2025 Aruba Hi-Winds PWA Youth Slalom
With 25+ knots of wind, the last day of the 2025 Aruba Hi-Winds PWA Youth Slalom saw another action-packed day with a further four Fin eliminations completed to bring the curtain down in style on this year’s installment.
The U21 Boys was all wrapped up beforehand, but Brendan Lorho (FMX Racing / S2Maui) still won all the races and really showed he was on a different level today. Storm Nicolai (Starboard) tried to push him but couldn’t come close today, but this week still represented a great first event in the U21 division. The battle for the final place on the podium was more mixed with lots of the boys liking the stronger winds. In the end though, it was local boy Tame Mondria (FMX Racing / Point-7), who claimed third overall.
In the U17 Boys, Tycho Smits (Future Fly/ Point-7) had first place firmly lock up after winning every race with a truly dominant performance. However, the battle for second & third went down to the very last race between Sontje Alberto & Olivier van Sisseren (Weone). Unfortunately, van Sisseren broke a harness line on the final reach, which resulted in a nasty crash and a trip to hospital for van Sisseren, who tore a calf muscle. Everyone from the PWA wishes him a speedy recovery.
Arxon Gomperts (Future Fly / Point-7) dominated the U15 Boys, while Joey Ross (Starboard / Severne Sails) showed huge improvements from last year and heaps of potential and will be one to watch for the future. Jeffery Dijkhoff put in some great performances despite only starting windsurfing a year ago.
While there was no official podium in the U13 Boys division due to there being too few competitors, it was still great to see Julien Blom and Mattheo Nobels battling it out and both made massive improvements throughout the week.
The U21 Girls was probably the most exciting battle of the event and going into the final day there was all still to play for for second place. Bobbi-Lynn De Jong (Starboard / NeilPryde), who hadn’t put a foot wrong all week, made her first mistake, but it didn’t affect the outcome of the event. Meanwhile her sisters - Kit and Lone (Starboard / NeilPryde) shone in the stronger conditions. Lone, who started the day in fourth, won the opening elimination and jumped up onto the podium, but it wasn’t over yet. 3 more races saw big crashes between the girls and by far the most exciting and competitive racing of the event. Ultimately, Louise van der Meulen (Starboard / Severne Sails) missed out on the podium, but not without a fight and huge credit to her for balancing training with studying for her final school exams currently.
That’s a wrap for the 2025 Aruba Hi-Winds PWA Youth Slalom We’ll be back in just over a week for another installment of youth racing - after a short hop, skip and a jump to Bonaire, which runs from 13th-18th June.
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