Costa Rican surfer disappears off Pacific coast

A 22-year-old surfer named Ricardo Andrés González has been missing off the coast of Caldera on Costa Rica’s central Pacific coast since Friday afternoon, authorities say. Costa Rican Red Cross spokesman Gerald Jiménez told The Tico Times that authorities have been scanning the waters from 7 a.m. until sunset each day, looking for the lost surfer who is originally from San Antonio de Belén in Heredia.

Jiménez said Monday that a group of 10 Red Cross officials are working the long hours each day to locate any sign of González near the Puntarenas beach popular with locals who make the short trip from the Central Valley.

“We’re continuing to search,” Jiménez said. “But because there is currently a high swell of waves off the coast, it has complicated search efforts.”

The Red Cross is also collaborating with area lifeguards and pedestrians on the beach to find any traces of González. Despite contradictory media reports in the Spanish-language press, Jiménez said that Red Cross authorities did not locate González’s surfboard.

Many of Costa Rica’s beaches are often without lifeguard supervision and the country has seen up to 60 annual drowning deaths since 2000.