Longtime diver canceled trip aboard Conception just weeks before boat fire
Dale Sheckler holds his diving gear in the garage of his Torrance home. Sheckler The longtime diver planned to join the Labor Day weekend excurion aboard the Conception.
Dale Sheckler, 62, had planned to join the Labor Day weekend excursion aboard the Conception. The longtime diver was drawn to marine life and was preparing to take photos for an upcoming article in California Diving News.
The trip had been on his calendar until eight weeks ago, when hip surgery derailed his plans.
For the record:
10:17 p.m. Sept. 7, 2019A previous version of this article gave Kristy Finstad’s age as 34. She was 41.
May 2019 drone photo of the Conception off the Santa Barbara Coast.
(Don Barthelmess/Los Angeles Times)
For decades, Sheckler oversaw California Diving News, which he launched with his wife in 1984 — just three years after the Conception first launched. In the more than 30 years since then, the Torrance resident estimates that he has made 100 dives from the boat. He last boarded it in July 2018.
When his brother-in-law sent him a text Monday morning about what is now being described as the worst maritime disaster in modern California history, Sheckler said he was horrified. He knows Jerry Boylan, the captain who was able to escape the fire, and knew Kristy Finstad, the marine biologist who helped lead the Labor Day excursion, who did not escape.
“She was very cheerful and leader-oriented,” Sheckler said of the 41-year-old. “She cared about the people who were on her trips. She cared about their enjoyment.”
A commercial diving boat caught fire near the shoreline of Santa Cruz Island, Calif., early Monday. Many aboard the boat were believed to be sleeping below deck when the fire broke out in the pre-dawn hours.
Sept. 11, 2019
Sheckler, who still writes for the magazine he sold a few years ago, described the Conception as an “excellently maintained vessel” with a quality crew. Glen Fritzler, the owner of Truth Aquatics, the company that ran the Conception, won a California Scuba Service Award last year.
In Sheckler’s experience, he said, almost immediately after boarding the boat — and often before leaving the dock — the crew always gave an extensive safety briefing. He said he never feared the threat of fire while aboard the Conception or any other dive boat in California.
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The burned hulk of the Conception is brought to the surface by a salvage team off Santa Cruz Island. (Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times)
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The burned hulk of the Conception is brought to the surface by a salvage team off Santa Cruz Island. (Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times)
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A mourner pays her respects at a memorial made up of scuba tanks, one for each victim, during the vigil at Chase Palm Park on Friday night. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)
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Mourners gather for a vigil at Chase Palm Park in Santa Barbara on Friday evening honoring the victims of the Conception boat fire that broke out off Santa Cruz Island before dawn Monday and claimed 34 lives. (Luis Sinco)
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Glen Fritzler, left, co-owner of Truth Aquatics and the dive boat Conception, consoles an attendee during a vigil at Chase Palm Park in Santa Barbara on Friday evening. (Luis Sinco/Los Angeles Times)
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Scuba diver Julia Donath joins mourners for a vigil at Chase Palm Park in Santa Barbara on Friday evening to honor the 34 victims that died in the Conception boat fire. (Luis Sinco)
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Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown, with other officials, presents a wreath during the vigil at Chase Palm Park in Santa Barbara on Friday evening homor the 34 victims of the Conception boat fire. (Luis Sinco)
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Mourners gather for a vigil at Chase Palm Park in Santa Barbara on Friday evening honoring the victims of the Conception boat fire that broke out off Santa Cruz Island before dawn Monday and claimed 34 lives. (Luis Sinco)
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Some of the thousands of people join a vigil on the beach in honor of those who lost their lives in the Conception boat fire along the Santa Monica Pier in Santa Monica. (Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)
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Allison Metchikof, left and Rachel Levi, right, embrace during a vigil hosted by Deep Blue Scuba Center in honor of the victims aboard the dive ship Conception in Long Beach. (Dania Maxwell/Los Angeles Times)
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Divers and support crews from many agencies work the scene of the dive boat fire off Santa Cruz Island. (Santa Barbara County)
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The derrick barge Salta Verde off the coast of Santa Cruz Island upon its arrival late Wednesday at the scene of the wreck of the dive boat Conception. (U.S. Coast Guard)
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The search area where divers were looking through the sunken wreckage of the Conception is outlined. (KABC-TV)
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Divers and support crews from many agencies work the scene of the dive boat fire off Santa Cruz Island. (Santa Barbara County)
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The owners of Truth Aquatics and the dive boat Conception, Glen and Dana Fritzler, right, and their daughter Ashley, left, during an interview in Santa Barbara, Calif. (KEYT-TV)
