"Next year, at the same time and the same place," promised the organizers of the 12th Aruba Hi-Winds 1998 at the closing ceremony of the terrific windsurfing event on Aruba. The Aruba Hi-Winds, one of the biggest amateur events in the Caribbean, took place from June 4th till June 10th at Fishermen's Huts, Hadicurari. This year's format of an amateur-only event proved greatly successful: some 90 experienced sailors, varying in age from 14 years old to somewhere in their "50’s", competed on the azure waters in front of the Fishermen's Huts in varying wind conditions for a solid week. A week of racing, racing and more racing with nightly parties thrown in preceded the awards night in the Stardust Theatre, at which beautiful white tiger Adonis held the surfers in thrall.

For the first time in twelve years, the Pros were not in attendance on Aruba: the main sponsors for the World Cup event on Aruba had cancelled. Although this meant less international coverage of the event, the Aruba Hi-Winds was as great as ever, terrific gale-force conditions as well as less windy days made for a varied program. Warming up with a few days of 25-30 knots, the competitors flew around the course in slalom after slalom on the first days of racing. A high velocity long-distance race on the weekend heralded the abating winds, making course-racing possible. Different disciplines saw different talents emerge and up to the last moment, competitors were unsure who would walk away with the prizes after the sheer endless days of fun, sun and competitive surfing.

The free-style competition on Sunday afternoon called "King of the Huts" drew crowds of local spectators and tourists to the Fishermen's Huts, the Hi-Winds home-ground. Local Jeroen Weststrate was crowned King to the delight of the public: he sailed on his own water like, a true king of the blue. The moonlight sailing, a fun event, on Monday, June 8th, was a hilarious, boisterous and wild affair, subtitIed "No sex on the course!" Why, we don't know.

A new and popular part of the Aruba Hi-Winds was the possibility for Weekend Surfers to register and participate under the name "Weekend Warriors." These, mostly local, sailors could not afford to take time off from work or school for the duration of Hi-Winds, and they were happy to be part of the action on just Saturday and Sunday. Especially the Juniors were excited to be able to show their worth on the water. Great going and lots of future talents to be reckoned with!

Shouts and whoops erupted from the audience when Sergio Mehl from Argentina, long-time Hi-Winds participant and top surfer, was announced as the winner of the event in the Open Class; he came first in the three disciplines: slalom, long distance and course racing. Behind Mehl came Wilhelm Schurmann from Brazil with three solid second places and Jeroen Weststrate from Aruba in third. Winners in the other categories were: Eduardo Schulte from Brazil (Men), David Taras from Canada (Supermasters), Andy Morell from the British Virgin Islands (Masters). Colette Guadagnino from Venezuela (Women) and Crisanto Rodriguez (Venezuela) in Juniors.

The theatre's stage was laden with boards, masts, bags, gift certificates and books for the winners, who staggered beneath all the prizes they were awarded. Sponsor Bic made the champions happy with new surfboards and American Airlines with round-trip tickets. Great appreciation too for the Neil Pryde gearbags and masts. Sierra Emory from Hawaii donated his book "Jaws" to all the winners. Emory is the top five free-styler in the world. Local inventor Rogier Jurriens handed out his "Deviators" a gadget to prevent breakage of the nose of the boards and several local restaurants, car rental firms and windsurf guesthouses donated dinners, week stays and rentals.

The competitors of the Aruba Hi-Winds had been submerged in water and surf-stories for the entire week of June 4th till 10th. To keep in style during the awards night, the completed video of Dasher's Wind’o Vision production company was shown. Charles Dasher is a very talented artist with an eye for the unusual; he had interspersed the Hi-winds' coverage with clips from old movies and black-and-white shots, making the Aruba movie a fast-paced, humoristic and wild thing of beauty.