In 1998 Armando was in Hawaii as a windsurfer, hunting bigger waves. At a place called Kite Beach he met kitesurfing for the first time. He stayed about a month to learn, bought his first kite and fell in love with the sport.
Back on Aruba he couldn’t wait to share what he had found, and so Armando’s Kite Shack began, at the Fisherman’s Huts. His years of windsurfing told him this was the place: the right location, shallow water and steady wind. Today it is known as Aruba’s premier kite spot.
“If you can walk, you can kiteboard.” Armando
The Big Crossing, 2007
On Sunday 27 May 2007, Armando Wester led eleven kitesurfers across the strait from Venezuela to Aruba: about twelve miles of open water, from Puerto Escondido on Venezuela’s north coast to the finish at the Fisherman’s Huts. The newspaper The News called it the first acknowledged crossing by kite or windsurfers.
Armando organised the crossing together with Arusurf, the Aruba Surfing Association, and was the first to reach the shore. About thirty small boats and yachts escorted the riders, and windsurfer Ryan Lampe crossed with them. Favourable wind made it faster than expected: just under two hours, where Armando had reckoned on two and a half. The hardest part came at the end, working upwind in light air along the Aruban coast to the Huts.
The shack today
The youngest student to take lessons with us was six years old; the oldest was eighty, and he still let out a hoot every time he launched into the air. Lessons, rentals, wingfoil and sunsets at the pink hut: come by and say hello.
Source for the 2007 crossing: The News (Aruba), 27 May 2007, Archivo Nacional Aruba.