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Stichting Aquaspeed Bonaire Windsurfers (SABW) was founded on March 27, 1987, with the goal of positioning the windsurfing sport and Bonaire on the map. This goal has been successfully achieved through gaining recognition worldwide by various well-known windsurfing and sailing associations such as IFCA, IWA, and PWA. Since the late 80s, SABW has been organizing watersports racing and sailing events, evolving into a comprehensive sports event management organization. Over the years, it has expanded its activities to include several on-land events such as Fun Walk, Beach Volleyball, and Beach Bolas, among others. Additionally, SABW has successfully organized the Bonaire International Regatta for the past three consecutive years following the pandemic.
SABW is thrilled to announce the 20th PROKIDS Bonaire 2024 Event, taking place during the weekend of May 25-26, 2024. The event will be hosted at the Sorobon Event Site, mirroring the setup of the PWA Youth event.
Registration day is scheduled for Saturday, May 25th, 2024, welcoming local and regional participants in windsurfing slalom and sunfish disciplines. Friendly Races will be Sunday, May 26th, 2024 in celebration of the 20th Prokids Bonaire.
At the Sorobon Event Site, Food & Beverage Stands will be available for purchase, catering to both the public and participants.
Our dedicated local crew includes two (2) Race Officials for windsurfing and sunfish races, supported by two (2) Scoring Officials and one (1) Head Scoring Official from Curacao. Administrative officials will ensure logistical support and maintain infrastructure at the event site, ensuring smooth event coordination.
As organizers, we are committed to providing suitable prizes and trophies for boys and girls in each division, alongside ensuring the availability of safety and emergency medical support at the event site. Necessary equipment, including boats (minimum 2), flags, ropes, and buoys, will be provided for the event’s smooth operation.
A content creator team will manage social media content and provide local media with event coverage. This team comprises a videographer and a photographer, tasked with capturing all necessary images and footage for media exposure.
Brendan Lorho (FMX Racing / Point-7) has asserted an early lead in the U21 Boy’s, however his perfect string of bullets was brought to an end by a young local in the form of U17 Tycho Smits (NeilPryde), who claimed his maiden PWA Youth race win on the opening day of the contest!
Arxon Gomperts was another standout sailor on the opening day. Leading the U15 Boy’s, he will be discarding a second and a first from today to give himself a perfect counting score.
In the U13 Boy’s, there have been some close battles between Joey Ross from Aruba and Julien Blom from Bonaire, at this stage, Ross is leading by 4 points, but there is all still to play for!
In the Girl’s division it was an almost perfect day for Bobbi-Lynn De Jong (Starboard / NeilPryde), but her younger sister Kit De Jong (Starboard / NeilPryde) decided she wanted to spoil the party and capitalised on a mistake from Bobbi-Lynn to ultimately take the victory despite being only 12-years-old! Kit’s twin sister Lone De Jong (Starboard / NeilPryde) also had a fantastic day – posting 2 x second places -which is also her best results to date.
Day 2 of the 2024 Bonaire Youth Slalom PWA World Cup was a waiting game where rain and clouds looked like they were going to stop any chance of racing. But good things come to those who wait and at 3:30pm the sun finally broke through, the wind picked up and we managed to complete three eliminations before the clouds came back and killed the wind again.
There are three standout riders this event – one in each fleet and all three earned perfect scores on day 2 – namely Bobbi-Lynn De Jong (Starboard / NeilPryde), Arxon Gomperts (FutureFly / Point-7) and Brendan Lorho (FMX Racing / Point-7).
Behind the leaders things are getting very tight. In the U21/U17 Boy’s Fleet, only 5 points separate Bimbi Clappers (Future Fly / S2Maui) in second from Storm Nicolai (Starboard / Duotone) in fourth with Tycho Smits (Future Fly / NeilPryde) sandwiched in the middle. 1.3 points separates the top two U17 Boy’s – repeating the battle from Aruba, but at this stage it’s Tycho leading over Storm.
In the battle of the De Jong twins, its Kit De Jong (Starboard / NeilPryde) who holds a commanding lead at this stage over Lone De Jong (Starboard / NeilPryde). The 12-year-olds are separated by Louise van den Meulen (Starboard / NeilPryde) from Aruba who has found her form here in Bonaire and currently sits in third place.
The fight for second place in the U15 Boy’s couldn’t be closer with only 0.7 separating Jaevian IJtsma from Barrie Sassen. Barrie had a good second day, scoring a string of second place finishes to jump up the ranking and apply pressure on Jaevian.
Joey Ross continues to lead the U13 Boy’s and had extended the gap to 12 points over Julien Blom. The conditions were the most challenging yesterday for the smallest riders as their extremely light weight means pumping the sail is very difficult and so getting going and planing through the gusts can be challenging. Ross continued on his 4.5m – his favourite no matter the conditions and with perfect starts and good gybes, he maintained a steady pace throughout the course, where others were more sporadic in their performance.
With 10 eliminations now complete and two days to go, it’s all still incredibly tight as the young guns battle it out on the beautiful Bonairean waters.
The wind blew perfectly all day long on day three of the 2024 Bonaire Youth Slalom PWA World Cup – allowing a further five races for all fleets to completed. After yesterday’s clean sweep by the event leaders, they didn’t have things all their own way today with three new faces claiming bullets.
In the U21 / U17 fleet, Brendan Lorho (FMX Racing / Point-7) once again got off to a winning start, but he couldn’t continue his impressive run of 6 back-to-back wins in the second elimination of the day as the local rider, Bimbi Clappers (Future Fly / S2Maui) had a unbelievable start and mastered the light wind conditions to earn his maiden bullet.
After a long break for lunch, a nice crowd formed on the beach for the final two races and it was Joa van den Berg (FMX Racing / S2Maui), who got the crowd truly amped up with his first win on the PWA Youth World Tour.
After a solid 15 rounds of racing, it looks like Lorho has this one wrapped up, barring any major disasters, as he currently only counts first place results for the entire event
Racing alongside the U21 Boy’s is the U17 Boy’s and the battle here is fiercely close between Tycho Smits (Future Fly / NeilPryde) and Storm Nicolai (Starboard / Duotone) – with just 3.3 points separating the two sailors heading into the final day of racing tomorrow.
In the U15 Boy’s, Barrie Sassen and Jaevian IJtsma took one race a piece ahead of Arxon Gomperts (Future Fly / Point-7), who has been otherwise faultless all week. Sassen had a slightly shaky start to the week (excluding his bullet in the opening round) with some equipment issues, but he has really pulled it together in the last two days to put in a solid performance with moments of brilliance.
In the U13 Boy’s, Joey Ross continues to lead, but the gap has narrowed after a difficult day for the 11-year-old Aruban. Both Tobi Korver and Julien Blom had solid days and are going from strength to strength throughout this event with big improvements in their racing day by day.
In the Girl’s division, U17 Bobbi-Lynn De Jong (Starboard / NeilPryde) continues her flawless performance with a further five wins, although a fantastic performance once again from her younger sister Kit De Jong (Starboard / NeilPryde) scoring only second & third places on day three, which shows there really is strength in depth in the De Jong household! A mention also has to go to Louise van der Meulen (Starboard / NeilPryde) for taking Bobbi-Lynn all the way to the line in Elimination 3. Whilst she unfortunately missed out on the race win, it looks like the Aruban has got it all but sealed up for the U21 title this week.
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