Soaring Toward the World Title

The rise of professional wingfoiling was an opportunity for this pro kiteboarder to stretch her wings.

- DAVE REED

It’s a Wednesday afternoon in July, and Paula Novotna has just finished another training session, refining her skills in the super-strong wind and nice waves” off the south coast of Rhodes, Greece. She’s on holiday,” having just finished second in the women’s division of the Wingfoil World Tour’s European Racing Championship. For this 29-year-old professional kiteboarder-turned-wingfoiler from the Czech Republic, there’s precious little time to rest and recover, but she must. Over a hectic summer, she’s won two of three World Tour SurfFreestyle Championships—one in Switzerland and one in the Canary Islands—and now has her heart and mind set on winning the next regatta to become the first Women’s Wingfoil Surf-Freestyle World Champion. Let that sink in for a moment. The first-ever in a sport growing faster than any other today, a sport that’s evolving and progressing faster than even she can herself.

Before shifting her focus to wingfoiling two years ago, Novotna spent 10 years traveling the globe with the Global Kitesports Association Kite World Tour as a surf-freestyle specialist. Turning the clock back much further, Novotna was a 10-year-old trekking through Europe to windy hotspots with her parents, both kiteboarders. They taught her the strings at 14; at the age of 19 and full of wanderlust, she turned pro and jumped on the tour.

Today’s focus on wingfoiling came to her by chance; she still kites plenty for fun, but when it comes to competing, the handheld wing is giving her a new creative outlet. After so many years of kiteboard freestyle, was trying similar tricks and getting bored with it because it was kind of the same,” Novotna says. was approached by DuoTone one of her gear sponsors, along with Fanatic) when they started making wings, and was like, What is this?’ did it and got hooked right into it.”