His stretch of sand

June Casagrande

Long after he is gone, this will always be Larry’s beach.

For 28 years, a 150-foot stretch of sand in Dover Shores has been

defined by the man who guarded its swimmers, baby-sat the community’s

children and taught youths to swim, paddle and row.

He is Larry Capune, the man who captured the awe of the nation by

paddle boarding down both coasts in the 1960s, ‘70s and ‘80s. But to

the members of the Dover Shores community, he’ll always be Lifeguard

Larry.

At the beginning of the year, Capune learned that melanoma was

ravaging much of his body: bones, lungs, brain. The prognosis is not

good.

But even if the cancer, as expected, ends his life, the residents

of Dover Shores want Lifeguard Larry to know that he’ll always live

on in their hearts.

“He’s a truly unique person who has been really important to all

the residents here and especially the kids,” said Dan Converse,

chairman of the Beach Committee of the Dover Shores Homeowners Assn.

Two weeks ago, about 260 of Capune’s admirers gathered on the

little expanse of sand owned by the Dover Shores community and

officially named it Larry’s Beach.

“It was really nice. There were people all over the place. People

I hadn’t seen for years,” Capune said.

The celebration for Capune was, no doubt, a celebration of his

life. Many of the grown-ups running around had once been the children

he guarded and trained on the beach. Besides the catered Mexican

dinner, there were also barbecue hot dogs just like the barbecues

Capune himself hosted at the beach countess times over the years.

And, dearest of all to Capune, the beach party included a showing of

the movie, “So Dear to My Heart,” to relive the many movies Capune

himself included in his beach parties over the years.

“The movies were always really popular, a really good time,”

Capune said.

Outside of Dover Shores, Capune is known as the man who paddle

boarded down the West Coast, then down the East Coast, then down the

coasts again, racking up unforgettable adventures that will live on

in his stories.

Like the time during the 1970s when there was paddling through the

Carolinas and an angry waterfront property owner forbade Capune to

paddle past his dock.

“He said, ‘You can’t pass my dock,’” said Capune, a natural

storyteller, relates in a mock North Carolina accent. “He said,

‘You’re scaring my fish.’ So I said, ‘Which ones are yours?’ Wrong

thing to say. Bam, bam, bam. The guy got out a .45 and started

shooting at me.”

Needless to say, most of the people he passed were a lot nicer.

And quite a few were famous. People who heard about Capune on the

news would come to the shore to watch him pass, to throw food, to

offer him a place to stay for the night. One of his most memorable

hosts, he said, turned out to be none other than Rose Kennedy, who

Capune said rescued him from a state of near hypothermia and from his

own decision to give up a paddle-boarding journey.

“She said, ‘You can’t give up. You’re a role model,’” Capune

recalled. Then, he said, she pointed to a picture on the wall of John

F. Kennedy being inaugurated as an example of how role models are

supposed to act. Her words worked, and Capune finished the trip.

Now, as he braces himself for what might be his final journey,

Capune will leave behind a permanent legacy.

The Dover Shores community will change the entrance gates to the

beach to officially mark label it “Larry’s Beach.” And they will

always remember.

“We’re so excited to honor him by renaming the beach Larry’s Beach

-- that’s what everybody calls it anyway,” Dover Shores resident

Bonnie O’Neil said. “He’s so much more than a lifeguard. He’s become

a friend of the whole community.”

* JUNE CASAGRANDE covers Newport Beach and John Wayne Airport. She

may be reached at (949) 574-4232 or by e-mail at

[email protected].