“To think that eight years ago we would already have the Traineras Women’s League... I remember saying in the club itself, “Will we take the trainee of the boys and get out to try it?” They are words of Amaia Gezala, a 24-year-old natural from Hondarribia (Gipuzkoa) and who started to reunite at the Club de Remo de Hondarribia in 2000. In the last three or four years we have told him that the rowing of the girls lives the boom and he has put things in his place: “In general, there may be more shemale girls now, although in our club we have not noticed any increase. In Euskal Herria the trainera is the referent of the rowing and it seems that now we have started the girls to row”. Now we see them on TV, as they did not before.

The Federation of Rowing of the Basque Country was founded in 1985 and by then the girls were already engaged in rowing. The Spanish Federation of Remo has received the results of the girls from the trainera of 1980, among which are the Gipuzkoan reams. In the female rowing the trainera is very new and until recently they have been on the moving stage, in bateles (four rails and pattern) and in trainerillas (six rails and the pattern). In the Cantabrian, without comparison, it is in Gipuzkoa where the rowing has the largest spin in history and where the number of girls has risen the most. The Federation of Gipuzkoa made 86 female licences in 2003. So far this year, it has produced a total of 276, taking into account the mobile seat and the fixed seat.

I. Women Txingudi Flag, starting point

The Bay of Txingudi, in September 2005, was held in Hondarribia a festival in which girls participated in the trainera. Hondarribitarras claim the Txingudi Flag as the first female traineras competition. Amaia Gezala recalls the summer of 2005: “We play Galician, Biscayan and Gipuzkoan. We were training in summer. I don’t know if there are images then, but they will be visible.” This flag was organized for several consecutive years.

In 2008, the Basque Government asked the remers whether they would prepare the trainera for the Expo in Zaragoza (Spain) exhibition. Maika Tameron was there. This sportsman of Hibaika Arraun Elkartea, from Errenteria (Gipuzkoa), has been retreating in Orio waters for 18 years. Remember that the experience of Zaragoza was beautiful: “We gathered together a number of Tolosa, Errenteria, Pasai Donibane and Getaria rowers to prepare Zaragoza’s Pasai Donibane. It seemed that in Gipuzkoa there was potential to do more things on traineras. That same year the race was held in La Concha. Then the clubs started to move, because there were girls.” In recent years, the trainera has gained momentum, with no intention of stopping, as the girls themselves have told us quite clearly. Another thing is how the beginnings have been in what has so far been the sport of men, and how they draw the future.

Teloneros

We have heard this word on more than one occasion from women and also from some male coach. Joxeba Aristi, who trained the girls of Zumaia, told us: “They always come behind men. It will have to rain a lot to say something like this. ‘Today there is a race of women in Zarautz’. That is, girls have started traineras, but as they take advantage of male infrastructures, contests, montages to broadcast on TV, etc. Rowing is an expensive sport for extraordinary competitions. Maika Tameron gives us an example of a telonero: “At the Concha, the end of Sunday is very sad. When the girls enter the port there is no one, they're all getting ready to see the boys. The Saturday, from the classification, is very nice, a lot of people go to see and we are alone.”

Errenteriarra Tameron has many complaints and demands to do, but he has made it clear that the important thing has been to start in the trainera in one way or another. The La Concha Flag and the EuskoTren League are broadcast on TV, and they like it more or less, because there's someone on the small screen. A rower from Zumaia has explained the influence of television very well: “You go to Concha and you see a lot of red t-shirts. At the most, they will see the mother and the cousin.” The media, in general, seems that the EuskoTren League is shaking the clubs’ phones, and especially at the arrival of Concha and the girls, and also the boys, have already played flags and championships in bateles and trainerillas. For Tameron, traineras' competitions have been developed in a hurry and there have been times of confusion. Starting to list errors, the list is long: The First Regata de La Concha was very bad sea and still played; the classification is made on Saturday afternoon and the final on Sunday morning, both programs are too close. The EuskoTren League is facing its third edition this year and there have always been great ups and downs. Ane Pescador is 19 years old and despite being from Errenteria, he reams at the Koxtape of Pasai Donibane (Gipuzkoa), where he resides. He is very critical of the EuskoTren League: “It’s the League of Jokes. It started that way and at the last moment to show on television that we women are replacing. They say it's the league of the best, but if we participate in territorial selections, there's not the best. There is no real competition and there is a risk that the viewer will not take our own seriously.” Last year, the girls became angry with another decision: the girls prepare half the boys' distance to compete, so at last year's Euskadi Championship the federation unexpectedly decided that the girls would make the same distance as the boys. From a sporting point of view, it has neither feet nor heads.

What needs to be done?

What are your needs? We asked the girls. Normalcy is what rowers ask, for example, to have a fixed timetable, as it has been so far, and to know what competitions, how and when they will be held throughout the season. The Hondarribitarra Amaia Gezala goes further: “We want to paddle and play the leagues normally, enjoy and walk outside the debates. I don’t want the EuskoTren League to advertise me, I want to compete.” Training and, above all, competing.

The girls complain about the mistakes that the organizers have made, of being considered second-rate, of walking with little care... In many other things, however, girls do not have the clear things either, and in the sport that is male from the start there is much to do or at least to ask. Should girls travel the same distance as boys? Given that the size, weight and size of the boys and girls are different, should the packaging have the same dimensions? And the paddles?

Yes, not in decision-making areas

To prepare the report we spoke with the director of the EuskoTren League that organizes the Association of Traineras Clubs, the president of the Guipuzkoan Federation of Remo and the sports director of the Provincial Council of Gipuzkoa. To get the phones from the remers, we've gone to the club presidents and the coaches. They're all men. As pointed out by the sports director of the Provincial Council, Iñaki Ugarteburu, women are engaged in the sport organised by men and, although they claim, they are not at the most important decision points.

Shortly after the end of last year’s La Concha Flag, the City Hall convened club managers and remers to a meeting. Maika Tameron really liked this gesture: “Women must be asked, for example, how we want La Concha and EuskoTren. The decisions are made by clubs, almost all of them are men and quite older. They take care of the club, but not so much of the girls' rowing. After the Concha we were called to gather our opinion and that is very good.” Tamerón mentioned clubs, but in the direction of Hibaika there are four women and four men, as the club recalled.

When it is said in the decision-making areas that the balance of men and women is very one-sided, they refer to organizations of a higher rank than that of clubs. Five years ago, Tameron started as a representative of Hibaika in the League that manages the Rowing Association of the Cantabrian River and says they looked at him strangely, “because he was younger and was a little girl than them,” although he is not the only girl. He says that he has gained respect and now, on their proposal, he is the secretary of the management. Find it difficult to be at decision points: “Mine is an isolated example, in the leagues you see a little bit of participatory movement, but I don’t know why in the federation I see it difficult. On the other hand, we too have to be faster, we have to take responsibility in clubs and we do not do so. To reach the Federation and other places you have to start by clubs.” The two youngest rowers we've interviewed don't have a club and a coach to sell. The lie told us: “More a problem than the absence of women representatives of coaches and clubs is that they are not present at meetings at the level of Gipuzkoa, where important decisions are made.” Ane Pescador, for his part, says: “In our club there is representation of women. The coach is a man, but he knows full well how we live the rowing girls, and he is the first to make demands on our behalf.”

Ane Pescador, Koxtape replacement, is 19 years old and knows that the elderly lived many more unfair situations: “Things have changed a lot, so the girls of the past tell us. For example, for the Spanish Championship, children’s boys and senior girls were ranked and girls were not taken to the Championship.”