About Scuba Sean

Ever since I was a small person, I’ve always had an affinity toward the ocean and what lies beneath the waves. Growing up in along the Southern Californian coast, I have always had access to its bounty. I started my relationship with the sea working as a pin head aboard sport fishing vessels during the summers when I was 10. This was great fun for many years and I have since seen many incredible events on the water.

In high school, I was told that I had to start volunteering at either the hospital, Orange County Marine Institute (now Ocean Institute), or some place like those. I chose the OCMI. I did the training for the touch tank for weekend visitors. I soon learned that their tour boat, the R/V Sea Explorer, had openings for volunteers.This was an amazing time for me. I quickly earned the crews friendship and respect being the youngest volunteer that they have ever had. I was able to do this through high school on weekends and just about full time during the summer. In July of 1998 I logged more hours that any other volunteer ever (152 hours), and subsequently eared volunteer of the year. They have been a great inspiration for the direction I wanted to focus my career.

I was also during high school that I became certified through PADI in Open Water. This was my 16th birthday present and I could not have been happier. In high school, I became involved with the science club and SAVE (Students Against a Vanishing Environment). My sophomore year I was president of the science club, V.P of SAVE and was bumped up to president for both clubs my senior year.

After high school, I was accepted to Humboldt State University in far, far Northern California. During my sophomore year I learned of the dive program that HSU offered. This included minors in recreational diving, scientific diving and leadership diving. Being a university, the HSU dive program is not well funded, so photography was done using Nikonos II, IV and Vs shooting slide film. This 7 year span of my life included many adventures, and when it was all said and done, I graduated with a B.A. in Geography and minors in Oceanography and Scientific Diving. My senior project was using personally collected data in Trinidad and Van Damme State Beach, along with data collected from 8 other sites along California. The paper and presentation was entitled “The Population Fluctuation of Sub-tidal Invertebrates along the Californian Coast.” I presented my findings at the California Geographic Society’s annual meeting. Also, during my last semester I took the position of vice president of the HSU Geographic Society.

After graduation I came to Monterey where I started working at Backscatter.

Credentials:

Currently working at Backscatter Underwater photo and video, the premier underwater photography store.
Graduated from HSU in 2007 with a B.A. in Geography and minors in Oceanography and Scientific Diving.
AAUS & NAUI Scientific Diver with HSU ‘06
NAUI Underwater Photography with HSU ‘05
NAUI Master Diver with HSU ‘02
PADI Open Water through Dive & Surf ‘99

Links

Backscatter
Monterey Bay Aquarium
Ocean Institute

Contact

If I’m not in the water you can probably contact me here:
scubaboone [at] gmail.com
Monterey, CA