Aizkolariak, Basque axemen competitions and bets, and more

[Ugaldie]

I have talk about the most interesting rural sports events you can find in San Fermin festival in Pamplone. There are some more like another modality of bale lifting.

Or adze cutting.

A little mention about this last photo, that log is a kana-erdi (40cm in diameter) beech log. Note an axemen would cut it in a single cut, but that adze is not as powerful and efficient as an axe so the "adzeman" had to but it using two cuts.

But after I end talking about what you can find in San Fermin I would like to do a special mention about an exibition, plank cutting. I don't know how is this work named in English, I have call it plank cutting but if I need a correction it will be wellcome.

They make this type of exibition about what was a very common profession all over the world once upon a time, but sadly actually almost forgotten for all humans.

They cut some boards in an exibition showing how did coordinate both sawers in order to achieve the most correct planks.

That's all, I think I have shown San Fermin is more than bulls, a semi-chaotic but civilized huge party or any other topic. I hope you have enjoyed it and if I have encouraged somebody to come to see woodcutting or rural sports in general I hope we'll meet next year in these events. Have a good day!

 

[Ugaldie]

I have a little bit time for another short post, so here we go.

Next big festival were you can find this type of competitions and exibitions will be the festival of Gasteiz.

You will find them in the Foruen Enparantza. This is what you can see day by day.

July 25th preceding the festival, tug of war and cob gathering in friendly competitions between young friend groups of the city.
August 6th axemen competition, stone and anvil lifting.
August 7th men test, cob gathering only by women, txingak by both gender and bag race. This last one is with the bag on the back filled with weigth to emule smugglers.
August 8th axemen competition, cart and stone lifting.
August 9th oxen, horse and men test, women rural sports exibition.

To make an idea about what you can see here you have a video of the year 2014.

 

[Square_peg]

Hi, Jon. Something you should know - you're posts are so image heavy that the page takes forever to load. For this reason I am often skipping over most of your new posts. I enjoy your posts but when the page won't load it's just too frustrating.

 

[Ugaldie]

Thank you for the advice, I'll take it in account for the next posts.

 

[Moonw]

Same here. As much as I like the thorough documentation in pictures, on anything but a computer with fast Internet it takes a lot of time to load.

 

[Ugaldie]

A lot has happened since the last time I wrote here. One of the most sound was the challenge Xabier Zaldua made to any axemaker, he suggested a combined bet consisting in log cutting and running. Two challenger appeared, Xabier Orbegozo and Joxean Etxeberria.

Xabier Orbegozo (Arria 5th) is at his best form for this type of challenges. In March he marked a record cutting 20 logs in a row and running 20 kilometers, you can see it here. Now the work is just half of it, 10 logs in a row and 100 laps to the bullring (10 kilometers).



Xabier Zaldua trained hard and expectations were high. Only Zaldua himself choosed the woods, when only one part chooses the woods he has some advantage if he knows how to manage it. They allways cut beech but who chooses can choose any type of wood adjusting his strategy to it.

They bet 4000€ each other. The weather was cold and wet through all the challenge. Here you have a video of the challenge,

I'll talk a bit more about this bet next time. The next bet vs Joxean Etxeberria will be played tomorrow, let's see how do they perform.

 

[Ugaldie]

As it's said here one challenge opens the way to another one. After the bet between Zaldua and Arria 5th some expectators went to have dinner with each other.


Image taken from here.

As it's common they surely started challenging each other and a bet came from it. Two Segovians named Jose Benito and Daniel España will compete versus two Basques named Alex Azkargorta and the axemaker Arkaia, the one who Brute Forge axes has had some polemic little time ago. The challenge will consist in an hour work, first they will cut 10 beech logs in a row, then they will cut grass with scythe. The couple who cuts more grass kilos will win. If Basques win Segovians will pay them 1000€, if Segovians win Basques will give them 1000 and a young goat. The bet will take part in the spring of 2018 in the Basque province of Gipuzkoa

 

[Ugaldie]

12/30/2017 The bet between Josean Etxeberria and Xabier Zaldua.

