Dubai: A 28-year-old Dubai resident on holiday with his family in the United States was killed while kitesurfing on Monday night.
An official from the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office identified the victim as Dante Torres, a Filipino, who reportedly drowned after he got entangled in a bed of kelp as he surfed the waters of Topanga County Beach in Malibu, an LA Weekly report said on Tuesday (Wednesday in the UAE.)
Torres, who arrived in the US a day before the accident, was found face down in the water when lifeguards reached him. There were no signs of head trauma, cuts or bruises, the report said.
According to the LA Fire Department, the victim was not breathing when lifeguards brought him to the beach approximately 20 minutes after his kite hit the water.
"A lifeguard who was watching Torres and another kite surfer…saw the victim hit by the water. Moments later, his rig became airborne, but the kitesurfer stayed down," a County Sheriff official said.
‘Shocked'
Prima Stella Luz Refe, a Bahrain-based correspondent of Philippine broadcast network ABS-CBN, told Gulf News, Torres worked as a producer at Orbit Communications (OSN) in Dubai.
The victim apparently was fond of outdoor sports, including extreme cycling and kitesurfing and had participated in a long-distance bike ride from Tibet to Nepal last year.
"We're still shocked. He's a good man. He taught me photography," Refe told Gulf News.
