Laguna Beach, CA - Former Laguna Beach Lifeguard Chief Mike Dwinell passed away peacefully in January

at 75 while traveling back from a trip to Thailand with his wife Kim. He was a 26-year

career Laguna Beach Lifeguard, a beloved husband, father, mentor, and friend, and will

be deeply missed by all who knew him.

A paddleout and celebration of life will be held Saturday, March 28. (Paddleout 10am,

Cress Street beach, Celebration, 11am, El Ranchito restaurant, 1305 S Coast Hwy

Laguna Beach) All are welcome.

Mike began Lifeguarding in 1968, and half a dozen years later was hired as one of

Laguna's three permanent, year-round, lifeguards. In his lifeguard career from the

1960s into the 90s, Mike trained and mentored hundreds of Laguna Beach lifeguards.

From big-surf rescues and cliff rescues to SCUBA and emergency first aid.

He mentored by example, had a dry sense of humor, and a style that was direct, matter

of fact, sometimes blunt. A style many appreciated, and some did not. But always,

honest to what he saw and felt.

As a lifeguard and in life, he never saw a problem he didn't want to solve.

Like saving the Lifeguard department money. Money for the department was always

tight. Mike seemed to take it as a personal challenge to find and save money on

department costs that could otherwise be spent on other things, like staffing lifeguards

in towers.

Lifeguard jeep maintenance, he would change the oil and brake pads himself.

Lifeguard towers, he built and repaired them by hand from galvanized steel tubes and

plywood. Faulty lifeguard tower phones, he learned how to fix them, and got them and

fixed them twice as fast as the phone company, and at no cost. Along the way he

showed a generation of lifeguards how initiative and determination can get things done.

He found a way to build a new lifeguard headquarters.

The picturesque lifeguard tower on Main Beach served as Lifeguard headquarters since

the 1930s. By the 1970s, the tiny space was busting at the seams. With no city budget

or plans for a new headquarters. Mike said "Let's build one ourselves"

He enlisted building plans from a Laguna lifeguard studying architecture at Cal. He

worked with his chief and the city for to use the site of a run-down city-owned building at

north Main Beach. He rallied fundraising: Lifeguards and locals responded. Donations,

raffles, charity dinners, even a beefcake wall calendar of Laguna lifeguards.

Approvals and funding in hand, Mike became project manager (and foreman, carpenter,

plumber and electrician, too). He rallied construction-skilled Laguna lifeguards to lay

foundation, frame, wire, plumb, and to join him in building the headquarters board by

board. Completed in 1985, the building served as HQ for the Laguna Beach Lifeguards

for 20 years, until the city was able to build the current headquarters on the same site

that stands today.

Mike, had come to climbing by way of the cliff rescue skills he taught to hundreds of

Laguna lifeguards. After the divorce of his first wife, he needed to clear his head.

With help from Laguna's climbing store owner, and another, he trained to climb the

Yosemite's famed 3,000 foot El Capitan. On the climb, Mike and the other two climbers

worked as a team and caterpillared up the granite face, about a thousand feet each

day. Then they would stop, suspend a portaledge from an anchor bolt in the rock to rest,

take dinner, and sleep overnight.

Suspended from the rock face on the second evening, a thought came to him: all that

stood between him and a 2,000 foot fall to his death was a ¼" steel anchor bolt. In that

moment, fear suddenly pressed down on him. He recalled the great effort it took to bring

his focus back to his center, to just what was in front of him and present, nothing else.

The moment eventually passed. And the next day the three topped out, successfully

reaching the summit after three days, two nights, (and one moment), on the big wall of

El Capitan.

Not long after, Mike met a young lifeguard name Kim, fell in love, and they soon

married. They were married for 33 years, until his recent death, with Kim by his side.

After retiring from lifeguarding, Mike moved with Kim to Long Beach. There, he built

their Long Beach home, built and maintained the backyard koi pond, and kept bees. He

made jewelry, crafted leather bags, and was a good mechanic. His skills translated into

his second career. Mike retrained, then worked in IT, keeping computer systems running

for a cartage company at the Port of Long Beach.

Mike had two sons before he met Kim - Dustin and Aaron. Ethan came along from Mike

and Kim's marriage. Mike was happiest when the boys would all come over on a warm

summer Sunday afternoon, and he'd barbecue up some tri-tip and everyone would eat

out back by the koi pond.

Mike always enjoyed a weekend beer on the porch with the neighbors. After retirement,

this tradition grew, and friends would gather under "Beer Flag". Sometimes Mike would

cook shrimp or mango chicken sausages, or make Spam musubi. All of the world's

problems hashed out, and often solved. The conversation lively, it was one of Mike's

favorite times.

Mike and Kim did extensive global traveling - Ireland, England, France, Japan, New

Zealand, Costa Rica, and finally, Thailand. In Thailand, Mike found so much beauty,

warm water, good food, and friendly, humble people. In Phuket he and Kim swam in the

ocean, snorkeled, did boat tours of outer islands, and in Bangkok they walked thousands of steps, absorbing the culture. The kindness this very Buddhist country

offered resonated deeply with Mike.

Mike Dwinell is survived by his wife Kim, sons Dustin, Aaron, and Ethan, his mother Bea, brother William and sisters Judy and Patti.