Beloved organic farming pioneer and surfer Betty Ann Van Dyke dies

Santa Cruz woman ‘made some waves but earned respect’

Betty Ann Van Dyke was part of a pioneering Cupertino farming family and later became one of the few women to surf in Santa Cruz in the 1950s and ’60s.

She went from helping grow Blenheim apricots and Bing cherries to lugging long surfboards into the frigid waters before the invention of wetsuits.

Van Dyke, who was also was part of California’s organic farming movement, died on April 20 in Aptos, according to her family.

“She broke into the produce industry when it was dominated by men,” son Peter Van Dyke said Sunday. “She made some waves but earned respect.”

He recalled his mother always doing something. Peter Van Dyke said she raised three sons, surfed, ran the ranch and once worked as a substitute teacher.

Betty Van Dyke once said she first got interested in surfing from seeing a 1939 Sunset Magazine photo of the sport. But it didn’t happen until 1953, she said 11 years ago in an interview with the University of California Santa Cruz library.

“I always wanted to do that, but I didn’t know where, how, and didn’t know they did it here,” she said of surfing.

After graduating from Fremont High School in Cupertino, Van Dyke attended San Jose State, where a friend brought her to the beach one day. Van Dyke said she caught a wave in a tandem ride, “and that was it.”

Betty was hooked on hanging ten.

Her first husband, Gene Van Dyke, recalled Sunday how they had met at Cowells Beach near the Santa Cruz wharf. Gene and his two brothers were some of Northern California’s most famous surfing pioneers.

Betty Van Dyke ended up living in the Santa Cruz area for more than a half century, where she socialized with wetsuit pioneer Jack O’Neill and many other of the early noted wave riders.

“She wasn’t a ripper but she had style,” Peter Van Dyke said of his mom, who he said surfed until the 1990s.

Peter Van Dyke recalled a time in the early 1970s when the family, including stepfather Ray Stout, drove from Santa Cruz to El Salvador for a surfing vacation.

Betty Van Dyke was equally devoted to farming, the family recalled. When the Valley of Heart’s Delight gave way to subdivisions in the mid-1960s, her father Nick Mardesich left Cupertino for Gilroy. Betty Van Dyke and her three sons took over operations about a decade later, family said.

Eric Van Dyke recalled Sunday spending every summer with his two older brothers and mom at the farm, which sits at the base of the Gavilan Mountains.

According to the family, the Van Dykes were among the first Californians to grow and dry fruit organically. They also had an active role in the early days of the California Certified Organic Farmers group, they said.

Betty Van Dyke said in the UC Santa Cruz library interview that she didn’t consider becoming a farmer until her father aged.

“He really needed someone to take over, and I knew what to do,” she said. “Before he died, he looked out the window and he saw the dryer yard and he said, “Well, I see you know what to do now. It’s all up to you.”

Betty Van Dyke is survived by her husband of 51 years, Ray of Santa Cruz; her sons, Peter of Gilroy, Kurt Van Dyke of Costa Rica, and Eric of Sonora. Also, grandchildren Nick, Cody, Michaela, Salvador, and Lulu; and two greatgrandchildren, Nick and Michaela.

A service is scheduled for family and friends at 1 p.m. Thursday at Benito and Azzaro Pacific Gardens Chapel in Santa Cruz. The ceremony can be viewed live via Tribucast, the family said.

Donations can be made to the Santa Cruz Symphony or Surfing Heritage Museum in Betty Van Dyke’s name.