Who would ever dream that a Doberman would love to surf?

I guess when you name a dog, he will live up to his name. I named my boy “Riptide” because I wanted another dock diving dog. Yes, he loves dock diving but he loves surfing more. It was by accident that I found this hidden talent.

Last July I walked into Walmart and they had all their summer items on clearance. They had “sup boards” (similar to a surf board) marked down to $75. Living in Dallas, we do not have a readily available beach for surfing, but I thought it would be fun to get a couple boards have the dogs try them in my dock diving pool. I tried several of my other Dobermans, but they did not have the balance necessary to stay on the board. Then it was Riptide’s turn. He walked down the ramp and instantly stepped on the board. To my surprise he had natural balance on the surf board. He sat down and I pushed him around the pool. Next, he wanted to stand on the board and when he did, I again pushed him around the pool. I took the board and made small waves to try to get him to fall off, but he adjusted his balance and maintained his position. Riptide was in love with his surf board!

We have a local waterpark that opens one day in September for the dogs. I took Riptide and his surfboard to the waterpark to see if he could ride a big wave. He loved it and also loved to ride the inner tube.

In October, we flew to California for the try-outs for the Lucy Pet Foundation Wave Pool in the Rose Bowl Parade. Unfortunately, Riptide did not qualify. In March, I worked a trip to Cocoa Beach into my business trip in Orlando. When Riptide got to the beach with real waves, he continued to ride his board with impeccable balance. Since we were in real surfing territory, Riptide got a real surf board. I did an internet search to see what opportunities there were for a dog who liked to surf, and I discovered an annual dog surf competition was held each July.

The weekend of the surfing competition conflicted with a dog show, but the decision was not hard for me to make. I entered Riptide in his first surfing competition, the 2017 Ohana Surf Dog Competition in Galveston, TX. There were over 60 dogs and some that were seasoned surf dogs from California. I did not expect much as this was our first competition. We competed in several rounds and Riptide ended up in the finals with three other dogs. WOW! I never thought we would have made it that far. The other dogs were riding the surf board backwards. Riptide had never done that before, but we gave it a try, and he did not care if he was forwards or backwards. He simply enjoyed being on the board on the water. He even rode the board on the nose, which is called a Hang 10. All of this added more difficulty and more points to his score. I had goose bumps with everyone yelling, “Go Riptide!” After ten minutes of surfing and being scored, it was time for the placements. I was overwhelmed when the judges announced that Riptide had won the entire competition. With his win, Riptide became the first Doberman to ever win a surfing dog competition. He also won everyone’s heart at the beach that day. He said, “I am the Big Kanon of this beach.”

It is truly amazing the new adventures that our Dobermans can take us on. Our plans definitely include more trips to Galveston and more surf competitions. I do not know what the future will bring but I do know that we both are having fun doing the surfing. It was something that I stumbled upon, but I think Riptide is glad that Walmart had those boards on summer clearance last year.

By: Deborah Markwardt