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Aloha Ben Carlson: Newport mourns lifeguard

Local businesses have honored the life of Ben Carlson with messages on their sign marquees from all around Newport Beach.
Local businesses have honored the life of Ben Carlson with messages on their sign marquees from all around Newport Beach.
(Emily Foxhall / Daily Pilot)
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After a lifeguard died Sunday rescuing a swimmer who survived, the town of Newport Beach has together mourned its lost hero.

Messages written on marquees, pasted in windows and scrawled on chalkboards have appeared citywide, demonstrating a place where grief has been shared by many, whether or not they knew lifeguard Ben Carlson.

“Aloha Ben Carlson,” read one at Rudy’s Pub and Grill on the Balboa Peninsula. “Always Ohana,” or always family.

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“Love & Support 2 Bens Fam and N.B. Lifeguards,” said another at Cruisers Pizza Bar Grill farther down the peninsula.

At the core of the community is its relationship with the ocean. The waves have drawn many. The water is what Carlson loved. But the ocean is also what lifeguards are needed to patrol, and ultimately what caused Carlson’s death.

“The water maybe unites us all, the love of the water,” said Helen Shull, who owns Even Sisters on Balboa Island, where passersby have left notes in a box outside to be given to Carlson’s family. “It’s heartbreaking.”

And so Carlson’s death has been felt by those he instructed in junior guards, those he coached in water polo and those he worked with making rescue after rescue in the waves.

The sadness has also spread among those who did not know him: those who swim in the ocean daily, those whose children serve as lifeguards, those who work as lifeguards elsewhere. They could have been the ones who needed saving. Their children could have been Ben. They could have been the ones who died.

“Hero to the End,” Avila’s El Ranchito declared on its marquee. “Our Hometown Hero,” 3-Thirty-3 proclaimed in red lettering.

“We love you,” spelled the letters at Malarky’s Irish Pub, where Carlson once worked. “You will be missed.”

Inside the bar, Carlson’s red Newport Beach lifeguard jacket hangs, suspended from the ceiling above where several lifeguards tend bar and where many others have gathered to share memories since his death. They have also helped to raise money toward a scholarship fund.

“He’s a local hero,” said Katie Munson, a Malarky’s employee.

Carlson was honored publicly Wednesday morning in a “swim-out,” when a plaque was hung from the swim ladder at Newport Pier, near where his body was found after a several-hour search. Later that night, he was posthumously given an Excellence in Lifesaving award, recognized by Hoag Hospital.

Flags at all county buildings will be at half-staff through Sunday, when a paddle-out will be held in the morning and a beachside memorial service at night.

As Mayor Rush Hill said Tuesday during the City Council meeting, where enlarged photos of Carlson stood on display: “We are indeed united in heartbreak”

Although he didn’t know Carlson, the guard was still “one of our own,” said Ryan Lynch, an assistant manager at Mutt Lynch’s, where a sign, like a headstone, reads “RIP” followed by Carlson’s name and the date of his death, July 6, 2014.

“We wanted to pay respects to the community,” added Mike Vayner, a manager at the bar, where lifeguards and firemen have stopped in for sandwiches for decades.

Notes, too, are tucked among bouquets of flowers piled at the Newport Beach lifeguard headquarters: “May you always find blue skies and fair seas during your Endless Summer,” wrote the Carroll family.

A letter to the lifeguards from “Your Port Streets Neighbors,” mounted on red paper, ends with the sentiment: “Thank you for all that you do and for all that you are.”

On a flipper, the phrase “Rest in Paradise” is scrawled.

“Ben Would Go” is written on another.

That phrase, “Ben Would Go,” has popped up throughout the town, as suggested by lifeguard Jose De La Jara on the Newport Beach Lifeguards Facebook page. The phrase echoes “Eddie Would Go,” which was invoked when Hawaiian surfer and lifeguard Eddie Aikau died searching for victims of a capsized canoe in which he had been riding.

Like Aikau, Ben was someone who was always willing to do what was needed, De La Jara said.

“If he was here today, he would go,” he said. “Ben would go. No matter the conditions, he was that guy.”

So that’s what it says in Twitter, on Facebook and in Instagram hashtags, but also at Baja Sharkeez on the Peninsula and at Even Sisters on Balboa Island.

Others have preferred “Ben Did Go.”

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