Larry Capune; trekked America's coastlines on paddleboard
LOS ANGELES -- Larry Capune, a legendary long-distance paddleboarder who made history by logging a total of 16,063 miles along US coastlines during eight epic solo paddling trips between 1964 and 1987, died of cancer at his home in Newport Beach. He was 61.
The Los Angeles-born Mr. Capune was a 22-year-old seasonal lifeguard at Carpinteria State Beach near Santa Barbara when he completed his first major long-distance paddleboard adventure -- from San Francisco to Newport Beach, going 542 miles in 18 days. He made his longest trip -- a 4,255-mile trek from Portland, Maine, to Corpus Christi, Texas -- between July 1975 and May 1976.
Along the way, the deeply tanned and muscular Californian with the sun-bleached blond hair always spread the same motivational message he delivered to children at school assemblies: "Take an adventure instead of drugs. You can do anything if you think you can."
Mr. Capune's last -- and most difficult -- paddleboard odyssey was from Chicago to Washington between May and October 1987.
He made the 4,090-mile trip via the Great Lakes, the St. Lawrence River, the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the Atlantic Ocean, Chesapeake Bay, and the Potomac River.
"I'd like to see somebody else try and do it," Mr. Capune told a reporter afterward.
On that 164-day journey, he had to contend with a waterspout outside Cleveland and a massive storm in the St. Lawrence River.
Over the years, Mr. Capune was bitten by a sea turtle, a bluefish, and a dog. He was hit by a tanker once and by freighters twice. And he required 25 stitches after being smacked in the head by a soda bottle tossed by a pier owner who claimed the paddleboarder was scaring the fish.
Other mishaps included being mistaken for a target by the Army off Fort Ord, delaying a missile launching at Vandenberg Air Force Base, surviving being lost at sea 13 times, and twice being found unconscious and nearly frozen.
When Mr. Capune began making his long-distance paddleboard trips in the 1960s, paddleboarding had become something of a "lost art," said Steve Pezman, co-publisher of Surfer's Journal. Mr. Capune's headline-generating adventures drew national attention to both paddleboarding and the beach culture. Craig Lockwood, a longtime lifeguard friend of Mr. Capune's who has written about paddleboarding for Surfer's Journal and other surfing magazines, said Mr. Capune was "a consummate waterman and paddleboarder."
"I don't doubt that most people who are knowledgeable about the sport of paddleboarding would agree that Larry's feats and watermanship are probably among the greatest solo seagoing adventures of all time," Lockwood said. "They've never been equaled, and it's doubtful that they ever will be."
Mr. Capune's 18-foot-long, 80-pound foam-core fiberglass paddleboard was made for him by surfboard manufacturer Hobie Alter in the late 1960s. It was 18 inches wide and 9 inches thick and had a foot-operated rudder known as a kick-tiller.
Paddling anywhere from 100 yards to 10 miles off shore during his long-distance trips, Mr. Capune typically spent eight to 10 hours a day in the water and covered 20 to 25 miles.
A war surplus waterproof pack tied to the board carried his gear and supplies: peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches, bananas, several cans of soda, a tiny portable radio, and other necessities. A simple magnetic compass was taped to the board's deck.
During the 4,090-mile trip from Chicago to Washington in 1987, Marty Capune accompanied his brother on land in a 1971
But on most of his trips, Mr. Capune was on his own.
Traveling on a shoestring budget, he'd hope for someone to put him up for the night. Sometimes, he simply slept on the beach.
But there also were times when he was greeted with keys to cities and given lodging in expensive hotel suites.
His most memorable stay came during his 1972 paddling trip from Maine to Miami. After running into 30-knot winds and small-craft warnings, he headed ashore in Massachusetts.
Not exactly sure where he was, he knocked on the door of the first house he saw. It turned out to be the Kennedy compound in Hyannis Port. Rose Kennedy invited the tired and freezing paddleboarder in and he wound up spending two nights with the Kennedy clan.
