In a wave of loss

Jose Paul Corona

A memorial of flowers and candles sprouted up outside the small

house on Seashore Drive in Newport Beach where Steve Webster worked,

as family and friends received word this week that he was among at

least 188 victims killed by a suspected terrorist car bombing in Bali

Saturday.

Friends embraced at the memorial Tuesday night as strangers

passing by offered condolences.

Framed pictures of Webster smiling while on a fishing trip showed

the fun-loving spirit that brought the Huntington Beach resident to

the Indonesian island with friends on a surfing trip for his 41st

birthday.

Webster was vacationing with his friends John Parodi Jr. and Steve

Cabler.

Webster and Cabler were on their way out of the Sari nightclub

when Webster returned to use the restroom. It was then that a car

bomb ripped apart two local nightclubs.

Indonesian officials are blaming the bombing on the Al Qaeda

network.

One of Webster’s business partners, Bill Lachmar, just can’t

believe that his friend is gone.

“You just thought he’d get out of this,” Lachmar said somberly.

“You thought he was a cat with nine lives.”

While those who knew Webster were deeply saddened by the loss of

their friend, it was easy for them to smile and laugh as they talked

about him.

Lachmar recalled another surfing trip, one to Mexico that the two

went on last year. Webster was already out in the water, Lachmar

said, and he was trying to join him but couldn’t make it over a big

wave.

“I got pummeled,” Lachmar recalled.

When he came up, he saw his friend with his arms outstretched like

an Olympic judge telling him that he had scored a perfect 10 on the

wipeout.

“He was a great guy,” said Webster’s best friend of 20 years,

Trent Walker. “He could laugh at himself better than most.”

It was the fun and laughs that drew people to him , Walker said.

Webster was the kind of person that could be entrusted with a life.

“You could trust him to be there,” he said.

If he had been on the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania on Sept.

11 he would have been one of the passengers that would have taken on

the terrorists, Walker said.

The two met while waiting tables at a restaurant.

“I talked to him everyday,” Walker said.

Tim Johnson met him out on the water 10 years ago. The two often

had talks about life, Johnson said.

“He always had a ‘hi’ and a smile,” Johnson said sadly. “He was a

good friend.”

Stephen Quartararo, his second business partner at S&S; Commercial

Environmental Inc., recalled how Webster would often be in his swim

trunks “closing a deal before he went to work.”

“He was an excellent salesman,” Quartararo said.

Webster is survived by his wife of five years, Mona, a 16-year-old

stepdaughter and a 6-year-old son. Walker is working with the State

Department and U.S. Consulate on the return of Webster’s body for

burial in Southern California, but estimates that it will take a

week.

His friends have organized a paddle out ceremony to be held this

Saturday in Newport Beach in his honor.

“He’s probably going to have one of the biggest funerals,”

Quartararo said.