A Californian surf legend was killed during a home invasion in Costa Rica on Saturday morning, a local news station reported.
Kurt Van Dyke, 66, was found dead under a bed in his home in Hone Creek, Cahuita, Talamanca, with multiple stab wounds and signs of asphyxiation, according to the Tico Times, a Costa Rican newspaper.
Van Dyke and his 31-year-old girlfriend were confined in a single room by two armed male assailants according to investigators, SURFER reported. The men stole valuables before attacking Van Dyke, according to Costa Rican authorities quoted by the news site.
His girlfriend, identified only by her last name, Arroyo, was restrained with zip ties and had a 2013 Hyundai Elantra stolen off the property.
Costa Rican officials are investigating the killing but have made no arrests.
“We remember your spirit, your energy, and the light you brought into the lives around you. Some people leave footprints — you left waves,” Ronald Umaña, a friend of Van Dyke’s, wrote on Facebook.
Van Dyke, a Santa Cruz native, was a long-time Caribbean resident and owned Hotel Puerto Viejo, a dorm-style hostel in Puerto Viejo de Telemanca.
“My brother was a very benevolent, giving person who would help just about anybody,” Kurt’s brother, Peter Van Dyke, told the San Francisco Chronicle. “Kurt would never hurt anybody, and he was always there when you needed him. Everyone that he met knew this about him.”
Van Dyke was from a prominent surfing family. His father, Gene Van Dyke, pioneered the sport in Northern California in the 1950s.
His mother, Betty, who died in 2021 at 88, was a fifth-generation California farmer and one of the first female competitive surfing champions in the world.
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