American Surf Legend Killed in Costa Rica Apartment Robbery, Girlfriend Survives

Costa Rica U.S. Surf Legend Killed in Break-In, Girlfriend Survives

Published February 16, 2026 8:57 AM PST

An expatriate American hotel owner from a prominent surfing family in California was brutally killed in Costa Rica this weekend … and local police are on the hunt for suspects.

Kurt Van Dyke -- a 66-year-old Northern California native who owned a tourist hotel in Costa Rica -- was found stabbed and strangled in bed in an apartment in Hone Creek, Cahuita, Talamanca, according to local reports ... his girlfriend was found tied up but otherwise uninjured at the scene.

Police responded to a report of a break-in and attack at an apartment at 10:50 AM local time Saturday in Cahuita, on the Caribbean coast near the Panama border … about 10 miles from the hotel Van Dyke owned. They found Van Dyke with multiple stab wounds and signs of asphyxiation.

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Investigators said Van Dyke had been living in the apartment with the unidentified woman ... she was reportedly bound with zip-ties by two suspects who entered the residence with guns.

The suspects took valuable items before attacking Van Dyke, local police said, according to The Tico Times, a Costa Rican newspaper. The suspects fled the scene in two separate vehicles, one of which was taken from the property -- a 2013 Hyundai Elantra.

Surfer.com reports the unidentified woman was Van Dyke's 31-year-old girlfriend. She was showering when the intruders broke in and bound her, Surfer reports.

No suspects were immediately identified in the robbery investigation.

Van Dyke had lived in Costa Rica for years and owned Hotel Puerto Viejo. The Santa Cruz, California native was part of the Van Dyke family, known in the California surf industry and culture since the 1940s.