This past month, my gregarious raconteur friend of 40 years, Larry Barels, set off on his final grand adventure. It feels strange to speak of Larry in the past tense. He raced through life with such vivid energy, unstoppable enthusiasm, and deep, contagious joy that his absence feels staged. Maybe he’s not gone, only a bit late getting back from a lengthy surf at the ranch, or some touch-and-gos in his high-performance airplane.
Larry carved a wide and influential path in the tight-knit community of Santa Barbara. He played a crucial, even providential role, in the lives of so many, as a mentor, friend, colleague, co-conspirator, and always as the master conjurer of adventure and fun.
Larry’s path began in the idyllic L.A. surf community of Compton! Metaphorically perfect for him, he earned a wrestling scholarship to BYU. After graduation, he scored a classic VW van and launched himself full-bore into life. He navigated his way to Isla Vista, where, in between couch surfing, courtesy of his newfound friends, he met his soul mate and the great love of his life for the past 53 years, Wendy.
Larry accomplished many things through a powerful self-determination combined with a relentless resolve. Long before he became an accomplished aerobatic pilot, Larry lived as if gravity had no say in the course of his life. Defying it wasn’t an act of rebellion; it was a way of confirming what he believed all along. Life was meant to have wings.
He was a principal founder and CEO of Wavefront Technologies, a pioneering company that helped pave the way for Pixar, and an entire generation of digital storytelling. If it sounded improbable, Larry leaned in. His track record could read like a dare. He became part of a host of other ventures — from restaurants to chairman of the board for Software.com, and as cofounder of Aqueos, a commercial diving company. Larry gave his time as an involved and generous community leader too. He volunteered his expertise on the boards of Seacology.org and the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, among others.
What he built was impressive. But it was how he was that left the bigger mark. He had a Jedi skill for talking anyone’s doubt off the ledge. I saw it many times. He could charm, challenge, provoke, and elevate — sometimes all in the same breath.
Like all of us, Larry carried both joy, and struggle. I long ago ironically called him Buddha. Not because he was enlightened, but because he was often certain that he was! In Wendy’s words, “Often wrong, never in doubt.” To partner with Larry was to be challenged and inspired. You had to bring your best, stand firm, and be ready to match his momentum — or prepare to be flattened by the sheer force of his conviction.
Larry was a devoted dad, and an epic friend. He was also a passionate pain in the ass, and a deep well of compelling humanity, all rolled into one.
Larry Barels was a connoisseur of life. He savored each moment. He led us all on a remarkable journey with a Pied Piper charisma that could be impossible to resist. His overflowing bucket list was more than a checklist. His road map wandered from touring America in the confines of a VW van to surfing remote atolls, the rim of a Vanuatu volcano during eruption, and, always, back to the home he and Wendy built in Santa Barbara.
The pace of his sudden departure mirrored the life he lived: fast, full, and fearless. In the end, Larry gave me — gave all of us — one last lesson: how to die with grace, humor, love, and bottomless curiosity. In true Larry form, he had the foresight, decades ago, to write letters to Wendy and his kids, knowing full well that a life lived on the edge might one day lean too far.
In keeping with my friend’s gift for weaving his own story: “A master in the art of living draws no distinction between work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his education and his recreation. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence through whatever he is doing and leaves others to determine if he is working or playing. To himself he always seems to be doing both.”
That was Larry. A man with relentless enthusiasm — which, fittingly, comes from a Greek word meaning “one with the divine.” And that’s how he lived — tuned to something larger, surfing life’s best waves with the throttle wide open.
Larry leaves behind a legacy of love and adventure. He is survived by his wife, Wendy; his two children, Orion and Tiare; daughter-in-law Lilly; and three cherished grandchildren — Lincoln, Ever, and Remi; plus all of us.
And now? He’s probably somewhere with a board under his arm, chuckling at the rest of us for taking things far too seriously.
There will be a paddle-out for Larry (he’d prefer it in pounding surf, I’m sure), as well as a celebration of the adventurous life of Larry Barels, to be determined.
