Dive company remembers family killed in boat fire

Among the victims of the dive boat fire that claimed the lives of 34 people were Steve Salika, his wife Diana Adamic, and their teenage daughter, Tia from Santa Cruz.

The family was celebrating Tia’s 17 birthday along with her friend Berenice aboard the Conception.

Kids Sea Camp, an adventure dive company, tells KION the family has been going on trips around the globe with them for more than a decade.

“They had a great sense of adventure, and they loved diving. They loved life. You couldn’t find nicer people, and you couldn’t find people that loved to dive more than that family,” Tom Peyton with Kids Sea Camp said.

The adventure dive company says the Salika-Adamic family had a trip planned with them next year in Fiji. Peyton says that was their favorite adventure spot.

“Steve and Diana loved to dive, and they wanted their daughter to learn how to dive and share the beauty of the underwater world with her,” Peyton said.

Peyton and many others in the tight-knit diving community were familiar with the Conception. A diving instructor who took lots of trips aboard the diving boat says no one could have seen this coming, and doesn’t believe there needs to be any regulatory change to how diving boats are constructed.

“This operation’s been running for forty-plus years without an incident like this ever occurring,” Don Barthelmess said. “And that crew trains regularly, because I’ve trained with them…I know the level of expertise and preparation that the boats have, the crew has and everybody involved in that operation has.”

Outside of diving, Steve worked at Apple and Diana and Tia were extremely active in volunteering with the Santa Cruz County animal shelter.

“They’re not people who are afraid of live, and they lived a very vibrant life,” Peyton said