This year's Caparica Czech Surf Open preceded the second International Showdown, held as a part of the Hungarian Surf Fest 2023. This competition of surfers from Central and Eastern European countries took place just a couple hundred meters from Praia Nova, the traditional beach of the first Czech-Slovak Surfing Tour stop that happened this past weekend. Once again, the Czech team easily defended last year's gold and silver in both categories. In addition to these excellent results, the team claimed fourth place in the women's category and fifth place in the men's category. This year, the organizers added 4 competition places in each category. In total, 24 inland surfers from the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Austria, Poland, Romania, Lithuania, and Ukraine competed. Czech surfing got an extraordinary opportunity to participate in a team of 3 women and 3 men, this time with the proper support of a Czech fan group that stayed in the area after the Caparica Czech Surf Open.
HSF International Showdown WOMEN
The Czech women's surfing team made their rivals feel their power from the very beginning. All three surfers Paula Kutá, Ines Marta Kramná, and Jana Kašová placed first in the quarter-final heats and advanced further without hesitation. Their clear dominance continued in the semi-finals, too. In the first semi-final heat, Paula Kutá faced the Ukrainian Maryna Klimenko and the Polish competitor Karolina Marczak, who, however, failed to get through. In the second semi-final heat, neither Borbála Sebestén (HUN) managed to fight the Czech competition.
Women's final was then no different to the last year's one. It was a battle of the Czech team for gold. In the end, Ines Marta Kramná got the best 7,00 points score in the short-period waves and an on-shore wind and she gained the title of the queen of the HSF International showdown. Paula Kutá placed second and after a tough fight, Ukrainian Maryna Klimenko managed to squeeze in between the Czech surfers and placed third. Jana Kašová placed fourth. The winner Ines Kramná will now focus on preparing for the 2023 Rio De Janeiro ISA World Junior Surfing Championship.
Ines Kramná celebrates the victory with her coach
HSF International Showdown MEN
Jakub Michna was the first Czech man to compete in the first heat. He managed to score significantly higher than the other surfers (11,10 p.) and advanced to the semifinals together with Kis Benedek (HUN). A talented young Hungarian surfer Zalán Endrefi advanced from the first place in the second heat accompanied by our Jan Moleš from the second place. For Jan, it was his international premiere. The less experienced surfers from Lithuania and Ukraine did not stand a chance against Adam Svoboda who placed first in the third heat. Slovakian Mihalik also followed Adam further. However, neither of them stayed for much longer as both of them were eliminated right away in the semifinals. In an exciting battle, Jan Moleš won his teammate Adam over with a few tenths of a point helping him to get through to the finals.
Thus, in the men's finals, the Czechs fought against the Hungarians. Zalán Endrefi, holding first place for quite a long time, was for a moment replaced by Janek Moleš. But after all, it was Jakub Michna who won with his last but one wave scored 4,40 and a total score of 8,07. He did not allow his rivals to take his title away from him and he claimed his position on the throne of HSF International Showdown once again. Jan Moleš placed second and the Hungarian team Zalán Endrefi and Kis Benedek placed third and fourth.
Jakub Michna has just won HSF International Showdown
Last but not least, we would like to thank the whole Czech team for a great representation. Congratulations on the excellent results!