Skateboarder dies in Cayucos downhill accident

August 5, 2011

Seth Dunn, a 20-year-old from Fresno, died from blunt force to the head following a skateboard accident in Cayucos on Monday. [The Tribune]

He wasn’t wearing a helmet as he skateboarded down Bakersfield Avenue, which has a steep incline.

A witness said he heard Dunn and others discuss riding down the steep hill. “I watched them walk up the hill and then saw him go up into the air and heard him hit,” Spence Grafft told the Tribune.

Emergency calls were put out and one of the skateboarders ran to the Cayucos Market owned by Bill Radke, Cayucos Fire Chief, who hurried up the street to attend to Dunn.

The site is popular among skateboarders seeking the thrill of downhill speed. Three young men were later reported to be bombing down the hill at midnight using flashlights.

Seth Dunn would have graduated next year from Bethel College — a Mennonite school of some 500 students in Kansas.

During his tenure at the school, he started a coffee shop, buying 10 urns on his own, simply so students could have a place to go and hang out. He also began a radio show, was in two plays this year and one last year. He was an avid bicyclist, snowboarder and skateboarder.

The family was vacationing in Cayucos, and has been deeply gratified by the kindness and compassion of “total strangers reaching out to us in ways we could never imagine.”

Besides his father and mother, Susan, Dunn is survived by brothers Eli and Isaac, as well as an aunt and uncle.

Arrangements are under the direction of Reis Family Mortuary and Crematory in San Luis Obispo.