Both are axemen but 40 years old Zaldua is more used to run so when they negotiated the bet they agreeded to cut the same quantity of logs but 22 years old Etxeberria would run less. So each one had to cut 10 beech logs 40cm (15,75 inches) in diameter and them Zaldua will have to run 10 kilometers (100 laps) but Etxeberria 8,6 kilometers (86 laps). The winner will win 6000€.

The advantage Zaldua gave to Etxeberria is quite big, he had to pass the opponent 14 times to win the bet. Etxeberria is not used to run, so the risk is big but it looked like well calculated.


Photos taken from here

The bet started well, it was a bit hot but otherwise the weather was perfect.




Both started cutting at good rythm. Zaldua performed well, Etxeberria was not the favorite but he ended cutting the logs 1 minute and 39 seconds earlier.



This is a big advantage for someone who has so much advantage in the next part of the bet. But as I said Zaldua is a better runner.



But the advantage was too big, both pressed as much as they could. Even he had some problems Etxeberria showed again he had prepared the challenge pretty well and he ended 5 minutes faster than Zaldua.

Both ended broken and both congratulated each other for the work done.




Local TV retransmitted the event, here you have it,

http://www.eitb.tv/eu/bideoa/herri-...-korrika-saioa--zaldua-/-etxeberria-desafioa/

 

[I'mSoSharp]

Thanks for the updates Ugaldie, interesting stuff.
One day I'll get there to see some of this I hope.

 

[Ugaldie]

Thank you I'mSoSharp , here is commonly thought the time of the hardest challenges has passed. Those challenges like Luxia trying to cut a beech 2,1 meters (6,9 feets) in diameter,

Or the hard and dry gum tree Latasa cut in Lekeitio




Images taken from the excelent book of Atton Espelosin "Ramon Latasa Basoko Aizkolaria"

Or the hardest axemen challenge ever, were Migel Mindegia and Joxemari Mendizabal cut each one 52 beech logs 40cm (15.75 inches) and 6 beech logs 82.76cm (32.58 inches) in diameter in a row.



But don't worry there will be a lot of challenges worth to see in the next years.

 

[Ugaldie]

It looks like we'll have another axemen challenge this year

3th of January Arria 5th (an axeman harder than the steel of his axes) challenged Iker Vicente (a very young but excelent axeman) to a 6000€ bet consisting in cutting 30 beech logs 40cm (15.75 inches) in diameter in a row.

40 years old Arria 5th

20 years old Iker Vicente, note he is the only axeman who competes in Basque axemen competitions and Timbersports in high level at the same time

They met 5th of January at the Kantabriko bar of Tolosa. After negotiations they agreed to compete 8th of April in the bullring of Tolosa in a 6000€ bet consisting in cutting 12 beech logs 40cm (15,75 inches) and 8 beech logs 44.3cm (17,44 inches) in diameter in a row.

Arria 5th will provide the small logs Iker the big ones, no advantage for anyone.

Arria is more used to what we call here "kanaerdiko" logs, 40cm, he wanted to cut as many as he could to take advantage of his greater stamina. Iker is an excelent all around axeman, he tried to change the bet in his favour proposing 14 40cm and 8 oinbiko (53cm or 20,9 inches) logs. Arria is not as used to bigger logs so they agreed what i have explained before.

Arria is very used to bets and challenges, Iker has won several championships but this is his first bet. As everyone who has participated in this types of events say bets and challenges are not championships, they are something different, they affect your guts in a different and stronger way. Expectations are high, let's hope both of them appear in their best shape in order to see a clash of giants.

 

[FOG2]

This is a Great thread Thank You for sharing it with us!

 

[Ugaldie]

I'm glad you like it FOG2 , there are plenty of theads I'm continuing and I want to take part so I dosify my time between them. But don't worry my intention is to continue with this thread as much as I can.

Let's talk a bit about another rural sport we the Basques feel very ours, scythe competitions. These competitions are different to what you can encounter in other places. International scythe competitions consist in cutting small grass areas as well and as fast as you can. The one who cuts the first doesn't necessarily win in Basque competitions, in order to make a more fair play the one who cuts the most grass weight in a given time wins the competition.

