‘He was such a strong fighter’

Friends of late Newport Beach pro-surfer Gary Edgar will release 45 doves on the beach today to strains of the Bob Marley song “Three Little Birds.”

A fixture in Newport’s surfing community since the late ’70s, Gary Edgar, 45, was listening to the song when he died last week after battling lung cancer.

“Don’t worry about a thing / ‘Cause every little thing gonna be all right,” the song goes.

Together with his brother, Ron Edgar, the identical twins were known in local surfing circles as “the Shredgars.”

“We basically grew up in Newport surfing,” Ron Edgar said.

Sometimes, the only way other surfers could tell the Shredgar brothers apart was from the way they stood on their surfboards.

Ron Edgar surfed regular foot, with his right foot forward, while Gary Edgar surfed goofy foot, or with his left foot forward.

The two brother would share the waves off Newport’s beaches, one going to the left, the other to the right.

“Surfing meant being able to forget about all of the worries and problems that were on land and just enjoying what God has given us to enjoy,” Ron Edgar said

After graduating from Irvine High School in 1982, Gary Edgar decided to pursue a career in professional surfing.

He worked at Newport Surf and Sport for a while and soon gained surfing sponsorships from apparel and sporting companies like O’Neil, Quicksilver, Billabong and Hurley.

“He was such a strong fighter,” Ron Edgar said. “Whenever he decided to go after something, he was able to achieve what he set forth to do.”

In 1984, Gary Edgar opened his own surf board manufacturing shop in Costa Mesa, called the Glass Shop, which was later known as Clearwater Glassing, Inc.

In May, Gary Edgar was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. By the time doctors had detected a lesion on one of his lungs, the cancer had already spread to his bones and brain.

Gary Edgar never smoked cigarettes, but his family and doctors believe years of inhaling dust from shaping and sanding surfboards might have caused his illness.

“I feel blessed God took him, because the cancer would have gotten control,” said the Edgar brothers’ mother, Dottie Duncan, who said she will miss her son’s daily phone calls.

“He’s in peace and no longer in pain,” Duncan said.

Duncan would like friends and family to make a small donation toward cancer research in her son’s honor instead of buying flowers, she said.

Gary Edgar is survived by his wife, Kerry Edgar, daughter, Liana, 10; son, Matthew, 13 and stepson, Nicholas, 19.

Gary Edgar’s friends and family have organized a paddle out in his honor 9 a.m. today at Orange Street Beach, one block south of the Frog House, 6908 W. Coast Highway.