California browsing legend stabbed to dying in Costa Rica, girlfriend zip-tied

A California browsing legend has been brutally killed whereas his girlfriend was tied up and robbed at their Costa Rica residence.

Kurt Van Dyke, 66, who owned a lodge in Puerto Viejo de Talamanca, was discovered useless below his mattress Saturday with a sheet over his head and a knife subsequent to him, native stories say.

His 31-year-old girlfriend, recognized solely as Arroyo, was within the bathe when two armed males out of the blue stormed into the house, forcing the couple right into a room at gunpoint.

Arroyo mentioned the intruders zip-tied her fingers and ft, assaulted her, and made off with a number of valuables — together with the couple’s 2013 Hyundai Elantra — earlier than fleeing.

The city the place the killing occurred is generally thought of protected, and the incident despatched shockwaves by the group.

“I’m deeply saddened,” Roger Sams, president of Costa Rica’s Southern Caribbean Chamber of Tourism and Commerce, informed Costa Rican newspaper La Nación in Spanish, as reported by the San Francisco Chronicle.

“We’ve had an extended interval of calm and tranquility. … This shocks and saddens us as a result of the Caribbean has been so peaceable.”

Van Dyke was well-known each domestically in Costa Rica and in California.

He spent many years operating a modest lodge in Puerto Viejo and constructed a fame as a standout surfer after arriving within the early Nineteen Eighties to chase the thunderous Salsa Brava break — a run that earned him the nickname “King” alongside the Caribbean coast.

Browsing was in his blood. His father Gene Van Dyke was a Northern California pioneer of the game, whereas his mom Betty helped blaze a path for ladies surfers within the Fifties and ’60s.

Past the waves, the Van Dyke household identify is rooted in agriculture, working the longtime Van Dyke Ranch close to Gilroy, recognized for its apricots and cherries bought at native farmers markets.

Obtain The California Put up App, observe us on social, and subscribe to our newsletters