Surf Fido, Surf
Catch a wave and … you’re barking on top of the world. Just ask any of the canines that enjoy surfing with their humans
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Bruce DeSoto and Winnie catch another wave
“I started taking Winnie surfing just before the movie,” says DeSoto. “She’s in the beginning and the ending of the movie. And she got paid more than me — $350 every time I took her out, and I got $250. So my wife made me pick her up a roast. “I fed that dog really good, plus the movie guys really treated her well. They gave her the whole redcarpet treatment. It was really nice.”
Winnie is also featured in a Japanese commercial for Nikon cameras.
Surfing is in her blood — she’s DeSoto’s second generation board-mate. Her mom was a surfing dog. And her 2-year-old daughter Princess, a black Lab/pit bull, is also learning to ride.
“Back in the late 1980s, Rell Sunn used to bring her dog Shane to the beach, so I started bringing my dog Baby, and we both started surfing with our dogs,” recalls DeSoto. “Then Brian Keaulana started to bring his baby pig down, and we had a surfing animal contest. That was the first and last time we held that contest, but then I would still take Baby to the beach. “Then Baby had puppies, and from there it was easy to get the dogs in the water because the puppies would watch their mommy go in, and puppies always want to do what their mom is doing.” DeSoto says the key to a good surfing dog is having a dog that listens. And a human who knows what he or she is doing.
“All the dog has to do is sit there. It’s the human who has to catch the wave, stand up and turn,” explains DeSoto, who has surfed his whole life and shapes his own boards. “And if you want to take your dog surfing, you have to try to win their confidence by not wiping out. They trust me so much and that’s why they let me take them out. But once I have a wipeout with them, they’re going to be hesitant and won’t want to go anymore.
Foxy Lady and Eric Olson enjoy some body surfing at Three Tables
“I don’t force the dogs to come surfing with me. They swim out in the water and come on my board on their own. I also have a boy dog, Winnie’s son, but I don’t take him surfing because boys don’t listen that good. The girls listen better.”
Eric Olson’s 3-year-old pure-bred Australian cattle dog/blue heeler, named Foxy Lady, is also a water hound. She currently can be seen on the tube in a Nissan Xterra commercial.
“I was showing the locations director the motocross track in Kahuku when he saw Foxy and told me to come down to the casting for the commercial,” remembers Olson. “Foxy is really special. Her vocabulary is incredible and people are just amazed by her every day.”
Foxy the wonder dog understands about 100 different words — from sit to go and sit in my truck outside. But of all her tricks, her favorite and most exciting is probably body surfing at the beach.
“We live across the street from Three Tables beach on the North Shore,” says Olson. “So we go to the beach every day, otherwise she’ll start nipping at me if I don’t take her and it starts getting sundown.”
Bruce DeSoto gives Winnie a hug after a day of surf
Foxy learned to surf at Waimea Bay, going into the pounding surf — as big as 5-foot (face) shorebreak — as a puppy. She’s able to catch waves on her own, but Olson usually assists her by holding her into place before she launches into the wave. And she’s a great swimmer, sometimes accompanying Olson for a halfmile swim from Three Tables to Waimea.
“One day when Waimea shorebreak was huge, she followed me out to the shorebreak to do her regular thing and I pushed her into three waves. When we came out, my friends were telling me that she was in the tube and fully body surfing,” says Olson about his most memorable surfing experience with Foxy. “This was shorebreak that would scare regular people, but those waves didn’t scare her because she would paddle back out for more. Usually when she’s done, she lets me know by riding a wave in and then she’ll just sit there and watch me.
“After that day, I thought this dog could be on that TV show, That’s Incredible!”
According to the Hawaiian Humane Society, dogs that enjoy surfing with their owners are another great example of how animals have become our family companions.
“As long as the dog enjoys the activity, is not in danger and has been trained to surf using positive reinforcement, we think this is a great way to share your time together,” says Jacque Smith, Hawaiian Humane Society director of community relations.
Moko and Daniel Uchimura at Baby Makapuu
And these pet owners agree.
“I just want my dogs to have fun,” says DeSoto. “And I’m lucky that my dogs have fun in the ocean because that’s what I do.”
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