The scythes used are different too, as I know hard steel scythes are used in non Basque competitions, please correct me if this information is not completely correct. Traditional soft working steel scythes are used in Basque competitions, the same steel you can find in your grandfather scythes, but they are bigger than the standard ones.

Continuing with the timeline I was some months ago July 23th 2017, Gipuzkoan scythe championship knockouts.

Work to do is to cut as much grass as they can in 30 minutes, each contender has at his disposal an area of 920 square meters (9903 square feets). If a contender cuts his area before the stipulated 30 minutes time is over for all, unless the one who finishes his area has done one or more faults (like leaving parts of uncut grass in his area) as we see in the first knockout of the next video. The one who cut most in these knockouts cut 1480,5 Kg or 3263,9 pounds of grass in half an hour.

http://www.eitb.tv/eu/bideoa/herri-...34/sega--euskadiko-txapelketa--kanporaketak-/

 

[300Six]

Thank you. Those are ominous-looking implements, and the attendants field sharpening those blades are efficient! I noticed some of these gentlemen compete in bare feet. You wouldn't think there'd be any advantage to that.

 

[Ugaldie]

3 300Six your position is degraded when you use shoes and you can make stronger blows this way using the technique they use. Note some of them have started using barefoot running socks.

Scythe tradition has almost been lost in the last decades, but you can still find severall people in each valley who still use scythes homesteading. Not only grass is cut using scythe, fern was once upon a time a very used plant in homestead. One of its uses was in the floors of the stables, it heats and is used as bed by the cattle and it makes stable cleaning easier. Once you take it out mixed with cattle manure it's a very good fertilizer, there are different recipes which boost fertilizing even more but as I said stable seasoned fern mixed with cattle manure is a very good fertilizer by it's own. Here you have how it's still cut and dried by those who still use it.

 

[Ugaldie]

A video has been published about how where the negotiations in the bet between Iker Vicente and Arria 5th. In order to explain how does this work I'll try to translate what you can see, read and listen here.

I love the video title, it literally means half of the bet is win in the table, it refers you can win a bet due to a good negotiation. You can see a clear example in the bet between Josean Etxeberria and Xabier Zaldua.

Negotiations use to take part in a bar or restaurant. Each contender appears there with helpers, we call them the negotiating group. They use to be axeman's most trusted men, sometimes they only help the axeman and they stay most of the time quiet (not the most usual behaviour), sometimes axeman barely talks and his helpers do all the work. It can be any of both or anything between, it's up to each axeman, his helpers and their strategy.

This time each axeman main helper was his own father. Arria 5th appeared with a historical axeman known in his days all around the world, Arria 2nd.

Iker Vicente's main helper was his father Daniel Vicente. Not very known by his Basque axemanship but he's an experienced Timbersport axeman. He's the man in black.

Time is over, I'll continue next time.

 

[Ugaldie]

Xabier proposed a bet consisting in cutting 30 kanaerdiko (40cm/15,75inches in diameter) beech longs in a row by each contender. Note 40 years old Xabier is used to kanaerdiko logs and he suffers with bigger logs. 20 years old Iker is an excelent overall axeman so he will try to negotiate to cut bigger logs in order to take advantage.

Negotiations start with Iker proposing to cut 14 kanaerdiko and 6 oinbiko (53cm/20,9 inches diameter), the equivalent to cut 30 kanaerdiko. Xabier has had bad experiences with oinbiko logs, he says a contundent no to this proposal. Daniel responds saying a contundent no to all kanaerdiko logs, if you want kanaerdikos in the bet they have to be mixed logs he says.

Xabier responds saying he can admit cutting 6 to 8 logs less than his 30 kanaerdiko proposal. Daniel responds 16 60 ontzako (44,3cm/17,44 inches in diameter) logs, same work as cutting 30 kanaerdiko. He proposes they will provide all the logs, note who provides the logs is in advantage. You can choose easier/more difficult or more or less seasoned or knotty (or not) beech. Daniel is a good negotiator.

