Lauren Luther Campbell

Lauren died last week during a sunny afternoon surfing session at Rincon, his favorite place on the planet. Although completely unexpected, he passed peacefully in the bright blue sparkling water.

Despite the efforts of friends who pulled him to the beach and emergency responders’ attempts to resuscitate him, Lauren’s spirit left his body at the Queen of the Coast.
A widely loved character in the local music and surf scene, “Lorbo”, as he was known to his friends and family, was born and raised in the small and tight knit community of Carpinteria. He was a graduate of Carpinteria High School and attended Santa Barbara City College. After a severe accidental head injury in 2002, Lauren worked hard to rehabilitate himself and for the last several years ran his own business providing indoor plant installation and maintenance to a number of commercial clients in the Santa Barbara and Ventura area.

As a member of the local band AfishnseA The Moon, Lauren was known for his talent on the guitar, slide guitar and dobro. The band plays regularly at various San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura County venues. The band, and Lorbo’s guitar solos, rattled the windows at this past year’s Carpinteria Avocado Festival from the stage on Ninth Street.

Lauren leaves a legacy of his loving, gentle personality and is achingly missed by his immediate family (Don, Sandy, Randy, Patti, Jason and Matt), by his nieces, nephews, cousins, uncles, aunts, grandmother, by his girlfriend and by his extended family. The outpouring of the support that the community has extended to the family is most appreciated and underscores the size of Lauren’s group of friends.

A Paddle-Out Ceremony to spread Lauren’s ashes is planned for 10:00 am, Sunday February 23 at Rincon Beach Park (upper parking lot, Santa Barbara County side), at the bottom of the wood staircase. A reception will follow at 1 pm at the Procore facility (6309 Carpinteria Avenue), on the ocean side of the
building.

In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to one of these worthy non-profit organizations:

The Carpinteria Education Foundation https://www.carpedfoundation.org Carpinteria Skate Park Foundation https://www.carpskatepark.org