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Fisherman's Huts (Sarah-Quita Beach)

USA Mainland, Canada, Mexico & Caribbean · Aruba · Noord / Palm Beach

also known as Hadikurari Beach, Sarah-Quita Offringa Beach, Hadicurari Beach, Fishermen's Huts, The Huts, Sarah-Quita Beach

Part of Aruba →

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec

flat waterbeginner-friendlyoffshorehigh crowds

On this page

The spot
Wind
Forecast
Month by month
Water
Level
The scene
Launch
Schools
Tips
Getting there
Photos
FAQ

Riding essentials

Season

Dec–Aug

Months riders and schools name

How windy

15-25 knots

Character: trade · offshore

Room to launch

tight

access rules on record, below

Water

flat

27.7 °C in summerFlat water is created by the offshore/easterly wind and reef/sea-grass shallows

Hazards

Reported by riders

Level

Beginner to advanced

With a caveat: see Your level

BeginnerIntermediateAdvanced

Crowds

high crowds · busy Jun May Jul

Schools

named at this spot

From the airport

International Airport (AUA)

Transfer times under Getting there

On the clock

09:00 · 11:00 · 15:00

Rideable most of the day and strongest roughly 11:00-15:00. It can already be blowing by about 09:00, and it usually drops towards sunset.

The marks are the clock times the record names, laid on a 24-hour day. The bar between the first and the last covers those hours; it is not a promise of wind.

Nearbystraight-line distance

Backup spotsWhere riders go when the wind doesn't work here.

Boca Grandino page yet
Malmokno page yet
Palm Beachno page yet
Bushirino page yet
Barcaderano page yet

The spot

Fisherman's Huts, officially Hadicurari Beach and now partly branded Sarah-Quita Beach, is the wind-sports beach just north of Palm Beach in Noord and the busiest launch on Aruba. Schools, rentals and rescue boats all sit on the sand, and the water close in is clear, flat and shallow, which is why most lessons on the island happen here.

The trade-off is direction: the prevailing E/ENE trades blow offshore, so the flat water comes with gusty air near the beach and a real drift problem the moment you cannot hold ground. December through August is the reliable stretch, May to July often the strongest, and September to November is when the trades go light or get disrupted.

School-supported beginners, intermediates and freestylers all get what they came for. Independent novices should not read flat water as forgiving here. The beach is narrow in places, mixed with windsurf traffic and split by ability flags, so learn the zones before you rig and give lesson groups room.

The wind

locals call it easterly to east-northeast trade winds

Direction

offshoreE to ENEwind blows away from land — rescue cover matters here

Kite sizes

4567891011121314151617

metres · typical quiver highlighted

The quiver, in words

18-25 kt is the everyday band, so a 75-85 kg rider wants 11-12 m for the light 15-17 kt days, 9-10 m for a standard 18-22 kt afternoon, 7-8 m at 25 kt and 5-6 m on the 30-35 kt days.Local shops quote 7-12 m as the most-used range and one school stocks 6-13 m, which brackets the same thing.Because the wind is offshore and gusty near the beach, size to hold ground rather than to be comfortable.

Character

trade

When it fills in: see above ↑

Average strength

around 20 knots

Typical strength

15-25 knots on most usable days: 18-25 is the normal afternoon, 15-20 on the light ones, and 30-35 when it is really blowing.

Strong trade wind but offshore and often gusty near the beach because it comes over land and obstacles; cleaner/stronger farther from shore.

Aruba's trades are present most of the year. Tourism and local school sources identify May-October as the island's windy season, with kitesurf-oriented sources putting the strongest/reliable months from December through August and lighter/less reliable conditions around September-November when regional hurricane systems can disrupt the trades.

Forecast

Live forecast

Windguru Windfinder Windy

Month by month

17 ktJan
18 ktFeb
18 ktMar
17 ktApr
17 ktMay
18 ktJun
18 ktJul
16 ktAug
15 ktSep
14 ktOct
15 ktNov
16 ktDec

avg knots per month · season highlighted

Modelled monthly averages. Highlighted: the months riders and schools name (Dec, Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug).

Modelled from weather reanalysis on a 10–25 km grid, not a ground station: reliable for trade and synoptic winds, understates thermal sea breezes and valley winds.

