Father and Daughter Share a Touching Victory in Swim

Her blond hair still wet with seawater, little Ariel Krespi shivered under a blanket and examined the heavy wood and silver plaque her father had handed her.

At age 4, Ariel is too young to understand its meaning. But someday, her terminally ill father hopes its words will speak to her of him.

To my daughter, Ariel S. Krespi --

My sun rises and sets with you.

You ma d e me the proudest father in the world. I love you so much.

--Daddy Irv

Irv Krespi gave his only daughter the plaque on Sunday after she completed a nearly 2-mile swim from Balboa Pier to Newport Pier. The swim, which Ariel made on a kick board alongside her father in 53 minutes, was a shared victory for father and daughter.

The elder Krespi does not know how much more time he has with Ariel. Melanoma was diagnosed in his left eye more than a year ago.

“I don’t have anything else to leave her, so this is my legacy to her,” explained the veteran long-distance swimmer.

For nine weeks, Ariel trained with her dad six days a week for Sunday’s challenge. And although the Costa Mesa child seemed thrilled with the clapping crowd and fans who lined the piers and beach, she said she was happy just to be together with her father.

“Swimming is what I learned from my daddy,” Ariel said, clutching her father’s tanned arm on the beach after the swim.

Talking about his illness with Ariel is difficult. “She doesn’t want to hear about it,” said Krespi, 61, as he explained that their way of dealing with it is to spend time together.

Ariel’s swim began shortly after 10 a.m. There was a slight current toward Newport Pier and the water temperature was 70 degrees. The 4-year-old squeezed her 45-pound frame into a fluorescent yellow and purple wet suit and rode a dinghy out toward Balboa Pier.

Boats with television news crews circled. Rishi Singh, Krespi’s 19-year-old adoptive grandson, kissed Ariel and slipped her into the water.

Krespi gave Ariel a gentle push and followed behind as she clutched her kick board and kicked northwestward.

Cheers rose from the roof of Ruby’s Diner at the end of the pier, where employees in red-and-white pin-stripes gathered to watch.

“Go, Ariel! Come on!” yelled dozens of beach-goers, many of whom had read or heard of Ariel. Some watched the pair through binoculars.

“See, she’s younger than you and she’s swimming all that way,” Joe Croom, 36, said to his 6-year-old son Jacob. The Crooms drove south from Redlands just to see Ariel swim.

As she swam, he gave her instructions: “Slow down,” he would bark, and sometimes he would urge her to “pick it up.”

Krespi is no stranger to the ocean. He made his last rough-water swim--a distance of 10 miles --four years ago. A former international-level swimmer, he also trained Ariel’s mother for distance competition.

He introduced Ariel to the water when she was about a month old. By 11 months, she could hold her own in the water, he said.

Krespi first thought about making an ocean swim with her nine months ago. “It teaches discipline and devotion,” he said, qualities that will remain with her long after he is gone.

Spectators on Newport Pier buzzed and clapped as Ariel approached the finish.

“I think it’s wonderful,” said Lorrie Tulga, 50, of Balboa Island, who watched the finish. “It seems like she really wants to do it, and it’s touching because her father is leaving her something.

“I’ll bet she’ll be an Olympic star someday,” she said.

Brought on the pier in a toweled bundle, Ariel tried to answer reporters’ questions with the help of her mother and father. But the experience--and attention--had tired her out.

“I’m so proud of her,” said Ariel’s mother, Laurie Krespi, who is separated from Ariel’s father.

Ariel held her arms out to her mother, who cradled Ariel. “She looks big but she’s only 4,” Laurie said.

The Krespis’ tale has attracted worldwide attention, and Irv Krespi said his phone has been ringing off the hook. Representatives from the television series “Baywatch” watched the swim, wondering if the girl would fit into an upcoming episode.

When a passerby mentioned that Ariel was the name of the cartoon star of the movie “The Little Mermaid,” Krespi was quick to respond.

“She got that name before the movie,” he said.

The two-mile swim is a challenge for experienced lifeguards, said John Carpenter, a Newport Beach lifeguard, adding that since Ariel was swimming with a kick board--using just her feet--the distance was even tougher.

But Ariel’s training included speed workouts five days a week, said Krespi, and one day a week she swam three miles for endurance. “She’s usually really sleepy after that workout,” he said.

Ariel apparently loves the stiff swimming regimen.

“It’s fun,” she said shyly.

Besides, it means spending time with her father.

“I love my daddy,” she said. “I want to be just like him.”