Long Beach Young Professionals Networking Breakfast - September 2017

Featured Speaker:
Captain Dan Salas
CEO/Owner
Harbor Breeze Cruises
 
Capt. Dan was born in Wilmington. His entrepreneurial spirit and desire to do something great started at an early age.

At age 12, Dan went down to the docks to get a job on a fishing boat. There he met  Jim Peterson, who became a father figure. Jim served in Vietnam War and later purchased his own fishing vessel, Sportking, in 1974 and then he bought Ports O’Call Sportfishing in San Pedro in 1987 before the name changed to LA Harbor Sportfishing. Dan will tell you, “this man is who taught me everything I know. He taught me to be a man,”

By age 18, Dan was a San Pedro High School graduate and the youngest captain working at the harbor. Three years later, Dan had earned the post of tugboat captain and found a business partner with whom he started a charter fishing business. It failed. He ended up $45,000 in the hole at the age of 21. He didn’t understand contracts or business but wanted to own a boat, he toke a risk and lost.

From that point, Dan bounced around various jobs for about a decade until he reached his early 30s and became a father. He decided that was the time for a second go at entrepreneurship, so in 1994 he cashed out his savings and 401(k) to buy a sportfishing vessel. He named it the “Gail Force,” a play on his wife’s middle name. His sport fishing business took off like a rocket. From that point forward, Dan has continually expanded Harbor Breeze Cruises.

Today, Dan employees over 40 people in Long Beach and San Pedro, many of whom have worked with him for over 20 years. Dan lives in San Pedro with his wife Kim and three children, Caroline, Kristina and Christopher. He is a loving father, relentless leader, and living proof that hard work pays off.