Czechia’s surfers ready to represent country for first time at world championships
For the first time in the country’s history, Czechia is sending its own team to the ISA World Surfing Games – the sport’s world championships. Six contestants are traveling to the upcoming event, which is set to take place in in El Salvador, Central America. For many it is the culmination of a long road towards getting surfing established in the landlocked country.
Czech surfing mafia
Prague’s Štvanice Island turned into a mini-California beach earlier this week, as a group of cheerful, fit and remarkably tanned individuals took questions from the media surrounded by surfboards.
A special news conference was held to announce that, for the first time ever, Czechia will be sending its own team to the planet’s premier surfing event – the World Surfing Games.
Organised by the International Surfing Association (ISA), the annual competition brings together the best surfers from around the globe and, for those who are successful, offers the chance to qualify for the Olympic Games, where the sport made its debut just two years ago.
Seven Czechs are travelling to the sandy beaches of Surf City in El Salvador, three women and four men, with one of the latter acting as a reserve in case his teammates get injured.
“It’s going to be great to represent Czechia and to fulfil the dream we and our coach share – namely to be the best out of the countries that lack an ocean.”
Among them is 28-year-old Jana Kašová, who currently holds the title of Czechia’s best female surfer, having won last year’s Czech Cup tournament.
“It feels great to represent Czechia for the first time ever at an international championship! Surfing is an individual sport but this competition is kind of special in that we are competing as a team, as a nation, too.
“It’s going to be great to represent Czechia and to fulfil the dream we and our coach share – namely to be the best out of the countries that lack an ocean.”
She will be representing her country along with Anna Růtová and Paula Kutá, two shooting stars in a sport that is just taking off in Czechia.
“Surfing is a very young sport here. I myself got into it almost 10 years ago. I saw the ocean for the first time when I was 20 years old, so it’s a short journey thus far. However, I hope it’s going to continue growing.”
A native of the West Bohemian town of Domažlice, Kašová now spends most of her time chasing the waves in Portugal. Her story is similar to that of many of the other Czech contestants, whose male component is made up of Jakub Michna, Robert Vysloužil, Petr Novotný and David Lenc. The latter explained why this is the case.
“When we are in Czechia we try to do as much as possible. For example, by practicing surfing in the river, or by going for a paddle in the still waters.”
“Most the people that are going to El Salvador and take their training seriously spend most of their time abroad. For example, I myself, spent most of the past years in locations such as Bali, Spain, Portugal and France.
“When we are in Czechia we try to do as much as possible. For example, by practicing surfing in the river, or by going for a paddle in the still waters. We try to do some surfskate training too, some dry trainings in the gym to exercise specific muscle parts that we need. That is all you can do here. Mostly it’s about being in the ocean and that is why we mainly have to go abroad.”
Aside from representing Czechia in surfing, David Lenc is also a semi-professional beach volleyball player. It was this sport, he says, that initially got him curious about how well he could balance on a board.
“It’s a bit like the mafia, once you are in there is no way out.”
“Actually, as of now I am in both the Czech national beach volleyball and surfing teams, so it’s kind of a double life for me. In any case when I was playing beach volleyball the venues were located on beaches, so surfing was always there.
“I tried surfing a few times and I completely sucked at it. I don’t like not being good at something, so I was trying to pursue some surf camps and that is where my beach volleyball partner invited me for my first surfing trip with a Czech agency here. That was in Spain in 2018. My first surfing trip. And it kind of caught on from there. It’s a bit like the mafia, once you are in there is no way out.”
Boards on the Vltava
It is on Štvanice Island that Czechia’s surfing mafia, more specifically the Prague Surfing Club (Pražskej serfovej klub), has its headquarters. Earlier this year, the venue also saw the opening of a special surfing wave facility, where aspiring surfers can try out their skills by riding a 65cm-high artificial wave. The project was realised thanks to a public fund raising campaign that brought in CZK 660,000.
David Lenc says that there are also other ways through which would-be surfers can perfect their skills at the facility.
“There are gym trainings, or group trainings where you train specifically for surfing. There are also yoga surf classes where you specifically focus on practicing your flexibility in order to perform the manoeuvres and get the ranges and core stability that you want. That’s the physical side.
“Then there are also surfing trainings. I work as a coach on those classes. Aside from practicing surfing in the ocean it is also possible to do it on a flat surface or inside a wooden bowl. The latter’s surface kind of simulates the face of a wave. You can practice some of the manoeuvres that you would do while surfing in the ocean inside the bowl.”
From surfhouses to national organisation
The origins of surfing in the landlocked country can be traced back to the early 2000s, when the sport seems to have been largely introduced by members of various so-called “surfing camps” around the world. According to some sources, these were often set up by young people who would go on surfing holiday trips, or “surfhouses”, that were advertised to Czechs by specialised travel agencies.
Then, in 2003, an early version of the Czech Surfing Association was set up in Brno and, five years later, a special Czech-Slovak surfing competition called Surfchamp was introduced. The tournament, which pits the best surfers of both countries against each other, has since evolved into a sort of unofficial annual championship.
Although the sport continued to grow, it took more than a decade before a full-blown Czech Surfing Association, recognised by the ISA, could be established in 2020. Today, Czech surfers can partake in several competitions at home and abroad with the country’s two biggest cities, Prague and Brno, both having their own specialised surfing clubs. However, there is still a long way ahead until the sport receives sufficient recognition to actually make it to the Olympics.
For now, the team jokes that they are “pine cones on a beach”, inspired by the “fire on ice” nickname of the Jamaican Olympic bobsled team that was made famous through the 1993 movie Cool Runnings.
Hollywood is yet to call the Czech surfers, but the team is being accompanied by a young documentarist, Františka Bakošová from Prague’s FAMU film school, who will be capturing the group’s adventures on camera.
If you are thinking of following the exploits of the Czech surfers at the World Surfing Games and don’t have the patience to wait for the documentary then be sure to check out the ISA’s website for more details on the tournament’s schedule: https://isasurf.org/event/2023-surf-city-el-salvador-isa-world-surfing-games
Alternatively, those looking to eventually break into Czechia’s Olympic surfing team, or just have some fun on a free day would do well to check out Prague’s Vlna Štvanice: https://vlnystvanice.cz
