By Alex Petrovic

For the second stop of our European Jet Ski travels we visited the second annual Balkan Jet Ski Championship. As per Wikipedia:"The Balkan Peninsula is an area of southeastern Europe surrounded by Adriatic Sea, Mediterranean Sea, Marmara Sea and Black Sea. Its northern boundary is often given as the Danube, Sava and Kupa Rivers". It includes countries of Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia, Greece, Bulgaria, Bosnia&Herzegovina, Macedonia and Albania.

Balkan competitions in athletics and other sports are very common, but this is the first attempt to create an international jet ski competition, so we were eager to see the outcome.

The location of Balkan Championship was Zemun, a picturesque part of Belgrade, capital of Serbia.  Interestingly, this was the second European jet ski competition on river Danube, just a week after our first stop at European Championship finals.

If this was a real estate purchase, then the ubiquitous "location, location, location" would make this the most valued property -- Lido beach is in the middle of Belgrade, with 10,000 visitors daily on weekends.  Cross a weird bridge (calling it "weird" is probably an understatement) onto the Great War Island and enter a sunbathers' world.  There is not much here other than sand beach, occasional food vendor and lots and lots of shade. Shade was very welcome in 39C (102F) weather.

Jet Ski competition location was also completely in shade, and was right next to the sunseekers, which certainly will go a long distance in promoting jet ski competitions in this area. Oh, and did I mention that spectator area had a small makeshift cafe (free refreshments for racers), with chairs and cushions? So, as a spectator you simply can not go wrong by choosing Balkan Championship.

However, this time we were invited to compete, and since there was no freestyle class it meant I'd have to sit in the shade or race jet skis for the first time in my life! The most interesting idea behind Balkan Championship is that in Runabout Stock class the organizers brought 15 upgraded, identical Kawasaki 15Fs, so this meant no one had an advantage.  Racing in its purest form, how could I pass on the opportunity?!

The track was moved quite away from the shore, and the layout was very safe, so it was obvious the organizers thought a lot about safety.  At the rider's meeting everyone was sternly warned not to even think about bumping or any kamikaze moves, as they'd be disqualified on the spot.  One can't help but think this is at least partly due to the tragic death of Cesare Vismara at the World Finals in 2009, who at the time was racing for Serbia. Sunday's race was also named after him.

Speaking of riders, it was a pleasant surprise to see 27 racers, which is half that of USA Nationals.  Most of them were Serbian, with a couple of foreigners, so as far as international aspect of it, there is work to be done.

The atmosphere was very relaxed, the only complaint from the racers at this point was that there was no schedule of classes on the pit board. As a matter of fact there was no pit board at all. You had to listen to the announcer to know if you are going next. Additionally there was no track layout displayed anywhere, but since most of the racers were experienced (except yours truly) this apparently didn't bother anyone.

Even though I was born in Belgrade I did not know any of the competitors beforehand, so they were interested to learn about racing and freestyle in USA. I was on hand to explain everything about my SuperFreak carbon fiber hulls and Dasa motors, which they've never heard about before.

We had some warm up time to get to know the track and then it was time to race. All sit down classes were to have a flying start. Since this was my first race and there were 15 racers in my class, flying start made me feel much safer. And this was a long flying start, so by the time I came to the first corner, all 15 racers created a nice train and there were no hairy moments. I had a camera on board, and it is hilarious to see how I am freestyle-brapping before the start, and even at some moments during the race!

As for racing itself, well, well, well, it's definitely more violent than freestyle. I did not expect the strength of the spray from the racer in front to hit me so hard on my face and body. Wow! After the first lap the water got really choppy and the razor-sharp precision of freestyle was replaced by pure man-handling of a jet ski. Long story short, I had a blast and came in 3rd in moto1, 2nd in moto 2 and 3rd in moto 3, for an overall 3rd place.

In addition to stock, there were also Runabout Open, Ski, Ladies Ski and Ladies Runabout classes. In Ladies Ski class, XJETSKI racer Volia Dzikovich took first place, clearly showing that banning her from competing in USA is not only wrong on a personal level, but bad for USA jet ski racing, as well.

Sunday morning all racers took a part in a tribute-lap to Veljko Sukalo, Serbia's most seasoned racer, who announced that day his retirement from jet ski racing.

On hand was also a multitude of TV cameras, as well as a representative of Malaysian ambassador to give out trophies. 

In the middle of both racing days kids from the beach were allowed to go as passengers on racing jet skis.  They were ecstatic and gestures like this will certainly help future racing generations in this area.

And last, but certainly not least, the Balkan Championship showed to be more than just another race -- for the first time ever, a group of paraplegics raced jet skis. When I talked to them the next day, they still couldn't get over the excitement of speed and water. They were extremely thankful to organizers and in the words of one of them:"I never, in my wildest dreams thought I'd be racing a jet ski".

Enjoy the photos (courtesy of Dragan Skoric), and hopefully we'll see you at Balkan Championship next year. With the organizers providing jet skis, gear and fuel, all you need to do is show up!