I've seen a lot of surreal scenes in the years since I started shooting Weird Sports. Mexican wrestling comes to mind, as does that insane Tough Guy competition in England. But nothing has been so bizarre as seeing a basset hound surf.
Not only can bassets surf, but they're quite adept at it, simply because of how they're built.
"Low and heavy is good," said Barb Ayers, whose dogs love to hang 10. Or is it 20? "It's especially helpful to be fat and low."
Ayers is an old pro when it comes to dog surfing, even if she won't be competing at the seventh annual Loews Surf Dog Competition this weekend south of San Diego. It claims to be "the nation’s original surfing competition for man’s best friend," and we're not about to argue.
Dog surfing is pretty much what it sounds like. There are four heats. The first is for dogs less than 40 pounds. The second is for larger dogs. Then there's a tandem competition, where dogs surf with their human companions. The final heat brings the winners of those three rounds together to determine the "Ultimate Champion." Dogs and teams have 10 minutes to catch their top two waves. They're scored on confidence, length of ride and overall ability to “grip it and rip it."
I first met Ayers three years ago. I was rolling through California on a Weird Sports tour that included Segway Polo, Lucha Libre and a gay rodeo. (A run-of-the-mill trip in my world.) I'd heard about dog surfing and knew I had to check it out. Ayers caught my eye, mostly because you don't often see someone surfing with a basset. Her energy is fun, wacky and terribly infectious, and her dog, Duke, was super friendly.
Ayers has been surfing for about 20 years, having been inspired by watching Rocky the Surfing Dog in The Endless Summer 2. She hit the waves with Howdy, the basset she had at the time, and never looked back.
"We were doing it back when no one was," she said.
Turns out basset hounds don't much like water. Ayers' second basset, Elvis, was resistant to this weird sport and took two years to come around. "He got the basset memo: 'We basset hounds don't do water,'" Ayers said. But in what had to be a cosmic karmic twist, Elvis caught his first wave the same day Ayers scattered Howdy's ashes.
I never got to see Elvis surf. It seems he was not pleased with the waves. But the Dude abided, stepping in to take his place. He and Ayers finished third in the tandem division.
"Dude goes 'Pick me. Pick me!'" Ayers said. "He was a natural."
If you are a dog and you live with Barb, you surf, simple as that. You also wakeboard, stand up paddleboard and ride on surfboards in parades.
"Dog surfing is our attempt to connect with nature," said Ayers. "'Weird Sports' is my middle name."
The Dude is now 10 and suffers from glaucoma — "He looks like a pirate," Ayers says — but he still hits the waves from time to time. He and Elvis have a new surfmate, a 1-year-old Dotson named Doodle. Ayers is on the DL with a torn rotator cuff, so she won't be competing this weekend in SoCal. But if you want to check it out, it's free. Eddie would go.
