SANTA CRUZ — A Santa Cruz native and the adult son of a legendary California surfing family was killed last weekend in Costa Rica in what appears to be a homicide, according to early investigative findings.
According to multiple media reports, 66-year-old Kurt Van Dyke died last Saturday in Cahuita, a town near the country’s coastline along the Caribbean Sea. The Tico Times, an English language Costa Rican newspaper, reported that Costa Rica’s Judicial Investigation Agency received a report about the incident at 10:50 a.m.
Van Dyke’s body was discovered with signs of asphyxiation and multiple stab wounds, according to a preliminary examination by the investigative agency. Van Dyke’s brother confirmed his death to NBC Bay Area.
Investigators reported that two men entered Van Dyke’s apartment and pointed guns at him and a woman he had been sharing the unit with before confining them both to the room. According to the local news outlet, the assailants took several valuable items before attacking Van Dyke and fleeing the scene in two vehicles, including one that was taken from the property. The woman, who was reportedly tied up, survived the ordeal.
Van Dyke was a longtime resident of the popular Central American surf town and owned a hotel called Hotel Puerto Viejo, which apparently attracts visitors from around the world.
Van Dyke was raised in Santa Cruz by surf pioneers Gene Van Dyke and Betty Van Dyke. Gene Van Dyke, called “the fraying thread of Bay Area surf culture” by the Mercury News in 2021, began surfing Santa Cruz’s picturesque breaks in 1950 alongside his brothers Fred and Peter. Later on, the trio became well-known for shredding the cresting blue giants along Oahu’s North Shore and rubbed elbows with surf legends Jack O’Neill and Duke Kahanamoku.
Betty Van Dyke was also well-known in the community and gained a reputation as member of the small but mighty cohort of female surfer pioneers in Santa Cruz in the 1950s and 1960s. She was also an early champion of organic fruit production and ran the successful Van Dyke Ranch in Gilroy for years before her death in 2021.
Van Dyke, taking after his parents, was a skilled surfer in his own right. Tributes to Van Dyke that surfaced on social media in the wake of his death featured numerous images of him skillfully gliding through the barrel of a wave or enjoying a trip to the beach with friends in his youth.
Well-known Santa Cruz surfer and owner of Pearson Arrow Surfboards Bob Pearson told the Sentinel that he grew up surfing alongside Van Dyke in the 1960s and 1970s, and the pair would often reconnect when Van Dyke traveled back to his hometown. Pearson remembered Van Dyke as a “good person” that came from a “hardcore” surfing family.
“He was a class act,” said Pearson. “Just someone who you’d want to hang out with, … was passionate about surfing; passionate about life.”
Garth Seagrave, another longtime friend of Van Dyke’s, posted a photo on Facebook depicting a young Van Dyke standing tall as he surges down the face of a huge wave barreling behind him. “This is how I will always remember him, doing what he loved,” wrote Seagrave. “RIP My Brother.”
According to media reports, investigators have collected evidence at the site of the killing and have interviewed witnesses. No arrests have been made, and while the motive appears to be tied to robbery, law enforcement is looking at all possible angles.
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