Open Water Thanksgiving Championships

Jetliners descend on their final approach just above the turquoise shallows of Surfside Beach, where the sea stays flat and protected along Oranjestad. This tranquil stretch of coast hosts the Open Water Thanksgiving Championships, an open-water sea event held along the shores of Oranjestad on the island of Aruba. Surfside Beach lies just before the airport and only a few minutes from downtown, where gentle Caribbean waters lap against the shore. Beach bars sit directly on the sand, giving spectators and swimmers a front-row view of passenger aircraft as they glide low overhead. Over the decades, sections of the urban shoreline, including Queen Wilhelmina Park and the Renaissance Marketplace, were constructed on land reclaimed from the sea.

About two kilometres away lies Rancho, an artisanal fishing settlement first documented in 1855 that grew around small huts and a sheltered harbor used for anchoring ships. The neighborhood historically housed the majority of the island's fishing population, maintaining an enduring connection between the community and the sea.

The Open Water Thanksgiving Championships at Surfside Beach

Every November, swimmers gather on the calm shoreline of Surfside Beach in Oranjestad for the Open Water Thanksgiving Championships, which feature competitive courses of 1,000 metres, 3,000 metres, and 5,000 metres in the open sea. Swimmers wade directly into the sheltered shallows, where calm conditions provide flat water from the starting line. The 1 km race accommodates age brackets ranging from junior divisions of 8 to 10 years through master divisions for competitors aged 30 and over. The 3 km distance offers races for ages 13 to 15, 16 to 18, and 19 and older, while the 5 km marathon is open to swimmers aged 14 and over. In line with World Aquatics rules, competitor age groups are set by the swimmer's age on 31 December.

On the 5 km course, swimmers must manage their pace against an official cut-off time, requiring every swimmer to finish within 15 minutes of the winner of their specific age group and gender category. Swimmers bring their own bottles to the venue, where communal containers provide water and iced tea right on the sand. At the conclusion of the races, medals are awarded to the top three finishers in every age group and gender category. In past editions, the Thanksgiving open-water event visited Rodgers Beach in San Nicolaas, where electronic wrist tags and camera tracking monitored courses ranging from 1 km age divisions up to a 10 km marathon.

Oranjestad Reef Islands and the Spaans Lagoen mangroves

Just off the western coast of Aruba, directly adjacent to the main harbor of Oranjestad, lies the marine protected area of the Oranjestad Reef Islands. This ecological site spans 309 hectares, consisting of coral islets formed by sand and boulders resting upon a submerged reef substrate. Because winter storms and tropical hurricanes sweep across the coast, the size and shape of these low-lying islets continually shift over time. BirdLife International designated the area an Important Bird Area, recognizing its role as a breeding site for colonies of Sandwich terns and common terns wheeling above the water. The regional climate remains semi-arid, influenced by a divergence zone between the southeast trade winds and the North American Monsoon.

About seven kilometres down the coastline, the landscape folds into Spaans Lagoen, a sheltered inlet carved during the last ice age. The calm waters of the lagoon are walled on nearly all sides by elevated limestone cliffs and marine terraces. A thriving mangrove habitat lines the tidal mudflats, showcasing four distinct species: red, black, white, and buttonwood mangroves. The mudflats connect to three dry river creeks known locally as rooi, which remain empty for months and carry flowing water only after heavy rainfall. Further evidence of early human activity has been documented at Frenchman's Pass, where ancient charcoal deposits date back to 1000 BC.

Mangel Halto reef and the Caribbean wrecks

About eight kilometres down the coast from the race area lies Mangel Halto, designated as a marine reserve in 2019 along a 600-metre beach bordered by Late Pleistocene Lower Terrace limestone cliffs. Within the sheltered reef zone at a depth of 12 metres lies the wreck of the tugboat Kappel. The surrounding reef ecosystem provides a thriving habitat for octopuses, sea turtles, barracudas, and the green moray. Reaching lengths of up to 2.5 metres, the green moray is the largest moray species in the tropical Atlantic, inhabiting reefs down to depths of 40 metres where it hunts primarily for fish and crabs among coral crevices. About eight kilometres from the beach, the tanker SS Pedernales, which transported crude oil between Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela and the refinery on Aruba, was torpedoed on 16 February 1942 by the German submarine U-156 while anchored in San Nicolas Harbor.

After the damaged hull was cut into three sections at Lago Dry Dock, the midsection was later used as a target for bombing practice by Dutch Navy aircraft. Over decades of immersion, the metal has been heavily encrusted with living corals and tube sponges, attracting hawksbill sea turtles, lobsters, blue tang, and moray eels, with a massive Atlantic goliath grouper documented inhabiting the forward section. Inside Fontein Cave, visitors can inspect ancient pre-Columbian Arawak cave paintings alongside historical inscriptions left by European settlers. Along the northern coast, wave action and the erosion of a dry riverbed formed Daimari Bay, while wave-cut limestone created Moro rock, separating the twin coves of Boca Keto and Boca Fluit.