Sports La Palma

Basketball
In 2007 the sport of basketball earned the greatest sporting achievements on the island. Since the 1980s it has been practiced on a large scale in schools on the island and has achieved great popularity, especially among young people. Currently, the highest representative of the island, Union Baloncesto La Palma, leads LEB league (2nd league) and plays in the Hall of Miraflores Santa Cruz de la Palma.  The C.B. Aridane militates group B of the EBA league (ranked 4th nationally).  In addition there are other teams playing in regional and local leagues.

Many games that are played on the island are indigenous to La Palma.  Some come from old methods of work, such as the Salto del Pastor which has to do with the way the shepherds descended from the peaks, and Calabazo which involves moving water from one channel to another.

Another sport practiced on the island is Lucha Canaria.  This sport is a fight that takes place inside a circle, usually sand, called the ground.  In it, two fighters try to face each other down.  There is a body on the island that oversees the sport called the Federation of Anti Canaria Island, headquartered in Los Llanos de Aridane.

La Palma has several clubs participating in the Regional League of the Canary Islands Government.  These clubs are:  the Bediesta (of San Andres y Sauces), the Candelaria-Mirca Tedote (of Santa Cruz de la Palma), the Balta (of Brena of High), the San Blas (of Mazo), San Antonio (of Fuencaliente), the Las Manchas (of El Paso), the Aridane (of Los Llanos), the Tazacorte (of Tazacorte) and the Tijarafe-Candelaria (of Tijarafe).

Palo canario
The game of the palo canario is a martial art that is practiced between two players.  Without actually making contact with the body of the opponent, the players fight with sticks. The game originally was not fun, but was a method of combat used by the pre-colonial canarios.

The island of La Palma has two member clubs of the Federation of Palo Game, the El Paso-School Club and the Club Group Galgos.  These clubs participate in the League of Palo Game, where teams compete from La Palma, Tenerife, Lanzarote, Gran Canaria and Fuerteventura.  Despite the lack of many clubs, Palo Canario is still the traditional game played in exhibitions, particularly on religious holidays.  The original style is Garafia Vidal.

Bola canaria
Similar to the French game of boules, bola canaria is not played very much at the local level, but at the regional level in the island there are several teams and athletic fields. Basically the game consists of launching balls that should be left as close as possible to an object called a minga or bowl.  It is played on a rectangular area of sand or soil between 18 and 25 m in length and a width of between 3.5 and 6 m.  In La Palma they love this game, actively participating in the competitions held at both regional and insular levels.

Water Sports
Geographical features of the seabed of the island, along with the high quality of its waters, makes the island a special place for scuba diving.  La Palma is considered the best place to practice diving in the Canaries.  The funds from the volcanic cliffs and palm present underground lava arches.  In some areas, due to great depth, apnea is practiced, Audrey Mestre having achieved the record depth (125 meters) off the coast of Puerto Naos.

Other sports
In addition to the above, other sports are practiced on the island for which the following is a small list:

Cycling.  During the year there are several cycling competitions, including those of mountain biking.

Motocross.  The island has several circuits.  Tests take place routinely, some of them valid for the Regional Championship Motocross de Canarias.

Rally of land.  Throughout the year there are competitions called rally of land, some of which are rated in the Championship Rally Tierra de Canarias.

Football.  Football is the sport par excellence of La Palma and is the sport with the largest number of followers.  The two local teams having the most fans are Club Deportivo Mensajero Sports Society Tenisca in Santa Cruz and Los Llanos de Union Deportiva Aridane in the municipality of the same name.  In total there are 19 federated clubs.  The region of Tenerife Canary possesses the football federation headquarters in the capital of the island.  There is a football club in Santa Cruz de La Palma that is also a member of the federation.

Other minority sports that are an attraction among tourists are paragliding, surfing, hiking and caving.