During the winter holidays, the Indonesian island of Bali hosted the traditional, fifth annual Bali Big Wejf surfing competition, a second stop of this year’s Czech and Slovak Surfing Tour. This event, organized by a Balinese community of Czech surfers, Bali Cliff Surf Club, took place at the Green Bowl (or Green Ball?) Beach surf spot.
The competition lived up to its name this year so the 30 competing surfers had to demonstrate not only their surfing technique but also their physical condition while fighting big waves and strong currents.
Men’s open
The unexpected result of Jakub Michna, the so far undefeated favorite and a member of the Czech national team, surprised the audience at the surrounding cliffs as well as the ones watching the live broadcast. During the 3rd round, he did not manage to score above the founder of the Bali Cliff Surf Club, Petr Novotný and the last year’s winner Jan Páleníček, and he finished 13th. Petr Novotný and Jan Páleníček made it through all the way up to the finals. There, they competed against Robert Vysloužil, another member of the Czech national team, and the only Slovak male competitor with French roots, Ralph Zyzak. Ralph showed excellent wave-reading skills and he claimed his first victory in the Czech-Slovak Surfing Tour by a 0,03 point difference ahead of the second Petr Novotný. Robert Vysloužil took third place and Jan Páleníček placed fourth.
Ranking
Ralph Zyzak (SK)
Petr Novotný (CZ)
Robert Vysloužil (CZ)
Jan Páleníček (CZ)
Women’s open
There were only 6 female surfers in the contest, mainly due to the difficulty of the chosen surf spot. However, they included the main favorites - last year’s invincible Jana Kašová and the Czech national team fresh(wo)man Paula Kutá. Both of them made it to the finals, where they competed against two Slovak competitors - Dominika Horníková and Soňa Krsňáková. In an exciting battle in challenging conditions, Dominika Horníková scored 9,77 and won the final heat. Paula Kutá placed second and Soňa Krsňáková third. Jana Kašová took the fourth place.
Ranking
Dominika Horníková (SK)
Paula Kutá (CZ)
Soňa Krsňáková (SK)
Jana Kašová (CZ)
Czech national surfing team
The competition also provided the second opportunity to qualify for the Czech national surfing team. The team will represent the country for the very first time at the World Surfing Games in El Salvador, one of the qualification contests for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. Thus, based on the results above, we welcome Petr Novotný, Jan Páleníček, Jana Kašová and Lenka Srncová as the new members of the Czech national surfing team. Congratulations!
Czech national surfing team
Jakub Michna, Robert Vysloužil, Petr Novotný, Jan Páleníček
Anna Růtová, Paula Kutá, Jana Kašová, Lenka Srncová
Grom competition
For the first time this year, the Bali Big Wejf program also included a Grom competition that presented many promising talents - the future of Czech surfing. A total number of 9 groms between 3 - 10 years old participated in three categories. Three-year-old Kelly Petr Novotný dominated the first category of the youngest surfers aged 3 - 5. One of the two competing girls, six-year-old Olivia Hradilová, won amongst groms up to 8 years of age, and Tomáš Kučera jr. placed first in the 8 - 10 years olds’ category. Tomáš Kučera jr., aged only 9, was also the youngest participant in Men’s open, where he participated in two heats. In one of them, he even competed with his father, Tomáš Kučera sr.
Following in the Tour
The following stop of the Czech Surfing Tour will take place in March in Srí Lanka.
