Monday, 28 October 2024, Kuta-Bali:  The second and final day of the 2024 Ukraine Surfing Championship came to an exciting conclusion yesterday afternoon at Kuta Beach, with the competitors, friends, family and spectators all enjoying the non-stop action and warm Bali beach vibes, cheering on their favorites and then celebrating with the winners at the end of the day.  Champions were crowned in Men and Women’s Open, Men’s and Women’s Longboard, and Junior boys and girls at this two day event that ran from 26-27 October.

The Women’s Open Championship Final was no doubt the most tightly contested match of the day, the lead changing multiple times during the 30 minute final with each of the competitors holding the lead at least once.  Leading up to the final it seemed a sure bet that last year’s champion Maryna Klymenko would be taking her second victory here Kuta Beach, but event organizer and last year’s number 3 Julia Kulish had other plans.  After narrowly jumping into second place in yesterday’s Round 2, seconds before time ran out, she again waited until the final minutes of the final, at last finding the wave she needed to make one good turn and earn enough points from the judges to push Klymenko into second place and take the win.

“I knew that I had a chance to win, as all of us in the final are at a pretty similar level, if you watched the heat you could see all the time was someone else in the lead, but at the last minute I could a good wave and made a good turn to lead.  But it was hard out there, for sure,” said Kulish.  She is also the event organizer for the Ukrainian Surfing Federation.

“I’m super happy with how this event has gone, everyone says it was so good and how well it was organized, thanks to you guys at Asian Surf Co and the Halfways Boardriders surf club.  And as part of this whole event, we’re going to do some more training and have some development programs as well, as lots of the surfers have come from far away so we want to give them more than just a 2 days surf competition,” added Kulish.

Capturing his 2nd consecutive Ukrainian Men’s Open Championship and Junior Championship was 12 year old Mark Tkachenko, whose performance in the challenging conditions was certainly impressive, especially for a competitor who has only been surfing for about 5 years.  He won every heat including the finals, earning the top scores for his mature surfing, his small stature and ability to place his board in the small power pocket of the unpredictable waves and perform big maneuvers worked well for him.

“I feel really happy and proud to represent my country as the champion,” said Tkachenko after winning the Men’s Open Final.  “It was really tricky out there, but I knew the judges were giving big scores for even one big turn.  I got a six, and then the other guy got a 6.5, then I got a 5, but he only needed a 4.5 so I didn’t feel safe.  Then I found that wave and did like a snap-fin-slide and got an 8.  I knew it was a good wave, so really happy get that score and the win.”

The Women’s Longboard Championship Final was another tightly contested match, with Iryna Bushkova and Anna Klimova exchanging the lead at several points, but Bushkova’s final wave scored a 6.83, when added to her 5.86 gave her total score of 12.50 (out of a possible 20) to put her into the lead a final time and get her the win.  Klimova’s highest single wave score was a 6.17, when added to her 5.23 got her second place with a total score of 11.40.

The Men’s Longboard Championship Final was won by Andrii Kornytskyi, and the Junior Girls Championship Final by Fiamma.

Last year’s Ukrainian Surfing Championships was held in Portugal, in windy and cold conditions with big surf, which was very challenging, so this year’s event held in warm tropical waters was a big contrast…the most challenging part of this year’s event was the small wave conditions,  However, the competitors all agreed that the event was amazing and the wave conditions in no way diminished their enjoyment of it!  

 You can view all the scores and other details on Live Heats by following this link:

https://liveheats.com/events/231179

The Ukrainian Surfing Championship is supported by sponsors Questera, Take High Big Waves Surf Club, Big Waves Development, Giggly Coco, Nosh, Bali Ukraine Network, and mtnwave, and organized by the Ukrainian Surfing Federation (USF), the Asian Surf Cooperative (ASC) and the Halfways Kuta Boardriders (HKB).