Courtesy of: The Morning News
Fifteen-year old Aruban windsurfers Mack van den Eerenbeemt and Milan de Jonge recently participated at a special training in The Netherlands last week. The boys are members of the Wind Racers Club Aruba.
The talented boys were invited by Robbert Jan van Velzen, trainer and coach of the Dutch windsurf selection in the so called ‘Techno 293 Class’. This is a specific windsurf class with a maximum age of 17 years.
Some of the rules of this class are: The sail can’t be bigger than 7.8 square meters. All surfers have to use the same race board: a Bic Techno that has to be exactly 293 centimeters long. Windsurfers older than 17 end up in the adult RS-X class.
The Aruban windsurfers joined the Dutch and Belgium windsurf selection to learn and improve their tactical skills. There was also a lot of time spend on the physical condition by running laps and power training.
In the evening hours the boys and girls were taught the rules and how to deal with climatological weather changes during a race.
The trainers were famous Dutch windsurfers, who participated several times during the Olympics and World- and European Championships, like world champion Joeri Passchier and Dorien Hoekstra. She was a bronze medalist at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona.
Mack and Milan were impressed when they saw the large windsurf centre with all the facilities, like a big storage for equipment, a video analysis room, a well equipped kitchen to prepare all meals for the hungry sailors, several bedrooms and bathrooms and 5 instruction boats.
The 5 days of hard training were followed by an international competition called ‘Mission XL’ with 250 participants. The 2 Aruban windsurfers raced in the category 15-18 years. After 3 heats they reached the finals.
With his Big Techno 293 gear Mack came in 7th. The first 6 spots were taken by very experienced and 18 year old RS-X surfers, like Huig-Jan Tak (selection RS-X), Sam Wennekes (Dutch selection) and Rick Jendrusch (Professional Windsurfing Association).
This coming month Mack van den Eerenbeemt will represent Aruba during the South American Youth Games in Lima, Peru.
From September 20-29 fourteen South American countries will participate and 26 disciplines will be entered.
WRCA and Aruba wishes Mack good luck!
Photos depict the boys at their training in The Netherlands.
