Friday, October 3, 2025, 01:13
He was the youngest pilot to debut in a national motorcycle to water at 16 – with a paternal permit – to win Spanish championship, a year later, it has been to get a World Cup. Vizcaíno Ian Traba is a portento furrowing the sea at full speed. At 20, at the end of September he conquered the UIM-ABP Aquabike Class Pro offshore World Championship in the Italian town of Torre Dell’orso. In his first participation he made it clear that he was the strongest in the GP3 modality, which brings together the atmospheric motorcycles.
With a team composed of his father, Iñaki Traba, several times champion of Spain, and two friends, was able to overcome the great teams with which this specialty also has. «It was a pride. Because you see other pilots who have a much more powerful infrastructure, with trucks for the transport of all the material, replacement motorcycles and trainers, and you realize that this victory has more merit, ”he said.
It was the first time that he left Spain to compete. And to participate in the World Cup he had to prove through the Spanish Federation that had good results to do so. Traba had already won the national twice and it was his endorsement. The participants had to make four sleeves on the Adriatic waters. Two on Saturday and another torque on Sunday. In each of them 54 laps. Or what is the same, 110 kilometers that tested the resistance of the pilots.
Because in their category all the mounts are practically the same. They reach 110 kilometers per hour. “They have to be standard and you can only touch the switchboard, the entry of water and the propeller,” he emphasizes. And on equal terms, what prevails is piloting. His ‘Yamaha 1.900 Ho’ responded to perfection and the strategy he used. “I placed in the lead in the first minutes to open a hole and then consisted of keeping it.”
Four years ago
On Saturday the sea was a little moved “which is where I develop” and it was done with authority with the first two races. The mechanics responded and locks too. Although getting off the motorcycle suffered a pull on the back that made the alarms jump, a good cream and the rest that was taken allowed him to get to Sunday in good condition. “Although the sea was calmer, I could also win both.” Point out.
In this way he fulfilled a dream that could be little imagined four years ago when, almost by chance, he began to practice this sport. Unlike other pilots who started children with small displacement motorcycles, Berango’s did it with 16 years in confinement. He was encouraged to go out with his father to take a walk in the sea on weekends. He chopped the bug and did not stop. A few months later his baptism arrived in a National event in Benalmádena. “I arrived third in the last lap but I fell and ended sixth,” he recalls.
Since then everything has evolved with the media at their disposal because sponsors scarce. “I only have a Galicia dealership that puts my motorcycle and some help from the Basque Federation.” The rest runs from your account. The gym to strengthen your body and get the demand for each test to combine it with your work in the family business. The trips are also paid. And because of the experience he has, his father acts as a mechanic when they move to the races. «It is very difficult to live on this. There are counted pilots who do it ».
The next 11th 12 will close the season in the Murcian town of Mazarrón. There you dispute the fourth and last proof of the national that at this time leads. He won in Benalmádena and Burriana, and did not go to that of Arcos de la Frontera. Traba wants his third Spanish championship, to add them to the World Cup, to Euskadi, which he achieved in Mutriku, and the European of Getaria. A portent.