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Surfer Tim DeVries of Santa Barbara views the “Lost at Sea Memorial” at the end of the Santa Barbara Harbor jetty Thursday morning. The memorial reads “In memory of our loved ones whose lives and destinies have been claimed by the sea.” (Al Seib/Los Angeles Times)
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Members of the FBI dive team view a growing memorial prior to departing Thursday morning to the site of the dive boat tragedy. (Al Seib/Los Angeles Times)
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People pay their respects at a makeshift memorial in Santa Barbara for victims of the deadly dive boat fire off Santa Cruz Island. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)
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CJ Andelman, 12, of Santa Barbara, who has become a scuba diver along with her twin sister, plays her harp Wednesday morning during the memorial at Santa Barbara Harbor. (Al Seib/Los Angeles Times)
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Jennifer Homendy, center, of the National Transportation Safety Board, with other NTSB and Coast Guard officials on Santa Barbara Harbor aboard Vision, the sister ship to Conception. (Al Seib/Los Angeles Times)
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Santa Barbara resident Britany Martin lets her son Theo, 2, place flowers at a growing memorial to the fire victims at Santa Barbara Harbor. (Al Seib/Los Angeles Times)
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FBI dive team members prepare to leave Santa Barbara Harbor on Wednesday morning and head to the site of the fire. (Al Seib/Los Angeles Times)
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A memorial is growing at Santa Barbara Harbor, where the dive boat Conception was based. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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Olivia, left, sister of a female crew member thought to have died in the boat fire, hugs Jennifer Stafford, who placed flowers at Santa Barbara Harbor. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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Search and rescue personnel remove one of more than a dozen body bags in Santa Barbara Harbor after the Conception diving boat caught fire early Monday. (Patrick T. Fallon / For The Times)
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After hanging a dive flag in memory of the victims, JJ Lambert, 38, who said he had dived off the Conception as a kid, is hugged by Jenna Marsala, 33, at Santa Barbara Harbor near where the Conception departed. (Patrick T. Fallon / For The Times)
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Orlando Aldana places candles, one for each person aboard the Conception, at a makeshift memorial at Sea Landing in the Santa Barbara Harbor. (Patrick T. Fallon / For The Times)
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At Santa Barbara Harbor, James Miranda kneels in prayer. “It’s a very sad moment for California,” he said. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)
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Rescuers and law enforcement, on a boat docked at Santa Barbara Harbor, move a body that was recovered after Monday’s deadly boat fire. (Daniel Dreifuss / Associated Press)
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The body of a victim is moved at Santa Barbara Harbor. (Daniel Dreifuss / Associated Press)
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U.S. Coast Guard searches for victims of the dive boat fire off Santa Cruz Island on Monday afternoon. (Patrick T. Fallon / For The Times )
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Dive boat captain Jerry Boylan is brought back to U.S. Coast Guard headquarters at Channel Islands Harbor on Monday in Oxnard. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)
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Firefighters arrive back at the U.S. Coast Guard Station after battling the fire. (Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times)
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The captain of the Grape Escape boat, which rescued survivors of a boat fire off the Channel Islands, looks on near the U.S. Coast Guard Station Channel Islands in Oxnard on Monday. (Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images)
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Firefighters battle a blaze on a dive boat near Santa Cruz Island. (Santa Barbara County Fire Department)
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A diving boat fire near Santa Cruz Island off the Ventura County coast. (Santa Barbara County Fire Department)
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The dive boat Conception is engulfed in flames after a deadly fire broke out aboard the vessel off the Southern California Coast. (Santa Barbara County)
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The dive boat Conception seen at dawn Monday burns off Santa Cruz Island. (Santa Barbara County Fire)
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Conception, the boat that caught fire off Ventura County. (Truth Aquatics)
The passengers of the Conception dive boat ended their second day in the waters off the California coast with a nighttime swim, exploring a lush, watery world populated with coral and kelp forests.
Sept. 10, 2019
“They tell you what to do in the event of a sinking. They talk about where the fire extinguishers are available,” he said. “That’s the only mention of fire.”
Investigators are still searching for answers as to what started the blaze, and why those on board were unable to escape.
Colleen Shalby is a reporter for the Los Angeles Times. She has covered education, the pandemic, the vaccine rollout and breaking news throughout California. She was part of the team that was a 2020 Pulitzer Prize finalist for coverage of a dive-boat fire off the Santa Barbara coast. Shalby grew up in Southern California and graduated from George Washington University. She previously worked for PBS NewsHour and joined The Times in 2015.
