Newport Beach women’s captains excel in the ‘man’s world’ of boating
The boats set out from Davey’s Locker Whale Watching & Sportfishing like they do every morning. Nothing appeared out of the ordinary on this particular Tuesday.
Angela Syswerda, Dani Fasser, Delaney Trowbridge, Kayla Smith and Erica Page each guided their vessels out from the Balboa Peninsula.
Fasser, who captained the Newport Legacy, said she saw Syswerda getting ready for her first solo trip aboard the Ocean Explorer. Each of the other women also set out on their vessels, many with an all-female crew.
And then it clicked. Each of the five captains on this day was a woman.
“It was completely unplanned and we all figured it out,” Syswerda said. “It was like, ‘Oh my gosh, look at us.’”
It didn’t take Davey’s Locker owner Pam Watts long to figure out the significance. Watts has been in the business since the late 1970s. She first got her captain’s license from the United States Coast Guard in 1982, one of only a handful of women on the West Coast to have obtained one at the time.
Newport Landing opened in 1987, and started partnering with Davey’s Locker to provide year-round whale watching trips two decades later.
“I was really elated,” Watts said. “For years, I’ve been telling all the girls that you don’t have to be a deckhand … [but] boating has always been a man’s world.”
This particular group of female captains, who range in age from early 20s to early 30s, put in the work. They had to register at least 720 days at sea, plus class time.
Davey’s Locker operates eight boats and employs about 20 captains, Watts said, including plenty of men as well. But that’s part of the reason why that all-female Tuesday voyage was so special.
“You never know if it’s going to happen, because there’s a mixed crew,” Fasser said. “There’s a mix of men and women in the industry, and it just kind of lines up that way. For all we know, that might never happen. We’re proud of ourselves, right? We’re proud on an individual level, but we’re proud to represent an area where women aren’t prominent. We have a huge stance for women here, and it’s awesome.”
After researching and asking around knowledgeable folks within the industry, Newport Landing and Davey’s Locker education and social media manager Jessica Roane said the company believes it has the most female captains working for the same place anywhere in California.
The women don’t take their job lightly. On the whale watching trips, which last a couple of hours, they know there are plenty of young eyes watching and looking up to them.
“We get that all the time on the boat,” Fasser said. “Not only little girls, even little boys, when they see women driving I think it sparks something in both genders. I see little boys that are shocked like, ‘Wow, that’s amazing.’”
Syswerda, the oldest of the five captains at 32, said the job is always interesting. She’s worked a 9-to-5 in the past, but quickly realized that it wasn’t for her.
“You go out there and the weather is different, the animals are different, the people are different, the crew is different,” she said. “There’s a ton of variables that go into your day, so it keeps it exciting and interesting.”
She said even to have females working on a boat is rare, but she was motivated to get her captain’s license.
“It’s super attainable if you have the desire to do it,” Syswerda said. “Even if you have to start small, there is room to grow. Hard work is honestly what gets you there. Your hard work doesn’t go unnoticed. I guess I can’t speak for the entire industry, but here at our company it doesn’t go unnoticed, and that’s why we’re where we are now.”
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