Every figure, month by monthKnots · Wind from

Month	Knots	Wind from
Jan	17.4 kt	E
Feb	17.8 kt	E
Mar	17.6 kt	E
Apr	17.1 kt	E
May	17.3 kt	E
Jun	18.4 kt	E
Jul	17.7 kt	E
Aug	16.4 kt	E
Sep	14.9 kt	E
Oct	13.6 kt	E
Nov	14.5 kt	E
Dec	16.4 kt	E

How this is modelledmodelled

A weather model's cell over this place, not a station on it. Good for comparing places, weaker for one beach.

The typical daily max and the direction are columns of the table above, month by month. Highlighted months are the riding season from the spot record.

Oranjestad (modeled); Windfinder 'Fishermen's Hut' station exists on-site but has no stats · Weather Spark (NASA MERRA-2 reanalysis climatology, not a single ground station)

The water

Type

flat

Standing depth

Very shallow close to shore; waist- to chest-deep water for the inshore learning area, with deeper water farther out.

Tides

Tide seems to matter little here and the spot rides much the same through the day. No local tide-specific guidance for kiting has been published as of 2026, so treat that as unconfirmed.

Temperature

27.7 °C summer · 26.8 °C winter

Wetsuit

Boardshorts/bikini or rash vest; no wetsuit normally needed.

Currents

Nobody has flagged a current hazard for the spot; offshore wind drift is the main return-to-shore risk.

Conditions

Flat water is created by the offshore/easterly wind and reef/sea-grass shallows. Bottom is seaweed-covered reef with pebbles/stones/coral in places, and there is no shorebreak. On rare hurricane swell, the outer/red-flag area can see a long clean wave running parallel to shore.

Your level

BeginnerIntermediateAdvanced

The water is flat and shallow and the schools keep rescue boats, which is why the island learns here.

Independent beginners should still be careful: the wind is offshore and gusty near the sand, and holding ground is the whole game.

Intermediates and advanced riders work the zones further out, where the air is cleaner and reef, gusts and traffic are all still in play.

The scene

What riders come here for

freerideflat waterlessons with school supportfreestylewarm-water travelwatching windsurf/kite events

Who it suitsbeginner

The main Aruba wind-sports beach: schools, students, windsurfers, spectators and resort foot traffic. Hi-Winds runs here in late May or June, in some years June into July, and brings event crowds and a festival week with it.

Launch and rules

three ways on to the water, and what each one asks of you

With a school or a boat

6 schools name this spot

See who they are

On your own

Room to launch: tight

Read the access rules

Somewhere else

2 spots nearby

All 2 spots within 40 km are under Nearby

Rescue

Boat and jet-ski support comes from the schools on the beach. The going 2026 rate for an independent water rescue is 20 USD, and at least one operator includes one boat rescue with its 2026 rentals.

Rescue boats do charge, so agree the arrangement before you launch rather than after. Beyond the schools, island emergencies are 911 and anything at sea goes to the Dutch Caribbean Coast Guard on 913.

Launch

Narrow white-sand strip at Hadicurari/Fisherman's Huts, north of the Ritz-Carlton and past the Marriott, shared with several wind and kite schools and non-motorised watersports vendors. A section of this shoreline was named Sarah-Quita Beach in 2025 during Hi-Winds, but no boundary or signage has been published, so it is a name for part of the same beach rather than a distinct launch.School bases add shade, fresh water, showers, drinks, Wi-Fi, beach beds, picnic tables and lockers; the sand itself is tight and busy on a good day.

Hazards riders report 14 reported

Wind

Offshore wind: riders who cannot hold ground may drift away from shore and need boat rescue.
Gusty/wind-shadowed air close to the beach from land obstacles.
Offshore wind: riders who cannot hold ground drift away from the beach and need a boat, which costs money and time.
Gusty, wind-shadowed air close to the sand from land and buildings upwind; cleaner and stronger further out.
The coral starts about 100 m offshore; yellow buoys mark the outer limit of the riding area and are not to be crossed.

Crowds and zones

Crowded mixed-use water with windsurfers, kite students, swimmers, boats and schools near Palm Beach/Hadicurari.
Do not jump over boats/people; maintain distance from students and other riders.
Crowded mixed-use water: windsurfers, kite students, swimmers, boats and school craft in the same bay.
Do not jump over boats or people, and give students and lesson groups a wide margin.
Ability-zone flags mean the water is split by level - riding through the wrong zone is the main source of friction here.

Bottom

Reef, sea grass, coral, pebbles/stones and very shallow patches; booties are recommended by rider reports for walking in/out.
Reef, sea grass, coral, pebbles and very shallow patches - booties make the walk in and out much easier.

