Crawley Traweek was born near Birmingham, Alabama, and grew up on a farm. He later married, settled in National City, and began his career with the National City Fire Department, where everybody knew him as Jim. He dragged many of his fellow firefighters to Baja on "adventure trips." He enjoyed the camaraderie at the station and learned much from his "firefriends." His CB radio call name was " Sea Turtle" because of the wrinkles on his long neck and his love of ocean fishing. Jim died prematurely of job-related heart disease in 1992, not long after his retirement.