Beach days unforgettable

The beach was Larry Kurbatoff’s playground -- literally -- when he

attended Newport Beach Grammar School in the late 1940s.

As a child, he kicked fiercely and went high into the air on a

swing set that offered a breathtaking view of the Pacific Ocean.

This is normal, Kurbatoff thought as a child living in Newport

Beach. But as a 64-year-old resident of Bermuda Dunes, Calif., he

realizes how lucky he was to be beachside for so many years.

Kurbatoff moved from Orange to Newport Beach when he was in

kindergarten. His parents rented and then eventually purchased a home

on West Ocean Front Boulevard that had belonged to Kurbatoff’s

grandparents.

“It was one of those old shanties,” Kurbatoff said. “We used to

play around the outside of the house and draw with charcoal on the

sidewalks.”

During recess, he and his classmates often played in the sand.

Because of the small class sizes, students were tightknit, Kurbatoff

remembered.

Kurbatoff’s parents moved to Garden Grove when he was entering the

second grade. But the family continued to take advantage of the beach

house.

During summers, Kurbatoff took his friends to Newport Beach, where

they would spend hours around the water. Newport Beach lifeguards

weren’t as ubiquitous in those days, Kurbatoff said, so the

youngsters took advantage of the freedom.

Often times, he and his friends jumped off the piers and into the

ocean to surf.

“They’d throw you in jail for that kind of stuff now,” he said.

“In those days, we could do all sorts of things.”

One time, Kurbatoff said a young girl fell off the side of the

pier because there was no railing. She was rescued and brought back

up in a fishing net, he said.

People used spears attached to ropes to catch fish that swam near

the Newport Pier. Kurbatoff said the water used to be so clear, you

could spot the fish as they maneuvered underwater.

Kurbatoff and his buddies bodysurfed at the Wedge before it became

known by that name, he said.

And in a tradition that continues today, he and his brother, Jerry

Kurbatoff, dove into the Pacific Ocean to search for Pismo clams.

Back then, they wore snorkels and fins and masks, but not wetsuits.

“If it were really cold, we’d wear a T-shirt,” he said. “That was

the extent of our protective gear.”

When he became older, Kurbatoff worked at Norm’s Landing and was a

deckhand on fishing boats that left from Port Orange.

He took advantage of the beach house’s waterfront location,

hosting many parties when he was in college.

One of the most memorable experiences was purchasing a 9-foot-plus

Dale Velzy balsa surfboard, which he still owns today. He surfed with

Steve Cagney, the nephew of actor James Cagney.

Kurbatoff spent much of his life in Garden Grove and was a

Sacramento-based lobbyist for the California Teamsters Public Affairs

Council.

Still, Newport Beach remains close to his heart.

“I spent so many years of my life there,” he said.

* THE GOOD OLD DAYS runs Sundays. Do you know of a person, place

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