Veljko Sukalo, well known as “Suki”, was born in Belgrade, Serbia on September 25th, 1958. After graduating, he was started with travelling, with purpose to “find himself”. He went to Singapore. And he fell in love…
It was a “love at the first sign” with standup Kawasaki 440’s and he bought one on 1978. Not long after that, 1983, he imported three of these models and started his journey on jet ski track.
Early 90’s brought development of jet ski sport in Yugoslavia. With a few jet ski lovers, he established the first Jet Ski club on the territory of Yugoslavia – Jet Ski club “Belgrade”, the most successful club with the membership of well known names of jet ski sport – Michael Prodanovich, Lorenzo Zaluski, Laszlo Vass, Gimmy Bosio, Fabio Incorvaia, Rainer Eidner, Cesare Vismara…
Soon after that, more clubs were established in order to start the Yugoslav Jet Sports Boating Association. During that period, he organized a several National Championships and jet ski school at the Adriatic Sea.
Soon after that, more clubs were established in order to start the Yugoslav Jet Sports Boating Association. During that period, he organized a several National Championships and jet ski school at the Adriatic Sea.
Since jet ski was in phase of development, Association worked as a section of Nautical Association of Yugoslavia. Working hard on education and organization of the races, he established cooperation with Hungarian Jet Ski Association that lasts until today, making international races. Difficult and hard work was fruitful and jet ski became a sports branch recognized by the Republic of Serbia, after breakup of Yugoslavia and changing the name into Jet Ski Association of Serbia 2006. Today, Jet Ski Association of Serbia is recognized by the Serbian Ministry of Youth and Sport as one and only national Association in charge of jet ski sport and jet ski became a sports branch recognized at national level.
1996 was a milestone for Suki, when international titles were won, for Yugoslavia by team members based, world wide, including USA based Michael Prodanovich. Today, Mike is carrier of a several world titles and he is always happy to see Mark Gomez on the start line in Vintage Ski and Suki is happy to be his holder with the same enthusiasm as thirty years ago… Suki took part in several World Finals by himself in Runabout categories, too.
In 2002, Suki had idea to organize the “Race of peace”, where the first time after the breakup of Yugoslavia, pilots from former Yugoslav Republics participated in the race (Slovenia, Croatia), together with a special guests from the USA – Darren Winters and Brian Crawford.
In 2003 there was a big race organized again, live covered on TV from helicopter with the stars like Rok Florjancic and Douglas Carvalho. In 2004 one more international successful race took place, with names like Celio Vinicius, Douglas Carvalho (Brasil), Rok Florjancic (Slovenia). In 2006 one race of Alpe Adria Cup was hosted in Serbia, too.
Races were made from a year to a year and in 2007 Serbia was in top 10 countries at the World Finals taking the 9th place! It was a big success for a small country and incredible members of the Team Serbia – Michael Prodanovich, Fabio Incorvaia, Cesare Vismara, Laszlo Vass, Gimmy Bosio, Rainer Eidner.
In 2003 there was a big race organized again, live covered on TV from helicopter with the stars like Rok Florjancic and Douglas Carvalho. In 2004 one more international successful race took place, with names like Celio Vinicius, Douglas Carvalho (Brasil), Rok Florjancic (Slovenia). In 2006 one race of Alpe Adria Cup was hosted in Serbia, too.
Races were made from a year to a year and in 2007 Serbia was in top 10 countries at the World Finals taking the 9th place! It was a big success for a small country and incredible members of the Team Serbia – Michael Prodanovich, Fabio Incorvaia, Cesare Vismara, Laszlo Vass, Gimmy Bosio, Rainer Eidner.
In 2008 Serbia and Belgrade, in the organization of Jet Ski Association of Serbia, was the host of Royal World Jet Ski Championship at the Ada Ciganlija lake. For that occasion, Jet Ski Association of Serbia bought 12 Kawasaki 15F, Racing Stage 1, so the pilots from far away countries doesn’t have the costs of transporting their jet ski’s. Program was lead by Mike Young, Mark T. Kracker was a race director, Scott Frazier was a guest of honor and USA was represented by Eric Lagopoulos. The whole event was under the patronage of the Serbian Royal family and racers from other Royal countries took a part in this event (Kuwait, Brunei, Holland, United Kingdom, etc.).
And everything was just fine until 2009… Great loos and emptiness for Team Serbia that was stay without their team member Cesare Vismara. The Team Serbia experienced great pain and emptiness having lost their team member Cesare Vismara in a tragic accident. After that year, nothing was the same for Suki. Team Serbia became the Team Cesare Vismara Serbia. Suki spent a year in enormous pain and disbelief, collecting the strength to come to 2010 World Finals. It was very painful and accident was changed Sukis life forever. He decided to devote the rest of his life to the memory of Cesare Vismara, who was posthumously declared for a World Champion and a member of an IJSBA Hall of Fame.
And everything was just fine until 2009… Great loos and emptiness for Team Serbia that was stay without their team member Cesare Vismara. The Team Serbia experienced great pain and emptiness having lost their team member Cesare Vismara in a tragic accident. After that year, nothing was the same for Suki. Team Serbia became the Team Cesare Vismara Serbia. Suki spent a year in enormous pain and disbelief, collecting the strength to come to 2010 World Finals. It was very painful and accident was changed Sukis life forever. He decided to devote the rest of his life to the memory of Cesare Vismara, who was posthumously declared for a World Champion and a member of an IJSBA Hall of Fame.
In 2010 was organized the first race of Cesare Vismara Memorial in Serbia, Belgrade and Suki opened a Cesare Vismara Museum. In 2015 Cesare Vismara was posthumously awarded with the order of honor, according to the Law on Decorations of the Republic of Serbia. Medal was given to Suki by the President of the Republic of Serbia, H.E. Tomislav Nikolic. In April 2015, at the Consulate General of the Republic of Serbia in Milan, Italy, medal was presented to the sister of Cesare Vismara, Melissa.
In 2014, Jet Ski Association of Serbia, led by their President Veljko Sukalo, was start with the petition for getting the street name with the Cesare Vismara in Belgrade, Serbia. Appeal was accepted by the City government and now we are counting the days when one Belgrade street will have name of this rare Champion.
Besides keeping the memory of Cesare Vismara alive, Suki was constantly working on new projects with the purpose to develop and spread jet ski sport, so he established Balkans Jet Ski Federation in the cooperation with Bulgarian Jet Ski Association and since 2011, Serbia has been the host of a Balkan Jet Ski Championship.
Like he was helping to establish a Bulgarian Jet Ski Association, now he is doing the same thing in Montenegro, so IJSBA can have one more member very soon.
He introduced the jet ski sport to the people with the disabilities, organizing training programs for them, same as he doing from a year to a year for the kids. And all this is for free.
During the enormous floods that hit the region of Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia in 2014, Jet Ski Association of Serbia was at the first lane of defense against floods, working with the special police forces to rescue those endangered by floods, to bring them food and medicines. This catastrophe showed us the meaning of jet ski in the conditions of high water, so Association has started to work on this project, with the purpose to organize a unique rescue jet ski force. This project is going step by step and so far, Jet Ski Association of Serbia is carrying out rescue trainings for different sections of the police forces in Serbia.
Today, Suki is blessed with a three daughters and a son, and he is a proud grandfather of two little girls, but you can still find him on a start line competing with pilots in their 20’s…
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