Sports

TRADITIONAL SPORTS OF THE BASQUE COUNTRY

            In the Basque Country there are many sports which have been practised for many years and introduced in to the basque tradition. These sports are called “Herri Kirolak” in Basque which in English means “rural sports”.

            They are normally practised on the countryside of the Basque Country, Navarra and the French Basque Country, but in the most of the cases they are shown in exhibitions not as a real sport competition. Most of them are based on  working activities of the countryside, that have become sports. To practise it you need a good resistance and strength because there are sports like rock lifting and tree trunk cut.

            These are the modalities considered traditional sports of the Basque country:

•         “Ingude altzatzea” (anvil lifting)

•        
“Giza-abere probak” (stone drag) that could be done by horses, by oxes, by donkeys or by people.

•         “Harri zulatzaileak” (borers challenge).

•         “Zaku lasterketa” (sack-race).

•         “Txinga eramatea”(race with weights).

•         “Ontzi eramatea” (race with pots).

•         “Aizkol jokoa” (trunk cut with an axe).

•         “trontza” (trunk cut with a saw).

•        “Lazto botatzea” (package lifting).

•         “Orga joko” (carriage lifting).

•         “Harri-jasotze” (rock lifting).

•         “lokotz biltzea” (corncob pickup).

•         “Sega” (harvest).

       

FOOTBALL IN BASQUE COUNTRY

Football is one of the sports with the highest number of followers and  most people practise it in Basque Country, above all in Bilbao and San Sebastian where Athletic Club and Real Sociedad play at home respectively. In Basque country, football is lived in a different way from the rest of Spain because of a philosophy, especially in Athletic Club from Bilbao, which consists of beginning  to work and train from the lower divisions, then when children get older they reach  the first team made up only with homegrown players. That doesn’t exist on teams that are more known internationally, such as Real Madrid and Barcelona. These teams spend a lot of millions of euros in football stars and then play with the best players in the world.

SURF IN BASQUE COUNTRY 

Surfing is one of the most popular sports in Basque country thanks to an excellent shore for surfing where perfect waves arrive for all levels. So  surf attracts to the Basque beaches more than 20,000 visitors from around the world each year.
The company and brand "pukas" native Basque Country was one of the first to appear in Europe and is currently considered one of the best in the world.
At the global elite we have two pro surfers who are also explorers and adventurers: Kepa Acero and Aritz Aranburu.