Protected areas and rules

Sea turtle nesting is reported north of the launch zone (2026, unconfirmed on the ground).
Sea turtle nesting is reported north of the launch zone; nesting season on Aruba runs March to September with hatchings to November.

Rules & access

1 min read

Timing rules

2026: kiting is posted as allowed before 10:00 and after 16:30, with 10:00-16:00 reserved for the windsurfing school. An alternative before-10:00 and after-17:00 version circulates, and the 16:30 figure is the better-supported one. Enforcement on the beach is inconsistent and no Aruban municipal ordinance confirming any time rule has been found.

2026: no kiting after sunset. 2026: no jumping over boats or people, and keep clear of lesson groups.

Zones

2026: yellow buoys mark the outer boundary of the riding area and are not to be crossed. 2026: the coral starts roughly 100 m offshore and riders are asked to keep off it; a 200 m standoff from the beach is also quoted, which does not sit easily with a beginner zone inshore of that, so check it on the sand. 2026: ability zones are marked with flags, beginners inshore of the white flags in chest-deep flat water within about 400 m, intermediates out to the blue flags where the wind is cleaner and stronger.

2025: a section of the Hadicurari / Fisherman's Huts shoreline was declared Sarah-Quita Beach during Hi-Winds 2025, with no published boundary, coordinates or signage, so the name covers an unmarked part of the same beach rather than a separate launch.

Access rules drift faster than anything else we hold — check locally, and propose an edit if this has changed.

Schools that ride here

Rider tips

Sort out the rescue before you launch, not after: an independent water pickup runs 20 USD (2026), and at least one operator includes one rescue with a 2026 rental.
Check the wind on the beach itself before rigging. It reads differently here than an airport forecast, and it is strongest roughly 11:00-15:00.
Wear booties for the walk in and out. The bottom is sea grass over reef with stones and coral through it.
Stay inshore of the white flags if you are still learning, and go out to the blue flags if you want the cleaner, stronger air.
Do not cross the yellow buoys, and keep off the coral that starts about 100 m offshore.
Ask a school on the beach whether the 10:00-16:00 windsurf-school slot is being applied that day; enforcement is inconsistent.

Getting there

Airport

Queen Beatrix International Airport (AUA)

Route

Hadicurari/Fisherman's Huts is north of the Palm Beach hotel zone between The Ritz-Carlton/Marriott area and Malmok. Access is by car, taxi, public bus and walking; staying in Noord can put the spot within walking distance, but a rental car helps for Boca Grandi and island exploring.

Transfer

about 20-25 minutes from AUA to Hadicurari Beach by private transfer/taxi estimate

Cost level

high

Staying

Best base is Noord/Palm Beach/Malmok: resort hotels around Marriott/Ritz-Carlton/Holiday Inn/Hyatt plus villas, apartments and small studios such as Aruba Beach Villas and Sunset Beach Studios listed near the beach.

No-wind days

Snorkel Arashi Beach or the Antilla wreck, visit California Lighthouse, SUP/kayak from Palm Beach operators, dive/snorkel elsewhere around Aruba, bike/blokart with local operators, or explore restaurants and bars around Noord/Palm Beach.

Photos

FAQ

When is the best time to kitesurf at Fisherman's Huts?

The strongest, most reliable months run December through August, with May to July often the peak period and September to November more vulnerable to lighter or disrupted trade winds.

Is Fisherman's Huts suitable for beginners?

Yes, it is Aruba's main lesson beach thanks to flat, shallow, clear water plus schools and rescue boats on site, though because the wind is offshore, independent beginners are still advised to stay upwind or use school supervision.

What is the wind like?

East to east-northeast trade wind blows offshore and can be gusty close to the beach, typically 15 to 25 knots, with lighter days around 15-20 knots and stronger days reaching 30-35 knots; wind is usually rideable most of the day.

Are there kite schools or rental?

Several schools operate here, including Aruba Active Vacations/Vela Aruba, Armando's Kite Shack, Aruba Kitesurfing School and Venture Holidays Aruba, with boat or jet-ski rescue support offered by nearby operators.

Are there rules or restricted hours?

Posted rules conflict: some sources list kiting allowed before 10:00 and after 16:30 or 17:00, reserving mid-day for the windsurfing school, while riders dispute whether this is still enforced, so check with a local school on arrival.

The bigger pictureEverything about Aruba

Last updated: August 2026