Dog surfing originated in Hawaii and California in the early 20th century. Over the years, the sport gained athletes and attention from the public. Today, pups and people travel all over the world to compete.
After just three weeks of planning and coordinating, on May 2, the city of Pismo Beach held the very first World Dog Surfing exhibition. Since 2016, there has only been the championship held in Pacifica CA., later in the summer.
The Pismo contest had eleven exhibitors: Sammy Jr. (black and white spaniel), Rusty (brown miniature pinscher), Carson (tan terrier), Petey (white westie), Iza (black frenchie), Rocket (white and black frenchie), Callie Girl (white terrier), Annie (small back lab), Rosie (yellow lab), Poncho (white lab), and Jager (red-brown vizsla).
There were seven award categories of the day, which were broken up between five heats of surfers. Heats were broken up by size of breed for the first three, the fourth was a tandem ride (with another dog), and the fifth was a stand up paddle heat, where contestants rode with their owner.
The sponsor of the event was Chef’s Pure Pet. The company awarded the winners of every category with one month of free dog food. Other attending organizations included Woods Humane Society and Lucky Dog Pet Resort. Some of the contestants also had programs that they worked with, others were simply out with their owners.
Poncho was in attendance with his owners and their non-profit Flow Surf Academy. Poncho and his owners, Kim and John Murphy, are from Ventura, where they run Flow Surf. Families can obtain grants from and donate to the program, which allows Flow Surf to put on free “surf-days” and give lessons to local community members with disabilities.
“Many of our families in the community saw this dog surfing contest and wanted to be able to come down and watch Poncho be a part of it,” Kim Murphy said.
The contest was Poncho’s competitive debut. The Murphys had a surfing lab prior to Pocho named
Haole Boy, who was a major influence in them starting Flow Surf Academy.
Rusty and his owner Sophia Sadlowski are from Anaheim. Sadlowski found Rusty on the streets when he was 2 months old and began taking him surfing with her when he was 3 months old. Rusty is now 11 years old and is known for his distinct, leopard print hair coloring. Rusty has his own Instagram and Sadlowski’s goal is to spread positivity to others.
The goal of the event as a whole was to expose people to the sport of dog surfing and involve the community. It attracted local people and pets, and passersby. The beach and pier were full of spectators and community members helping with the event.
Rafael Zamora, a Pismo Beach local, worked as a safety catcher for the day. His job was to catch dogs who fell off of their board and to help them get safely back to their board, the shore, or their owner.
“This is my local break, and one of the other surfers [from here] goes, ‘Hey, by the way, there’s going to be a dog surfing competition here in May,’ and that was it,” Zamora said.
Zamora got in touch with A.K. Crump, the head of the event, and he was offered the opportunity to help and be a part of the encouraging morning.
“The goal [of this event] is to bring the sport of dog surfing to people who like it and to grow the sport,” Crump said.
The World Dog Surfing team hopes to make the event an annual occurrence for the city of Pismo Beach.
