Pismo Beach bench falling into ocean has special ties to Kristin Smart: ‘It’s an icon’
On a cold and crisp January night, about 30 people gathered at Margo Dodd Park in Shell Beach to pay tribute to a bench.
It’s the clifftop bench where the group, known as the Jam Fam, started playing music together.
It’s the bench where Denise Smart, whose daughter Kristin Smart disappeared from San Luis Obispo 26 years ago, forged a special connection with the community.
And it’s the bench where “Your Own Backyard” podcast creator Chris Lambert first met Denise Smart — a moment he says changed his life forever.
That bench is poised to tumble into the ocean as the crack separating it from the rest of the cliff widens.
Falling Pismo Beach bench is an ‘icon,’ resident says
For nearly a month, community members and visitors alike have been visiting the bench in Pismo Beach to see it one last time before it falls in the ocean.
A local resident first spotted a crack in the earth next to the bench during the first week of January. The chasm has continued to widen since then, amplified by severe storms and high tides.
Despite the growing crack, the bench stands. It’s become a symbol of resilience for some community members.
As local resident Ted Gillan put it, “It’s an icon.”
Gillan married his wife, Ammie, at the gazebo to the left of the bench “two Aprils ago,” he said.
The bench is a staple of Shell Beach, he said, and continues to bring people together despite its imminent fall.
That’s certainly true for his sister, Therese Cron, who founded the Jam Fam with Ricardo Warner years ago.
Warner lives on Palisade Avenue, the street that lines up perfectly with the bench.
While Warner’s wife was going through treatment for the cancer to which she eventually succumbed, he would often sit at that bench to recuperate, watching the sunset, seeing waves crash and strumming his guitar.
On one such evening, Cron saw Warner playing at the bench and decided to join in.
Eventually, more musicians joined in. They named their group the Jam Fam.
“It’s just a really cool thing,” Warner said. “It’s got a life of its own now.”
Where Kristin Smart’s mom found first ‘true connection’ in SLO County
Denise Smart, Kristin Smart’s mother, told The Tribune via email that the bench is where she “first made a true connection with (the San Luis Obispo) community.”
Her daughter went missing in May 1996 after an off-campus party.
In October, a Monterey County jury convicted Paul Flores, who had long been a person of interest in the case, of murdering the Cal Poly student.
A memorial to Kristin Smart, called Kristin’s Point of Hope, is located at a lookout in Dinosaur Cave Park north of the bench.
Denise Smart, who lives in Stockton, was walking along the coast with a friend a few years when she saw Warner and Cron playing music.
“They came and sat down by us and they said, ‘Can we listen to your music for a while?’ ” Warner recalled. “Then they just became part of our family.”
Denise Smart said the Jam Fam was an “instant draw and embrace” and helped turn visiting San Luis Obispo County into a joyful experience for her and her family.
“The outreach and love they shared made me feel welcome and they 100% understood the pain we were carrying,” Smart said. “The Shell Beach community through Jam Fam really did give us hope that people cared and that they wanted answers as much as we did.”
“(There) is not a time that we visit the SLO community that we don’t enjoy since I’ve had music with Jam Fam at the bench,” she said, describing “so many cherished memories.”
The Jam Fam honors Kristin Smart by playing “Here Comes the Sun” by the Beatles, “Brown Eyed Girl” by Van Morrison and “Soak Up The Sun” by Sheryl Crow at each session — some of her favorite songs.
“This bench holds so much meaning and so much love for so many people, and for many of us here, the Smart family owns our heart,” Cron told the group at the Jan. 17 tribute. “That was the first thing I thought about when this bench started going down, but she’s standing strong.”
Kristin Smart podcaster gets family greenlight at bench
The bench has another special connection to Kristin Smart and her legacy.
Lambert had been working on his “Your Own Backyard” podcast, which follows the investigation into Smart’s disappearance, for roughly nine months when he had a “serendipitous” encounter with Denise Smart, he said.
It happened on Feb. 20, 2019 — what would have been Kristin Smart’s 42nd birthday.
Lambert ran into Denise Smart while visiting Kristin’s Point of Hope at Dinosaur Cave Park.
She asked if he wanted to join her and the Jam Fam at the bench at Margo Dodd Park just around the corner — the same bench where he usually recorded ambient ocean sounds for his podcast.
“When she asked me to join them for at the bench, my instinct was to be polite and decline,” Lambert said. “Instead I just said yes.”
During that jam session, Lambert told Smart about the podcast he’d been working on — and asked if he could get the greenlight from the Smart family to make it. She said yes, and promptly invited him to dinner.
“It was really important to me to get their permission,” Lambert said of the Smarts.
“I would say that that day is one of the biggest moments of my entire life, really,” the podcaster said. “It’s like so many things came together in that moment and at that spot that have completely changed my life forever. I’ll never be the same person I was before that day.”
Lambert said he often reflects on that day at the bench.
He remembers looking over at Smart as the sun was setting and thinking “That’s Kristin’s mom right there.”
“She’s singing. She’s crying. Everybody’s having a good time,” Lambert recalled, describing the encounter as “completely different than what I thought that moment would be like.”
“Something happened that day,” he said.
This story was originally published January 25, 2023 at 9:00 AM.
