FUERTEVENTURA MAGAZINE hoy
PORTADA / FRONT COVER / DAS TITELBILD Dayda and Iballa Ruano – Canarian Windsurfing Champions
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The sea is our office! FMHOY - Fuerteventura After a lesson with the Ruano Daida and Iballa sisters, we were able to have a chat with them for a few minutes and find out about those international sportswomen who spread the image of the Canary Islands all over the world. When did you start practising this sport? Dayda – At 17 years of age, quite late in fact, if you compare it to the age that children start nowadays, between 8 and 10 as there is now material and schools specialised for them. We did not have this opportunity. You were born in Gran Canaria, weren’t you? D. – Yes, we lived by the beach of Pozo Izquierdo, which is a mythical beach for windsurfing on international level. From our youngest age we used to watch surfers, but with the impression that it was a sport reserved for tourists or people from the elite. Iballa – No one from our age used to practice this sport, no schools, there wasn’t any culture around this sport and in our village no one use to practice it. How did you start? Did you meet an instructor? D. – It was really strange. We always used to take the waves with our “buggie” from the youngest age. There was always wind which was our worst enemy. One day a neighbour from Pozo went to throw away in the bin a learning board that was very big and heavy, it was a old fashioned model and when he saw us he gave it to us so that we could try it out. This is how it happened with three friends we spent the afternoon taking turns as we only had on set of equipment and we used to swap every half hour. No instructor and no experience? I. – Without anyone, only from what we had watched from tourists, read in magazines and very little else and within two years we were already competing at worldwide level. This is lucky that you both took to the same sport. This makes sure you motivate one another. I. – We have always been keen on sports, we used to practise athletics together, and we played basketball together for five or six years, we have always had common interests. D. – Yes, being together has helped us a lot. Since 1997, which was when we had our first competitions, we have kept on competing together. How many times have you competed at international level? I. – The First World Championship was in 1997, and I got to third position in the waves. It has been about 13 years in total. D.- During that year I was recovering from a knee injury which means that I stayed away from the boards. From 1998 onwards we started having our own spon-
sors and this is when we did the full circuit, which consists of various challenges to accumulate the required points to end up in the final. This requires a lot of travelling which means that you need sponsors. I. – Although some of the challenges of the worldwide circuit are organised here in the Canaries with various disciplines; it is necessary to travel in order to gain experience in various locations, different seas and conditions: cold, heat, waves, wind, etc. Despite being as young as you are, you have travelled to many countries, haven’t you? I. – We have been to Japan, Australia, Indonesia, Hawaii, United States, and almost every European country. As a novelty, we will go to Brazil for the first time in November. D. – Speaking with a friend, we were telling her that we have matured a lot by travelling to so many countries. It has been a way for us to make friends all over the world and it has made us decide to live our lives differently, the sea is our office! But overall, over the past few years we have been able to value our love for our home, as we are now more settled. We now enjoy being with our family here. I. – There is nowhere like the Canaries, after visiting so many places, we really appreciate our home land.
Is it true that the Windsurfing world is quite sexist? D. – Yes, very much so, there are many financial differences between the prizes for men and women championships. The big sports businesses are the ones who make the most differences although there are more and more women and we keep on getting better. We need to fight harder. Despite the fact that we have 19 world prizes amongst both of us, when a fifteen year old boy wins a challenge, not a circuit, he will earn more money than we do. I. – Thankfully Caja Canarias, Volkswagen Commercials, the Ayuntamiento of Santa Lucia, Baker & Makenzie, Starboard, Severne, Islas Canarias, Dwardf8, Flying Objets and Roxi sponsor us, otherwise we would have had to give up a long time ago. It is surprising that although this is such a difficult sport, women are not fairly evaluated. I. – Yes, is it tough, because although on a physical level is it almost impossible to compare our strength to that of men, women make up for it with technique. D. – We are often compared with men because we have a lot of control but men naturally have more strength than we have. We have our own style and we are just as radical with our work, but…we are women!