Surfing, Poker and Aruban Soul

Every now and then a press trip comes along that compensates for the daily penury of writing for a living. One such came my way recently in the form of an invite to play in the Ultimate Bet Aruba Classic, a poker event held on the Caribbean island of Aruba. The kindly folk at Ultimate Bet even said that they would provide the buy-in for the tournament, giving me a theoretical if otherwise wholly fanciful chance of returning home with a cool $775,000. The opportunity was not one that it took long to consider. Roughly three seconds after hearing of the offer, I had signed on the dotted line, and so found myself in the former Dutch colony of Aruba, just off the north coast of Venezuela, two weeks ago.

On the way from Aruba’s slick, modern airport I asked the taxi driver if there was any surf on the island. “Yes, sure!” she said. “There is good surf, right in front of your hotel!” This was an astonishing piece of news, particularly given that my hotel, the Radisson, faced due west. How swell would ever find its way there was beyond me, and, indeed, I was sceptical about there being a wave even on the eastern side, given Aruba’s location. It may deserve its tag as “the happy island,” a place that one of the air hostesses described yearningly as “paradise,” but it sits so far inside the Caribbean as to be out of the way of pretty much every swell going. This, too, was the verdict of a google search prior to my departure from the UK. “When people say there are surfers on Aruba,” said one website, “they mean windsurfers.”

And it sure was windy. A constant, warm force four to five blew offshore at the Radisson, onto a sea that non-surfers would describe as “perfect.” In other words, it was flat. There wasn’t a ripple in sight. My dream of surfing every morning before playing poker had bitten the dust. The taxi driver meant that there was good windsurfing on Aruba, and that was it. But, if truth be told, I was in Aruba to play poker, so that’s what I did. Badly. Aside from one miraculous third place in a sit and go against the other journalists, the cards did not come my way or, perhaps rather more aptly, my nine months of Texas Hold ‘Em had not equipped me to swim with the sharks of Team UB – top players such as Phil Hellmuth, Annie Duke and Antonio Esfandiari – or their brethren, sundry other merciless individuals.

Inevitably, I busted out of the main event, no. 360 of 516 entrants, which left me with a few days to laze in the sun. The only problem with this is that I am not very good at lazing in the sun. So, on my way to the beach one morning, I decided to ask the surfing question again. This time the lovely Angeline, one of the towel attendants at the Radisson, said that yes, there was surf on Aruba. “You don’t mean windsurfing, do you?” I said. “No,” said Angeline, “surfing. My brother Jeff is last year’s champion.” Angeline duly called Jeff, who said that sure, there was surf. He’d pick me up later and we’d go get some waves.

And so it was that Jeff Dijkhoff and his wife Shaendeeh took me to two surf-spots on Aruba – Wariruri and Dos Playa. Jeff loaned me a 6’9, and I paddled out with him at Wariruri, which faces north-east. As such, it is battered by wind day in, day out, making for a heaving, out-of-control sea which nevertheless yields punchy rights and lefts breaking over a rocky reef. It was wonderful to be in an ocean that was alive, in a line-up of some five or six local Aruban surfers, despite the fact that I took a bit of a hammerring. Jeff ripped, and it struck me that if he could surf messy waves so well, he could surf well anywhere. But he and Shaendeeh – herself a surfer, but pregnant and so not in the water – lamented the absence of recognition for surfing in Aruba. “It’s such a positive, healthy sport, and we have good waves, but it’s not promoted here,” said Shaendeeh, as we drove along the eastern coast to the beach break of Dos Playa. Like Wariruri, this is a wild and rugged spot, with a constant wind blowing out the surf. But just as he’d done at Wariruri, Jeff paddled out into a line-up of charging bodyboarders and tore it up, popping airs at will and getting the occasional cover-up.

There was surf in Aruba, all right, but what was the taxi driver talking about when she said there were waves at my hotel? Jeff looked like the cat who’d got the cream. “She means a little further along the beach,” he said. “It’s a break called Arashi. In January and December it can be just the best.” Shaendeeh nodded, and explained that huge lows tracking down the Atlantic from New York will create clean, reeling lines at the spot. Sure enough, when we got there, I could imagine the set-up, as tiny six-inch lines peeled along the reef, held up by the offshore wind. “It gets big here,” said Jeff, “but when it goes off, everyone is on it.”

“Everyone” turns out to be no more than 60 or so local surfers, served by the Bula Surf Shop, itself established in 2003 by David Puttnam and Yair Lichtenstein. “We set up the shop based on nothing more than a love for surfing,” says David. “And yes, there is surf in Aruba.”

Here are some pictures to prove it. Paradise found? Jeff and I checked Arashi again, but it didn’t turn on while I was there. Back at the Radisson I lost a few more hands of Hold ‘Em, got lucky on the roulette table and experienced true humiliation as I folded my cards into oblivion against Hellmuth, Duke and Esfandiari in the media tournament. The Aruba Classic was my first serious taste of what it feels like to be a broken man at the poker table, but I had one consolation not available to any of the poker players. I now knew that Aruba has surf. By the time I played my last hand, I was already planning a return trip. Meanwhile, to Jeff and Shaendeeh – thank you for your excellent hospitality. See you soon, I hope...

See www.bula-aruba.com

Comments

[Tz]

hey! I'm also from Aruba and I think it's really cool that you wrote this! I'm learing how to surf and it's awsome!! I hope you liked Aruba!!

[ASHIBI]

hey whats good! nice to see you loved the aruban surf.you should get there by december or so.we got some nice reef breaks.thank you for writing something bout our island!

PS: sorry about losing in poker..:)

[EB]

Hey Alex... I'm also arubian living in the Netherlands for my studies and loving the beach like crazy. Cold water, bad condition, choppy waves never stopped me of doing what i like to do the most, Surfing. You met very dedicated friends of my in Aruba and i'm actually very proud of them ALL for what they have done and keep on doing by promoting our island waves internationally. Reading this blog of yours makes we very happy and wanted to thank you too for your writing. See you guys soon on Aruba - One Happy Island. BEACH BEACH

[SURFMALANDROS]

The local surfer named corra should learn how to stand.He stands like he 's holding a pu pu.

[SURFMALANDROS]

LOOK @ IMAGE ABOVE

[John O]

I Just got back from Aruba with my family where we were visiting some friends on a little vacation. I have to say I met some of the best people you could imagine there, Shaendeeh and Jefferey. I met them on the beach one day at Arashi where Shaendeeh was giving surf lessions to a couple of young kids. We started talking and the next thing I knew we were setting up a surf trip for the weekend. They took me to two places on the other side of the Island and I can't tell you the level of Aloha spirit they possess it is truly Amazing! They took me surfing twice in all and I have to say those to days were the best two days on Aruba with some of the nicest people you could ever meet and we scored waves both days unreal. Waves, new friends, aloha = One Happy Island. May Mahalo's two my new friends in Aruba....