They start arguing, each one wants to cut only a type of wood again, Iker bigger ones, Xabier medium ones. Daniel wanted to negotiate more but Iker stops him proposing to do the same work with each type of logs. Xabier accepts 12 beech logs 40cm/15,75inches and 8 beech logs 44.3cm/17,44inches in diameter, same work as cutting 24 kanaerdiko (40cm) beech logs. Iker will provide big logs Xabier medium ones.

They talk about the data and location of the challenge, both agree April 8th in the bullring of Tolosa, the bullring of Azpeitia is choosen as 2nd option in case of any problem with Tolosa. Xabier proposed to bet 5000€, Daniel 8000€, they agree 6000€. Xabier made a lower proposal than his first 6000€, may he be a bit nervous due to the bigger logs?

At this point Arria 2nd enters the negotiation, he tries to achieve each contender providing half the logs of each type. This is uncommon, the normal procedure is each contenderto provide a type of logs or all the logs are provided by only one part. May he be worried about the big logs Iker will provide? The video is cut in several ocasions this is one of them, they agree each contender providing a type of log as they did before. We can't see all the negotiation about this point, it would be interesting to see it, it's a pity whe can't.

They agree a document consisting in this points,

1.- Data and location, we know it.
2.- Work to be done, we know it. As usual they agree to met the day before in the bullring to prepare the logs.
3.- Other considerations. As usual each axeman can have two helpers, one of them can help the axeman proposing were to swing the next blow with a stick. The logs have to be provided with unaltered bark, if the logs have any type of imperfection like knots, crack, branches... those imperfection will have to be grinded when logs are reduced to the given measure.

At this point Arria 2nd points they haven't agreed if the wood has to be green or not. They cut the video here again, it's a big pity. It looks like Xabier's father wants green wood in order to make the work easier, but we don't know it for sure. We don't know what do they agree, but be sure Iker and his team will take advantage of this point and if they can do it and it matches their strategy they will field seasoned wood.

4.- Each contender bets 6000€, tickets income and all outlays will be shared. They agree the owner of the bar they are negotiating in will be the money keeper. Each one will give him 1000€ the same day of the negotiation (you see it in the video), 2500€ two months before the bet, last 2500€ 72 hours before the bet.

5.- If any of the contender has any health problem he can present a medic documment in the local rural sports federation 72 hours before the bet (note the federation is involved, this means both of them will have to do an antidopping test hen they end the bet. This is standard procedure). The bet can be delayed two weeks at most, the one who chooses this option will have to add 300€ more to the bet. If one of the contenders requests a delay in the 72 hours before the event it's up to the other contender to accept it or not. If he accepts the same procedure cited before s applied. If he doesn't accept it the weak contender has to appear to the challenge or he will lose all the money he has already deposited and it will count as a lost challenge.

I know this can be a long and dense read for those of you not interested in it but I wanted to explain this to the detail for the interested ones. These negotiations have been calm and civilized, some of them are not as much. Take this as a model of how do bets take form. Feel free to take this as a base if any of you ever organize any type of simmilar challenge, please make us know about it. If anyone dares to challenge these men don't hesitate to make me know it, I'll contact or try to find a local contender to make him contact you.

 

[Ugaldie]

Test message to try if I can write here. It looks like I changed some permissions and nobody could respond this thread.

By the way, feel free to ask about anything you want to know about I'm writting here.

 

[Ugaldie]

As I said before Iker is an axeman to follow. He is one of the best here and he doesn't perform bad in the other part of the world. Take a look to this,

Let's see what has he have to say about himself. Forgive his English, mine too, this is our third language and lack of day to day usage ravages our fluidity and something more.

 

[Ugaldie]

Do you remember the combined axe/scythe bet? I forgot to mention Basques are amateur axemen but one of them in a relatively experienced scytheman, Spanish are axemen but they are unexperienced with the scythe.

Basques are training hard with the axe.

Meanwhile Spanish are trying to train with scythe in Segovia. There is not any grass they can cut so they improvise. I can't publish the video here, so take a look to this, it worths to see it.