The emotion of the tables returned yesterday to Icod de los Vinos after a year of hiatus forced by the coronavirus pandemic. The sound of the tea boards, more traditional, and the fastest, covered with fiber or methacrylate, gliding through the streets has returned. The Plane, Hercules or The French, where quarry is made with the little ones. He has returned with the same enthusiasm and adrenaline as always, but in a few days without a street party, without beach bars, without grills and with controlled capacity, mandatory use of masks and limited hours. A few different tables in which, even, queues were formed to enjoy the show in El Plano.
Fifty, forty, young, teenagers, a 9-year-old girl or a 15-month-old baby. All agreed this Monday sliding down the steep El Plano street on a table. Some as The black tea, over 40 years old and pulling traditional boards to “go back to being children again.” The little ones were seen going down with care or accompanied, learning techniques and experiencing new sensations. Among the youngsters, many experts in speed, jumps, 360-degree turns and wheelie braking. The most intrepid, with no more brake than a mountain of tires.
The mayor of Icod de los Vinos, Francis González, I had already warned that the side that put limits on the feast of San Andrés In 2021 he had dictated it “with all the pain” in his heart, forced by the restrictions still imposed by the pandemic of the Covid-19. The organization worked, but the influx of the public overflowed the capacity of the streets with hardly any space for the public. The long lines generated complaints. In the Consistory they hope that in 2022 normality will finally return.
“We get on a board and we are children again”, explains a member of ‘Los tea negra’
In the early hours of the afternoon it was possible to contemplate the show and tradition without stress, which allowed Patricia, 42 years old; his youngest son, barely 15 months old, and his niece Leire, 9 years old, enjoy the descent of El Plano on their traditional black tea boards. “We live at the top of this street and, as a tradition, we teach all the boys and girls in the house to jump on the board. Leire, for example, has been lying here since she was three years old, like me. It is a family tradition», Explained a proud Patricia.
While he was still debating whether to take out or not to take out the Knight 2000, the large plank of five meters in length with capacity for about ten people, Miguel Angel he enjoyed the return of the tables to Icod. «We really wanted to. This is a bit decaffeinated, but thank God the City Council has done a great job and they have been able to celebrate. There was a great desire to crawl. Regarding the influx of public, he points out that most of the protagonists of the party prefer not to have many people, since that increases the danger and the risk of accidents.
«Take out the Knight 2000 this year will be very complicated due to sanitary restrictions. There is desire, but sanity slows us down a bit. We all have to be very close and we would need to keep the masks all the time. I do not know. It is as difficult as schedules are met and people stop crawling at midnight, “he emphasizes. Miguel Angel, father of a three-year-old boy whom he also led to enjoy the tradition in a calmer and safer way, “so that the torch would run through his veins.” As a good neighbor on Calle El Plano, he only asks for a vacation for the two days of the Icod stage, on November 29 and 30: «I don’t have another party in the year. Neither carnivals, nor Christmases, nor end of the year, my thing is the tables. This is what I have sucked.
Pablo, another young Icodean, has been crawling on a board since he was “two or three years old.” It also never fails and this Monday he returned excited to enjoy the table he made with his friends at home. His is a typical table of the 21st century. Small, with a layer of methacrylate so that it slides more and with two side bars to raise it in the jump and facilitate braking before the tires. Some use a foam cushion to cushion the impact a bit after jumping.
For Pablo, “the feeling of jumping cannot be explained in words. You have to live it. It is adrenaline and a unique feeling. The best time with this board is the jump. With the plank that I have with my friends to launch us down Hercules Street, reaching the tires is also impressive ».
Nicolas and Aroa they crawl “from a very young age” and already had a “desire to return.” The boards are prepared “two or three weeks before the party” and for days some people have ventured to try them “out there.” Gloves are essential for stroking curbs and asphalt; old clothes to avoid regrets, and “a few pairs of tennis shoes because they wear out,” as Fran emphasizes, who knows this well because in 2019 she destroyed “five pairs of tennis shoes.” And the excitement continues today.
Day and night of pots
The eve of the day of San Andrés was also enjoyed with the dragging of boards in other localities such as La Guancha, Garachico or El Tanque, and with another noisy tradition, that of running the pot, especially rooted in municipalities of the Valley of La Orotava and of the region of Acentejo. The little ones took out their pots in numerous educational centers that, for years, have joined this festive tradition. Already in the afternoon, and at the beginning of the night, the pots resounded in many corners of the North. Almost anything metallic that makes noise will do. Old cauldrons, lids or cans of soft drinks or oil tied to a rope rival authentic works of art made to make noise in the night of new wine and chestnuts