Hi, I'm Amanda!
I chose the name Blenny, because they are one of my favorite little fish to look at when I get bored with everything else...not that everthing else is that boring at all. My favorite cold water sea creature is the Sea Hare of Southern California, whose mating and egg-laying behavior is quite bizarre.
I grew up in Southern California, outside of L.A. I had a boyfriend who took me diving (almost a dangerous predicament) off of Redondo, and I was instantly hooked, so I decided SCUBA lessons were in order. California Polytechnic University (Cal Poly, Pomona) offered lessons, so I enrolled there, became a NAUI Master Diver two years later, and a NAUI Divemaster the following year, 2002. During this time, I dove in So. Cal, Lake Tahoe, Lake Mead, and once in Hawaii. I was a volunteer diver at the Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific and enjoyed feeding the fish there. I even met my husband, Jason, in SCUBA class!
After graduating with a degree in Philosophy, I became a PADI SCUBA instructor, and in Sept. 2002, moved to St. Thomas, USVI, where I taught and DM'ed. Under the water was much better than above on the island (I am a little bit of a city girl), and my husband talked me into moving to Florida to get a 2nd degree in Ocean Engineering, while he continued on from Civil to Ocean Engineering. I taught SCUBA in FL, converted back to NAUI as well, and eventually stopped teaching to finish my B.S. in May 2007. Now I am back to being a NAUI Master Diver, here in Houston. I work at Technip USA, an oil service company, where I do mostly structural analysis on Subsea Structures for Gulf of Mexico projects.
It was during a graduation trip to Costa Rica this past May that I met some of you at the Hotel Ocotal...at the pool bar. We didn't dive there, but it looked like you guys were having fun and everyone was really cool. When I found out y'all were from a dive club in Houston I was stoked...me about to move here and all.
Thanks for inviting me to join the club. Hope to see everyone at the upcoming August meeting!