true inspiration, invited her to be a contributor to our blog! We think you will enjoy Annie's perspective and encourage you to visit her site!

A Message from Annie
Breathing underwater changed my life. Originally from Chicago, I never dreamed that I would spend the past two decades living and working around the world. Traveling from Indonesia to Galapagos, Belize to Papua New Guinea, I have explored and documented underwater life on our planet! Inspired by the words of my grandmother when I was only 10-years-old, "You have to travel when you're a youngster because when you get to be my age, you can't climb the mountains!" Afte

r graduating from college with a journalism degree, I wasn't ready to get a job, start a family and do all the more traditional things that most of us are raised to pursue. So I saved my money and bought a plane ticket to Australia. There I learned to scuba dive in my second week and then didn't return back to the states for four years! Learning to Scuba dive gave me a freedom I have never experienced on land.

One of the reasons I was excited to contribute to CWIC's blog is because I would never have been able to Scuba dive if I had never learned to swim. From the time we were in diapers, my mom had us in the local swimming pool for family night swims. Eventually, I joined the swim team when I was 9 and grew up with green hair -- due to all the time we spent in the pool. What I didn't know at the time was that my mom had a fear of water and to this day she hates to put her head underwater. The amazing thing is that she didn't instill her fear in any of her children and sent us to swimming lessons. (She was a true hero, my mom...because the greatest of all heroes don't pass on their fears to those who they guide, but they help them exceed their very own limitations.) It is much easier to learn to swim when you are young, but I know that it can be done by adults who want to get over their fears of water...they too can enter into the magical world found when snorkeling and Scuba diving.

Children are 40% of our population and 100% of our future. A few years ago, I founded www.DiveIntoYourImagination.com to change the way that new generations view the ocean. I spent nearly two decades underwater and believe that real ocean animals are much more exciting than those in cartoons. A few of my favorite animals include pygmy sea horses the size of your baby fingernail; cuttlefish that communicate by changing the color and texture of their skin; and W

hale Sharks, the largest fish in the ocean...some growing to be up to 60 feet in length!

I still pinch myself when I think about diving with Great White Sharks in Mexico and bottle nose dolphins in Belize. The ocean is the most magical place, and it was all possible because my mom taught me to swim and my grandmother told me to travel...and there is much more to be told.

I look forward to contributing again in the near future!!! If you have any questions, feel free to visit my website site and email!

http://www.destinationwater.com/- A C Walters Intercoastal Corporation

Thursday, June 4, 2009

Where Is Your Nitsch?

What do Herbert Nitsch, Jacques-Yves Cousteau and the standard sun burnt tourist have in common? They dive!! Three very different names and very different backgrounds but connected in the fact that they spend time in the water. One is the bravest human being on the planet, the other a true innovator and the last (guess who) is in need of some lessons. Unless you are swimming competitively, water activities can be broken down into three categories; Free Diving, Scuba Diving, and Snorkeling. Now please, Proceed…

(Cousteau)

The tourist devours blended fruity concoctions, all inclusive anything and Snorkeling. Le Commandant Cousteau fancied his croissant and fathered the Self Contained Underwater

Breathing Apparatus. SCUBA! But wait, who is this Nitsch Fellow? WELL, funny you should ask being as he is the World record holder for No Limit Free Diving, 214 meters, down, underwater, in ONE BREATH. Translation = Unless somehow Herbert Nitsch himself tracked down my measly blog in attempt to bolster his own mental resume and is now reading it, no reader of mine will ever compare to the set of lungs and err, yeah, this guy has. More to come on Nitsch… Snorkeling is beckoning.

(Nitsch)

Small tube, set of flippers and a trusty mask… jump in, because you are now a veteran snorkeler. Most snorkeling is done in the warmer climates, where calmer waters are and something interesting, whether it be huge kelp beds, coral, or fish brighter than Fruit Loops can be found. Quick notes about the art of the snorkel; You are already floating in the water with fins

you are not used to and a mask that enlarges your eyeballs at least double the size, please don’t draw more attention to yourself by being the one that splashes around imitating your household washing machine. You will soon have no friends in the water, lots of sand around you and maybe if you really have learned your lesson, a few friendly reminders from the coral that they may look pretty but they have a dark, or sharp side. Truth is, snorkeling is great. With nothing more than a plastic tube, the average person can glimpse at what wonder the ocean has in store. May it be the schools of fish or slimy sea cucumber, the sea anemone or the not so friendly sea urchin, the shore has so much to offer one who is willing to simply watch. Be patient, and realize that you are foreign to them, foreign and 6 times most of their size. Think if the tables were turned, a 60 ft fish, walking into your backyard… Howdy Neighbor!

Remember in Finding Nemo, the cleaner fish in the aquarium with the handle bar moustache and the French accent so aptly named Jacques? Yeah he has nothing to do with Jacques Cousteau, but hey, he was French and so is our beloved father of modern day scuba, Jacques-Yves Cousteau. Before Cousteau, if a diver wanted to stay underwater by way of an external air source, they had to be hooked up to an oxygen machine and wherever they swam, a very bulky, rather annoying airline was hooked up to their helmet. Cousteau invented the aqualung and now, SCUBA is not just a way of diving, but a way of life. Those who scuba swear it is the most rewarding experience and being part of the water for that long is a treat each and every time. More training is required but that is expected being as deeper depths are attained and if the technique is not performed properly, oh boy, you are in for more than just a little earache. Learn it the right way and never have a problem, plus, it looks cool. Really cool.

Free Diving, where have you been all of my life. This sport, you bet it’s a sport, is incredible. Courage, athleticism, a little bit of insanity and vast amounts of water sprinkled with as much oxygen as you can fill your lings with in one breath. If you bottled up the guts and pinch of madness in an airtight container (pun intended) that come with bungee jumping and released them into the ocean, you birthed free diving, congratulations. By definition, free diving is any

kind of swimming done with no breathing apparatus. It could be children having contests to see who holds their breath underwater longest. Or maybe who can go “there and back” on one breath. Free diving is a loose definition which is why most likely, if you have been in the water, you have free dove. Most common free diving includes Spear fishing, underwater Hockey and underwater Rugby. Okay so the second two are not common at all but wow, how do you get tickets? Competitive apnea is really where the sport gets its exposure. All sorts of free diving are recognized consisting of fin and no fin depth contests, assisted and unassisted contests and plain old contests to see who can hold stay under longer. But who is Nitsch? Imagine this, grabbing a few weights, one huge monofin and the biggest breath you ever inhaled and diving the length of 2 ½ football fields and then coming back up!! Yeah, if cheerleading is considered a sport, free diving gets its own category. Goes with skydiving, arm-wrestling, rugby, and unassisted rock-climbing. Herbert, I’m not worthy.

Water is for some relaxing, for others entertainment, and for a select few, a chance to prove their athleticism to the world. No matter what you find yourself doing in the water, do it. Because being weightless and floating seamlessly, being a part of what was here long before us and what will be here long after us, it’s an indescribable feeling.