The "Festival of Les Piragües," the International Seal Flood this year celebrates its 80th anniversary, the magic date for the Assyrian Piragüism will be August 6. The inscriptions for this classic between Arrionda and Ribadesella can be formalized from the first day of June.

In order to know the origin of the International Seal Decline, it is necessary to go back to 1929, when Dionisio de la Huerta decided to take a piragua tour of the Piloña River, from Coya to Infiesto, during his summer holiday in his family home in Coya. In that adventure he was accompanied by a group of friends, travelling for more than two hours on the journey of 5 kilometres.

Dionysius, and the adventures he organized, was during a time a subject of conversation in Infiesto. Even without knowing it, that adventure had been the seed of the current Seal and the Feast of the Piragüas. Dionisio, not in accordance with the experience lived, made in 1930 the full journey from Coya to Arrionda, and finally, in 1931, he arrived to Ribadesella. It was in 1932 that the exit and goal of the descent were definitely located in Arrionda and Ribadesella, respectively. This year, the first edition of a competitive character took place, in which thirteen palists from Oviedo, Gijón, Ribadesella and Infiesto took out. The first inscription of palists from outside the community arrived in 1935. Descent of the Seal was for a few years unrealized (between 1936 and 1943) due to the Spanish Civil War and the post-war, resumed on August 11, 1944, in which only 11 piranguas took the exit.

It can be said that the Decline of the Seal became international in 1951, when for the first time in its history it has foreign competitors among the registered athletes. Italian, Portuguese and French were among those registered. It is in 1955 that the first team from another continent is registered: the Cuban team. In 1960, it marked a milestone in the history of the Descent, as in that year the Spanish Federation of Piragüismo was created. Thus, a requirement that Dionisio de la Huerta had long requested was heard, to definitely separate the Spanish Federation of Piragüismo from that of Remo, and to guarantee the future of the Feast of Piraguas.

From that time to this part, the Sella's descent has been growing and increasing its prestige. It now has a participation that exceeds the thousands of palists and beating, year by year, records of participation. It is now considered, if not the one most, one of the most important evidence in the world in the international landscape of river decline.

The best time achieved since the 1951 edition was in 2009 by the couple Julio Martínez and Miguel Fernández who achieved 01-01-14. Last year the winners were Walter Bouzán and Alvaro Fernández Fiuza with 01-07-08. By the way, in the fifteenth edition of the year 1951, the winners had been Arturo Castro and Ramón Prieto with 01-45-27, far from today's schedules.

The first foreign victory was the work of Robert de Waele and Jame Frank (Belgium), in 1957 with 01.-35-40. The countries that have achieved gold on the Seal have been Denmark (6), South Africa (3), Belgium (2), Sweden (2), England (2), Australia (1), Switzerland (1) and Portugal (1).

Since 1994, at the initiative of José María Prendes and the Astorian School of Piragüismo, there has been a specific test of "Adapted Dedication." In the test in which the 100 participants are exceeded, it is competed in a sleeve of about 10 km between Arrionda and La Uña,..., to stop from here with all the participants gathered another five km already of competition proper to Llovio, where it ends under the bridge of FEVE. It should be noted that Jonah García with 8 wins is the "King of the Adapted Seal." As for the record of the test, Joás García-Rodrigo Hortal showed that in 2013 they achieved a time of 22,58,260.

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Photographs: Tourism of the Principality of Asturias and the City of Ribadesella