Cerritos Dog Surf Competition

Noelle Matthews
May 25, 2017
3 min read

One month from today– on Sunday, June 25th from 9:30am-12:30pm, the fourth annual Dog Surf Competition will take place at Playa Los Cerritos! The event is exactly what it sounds like: a surfing competition, but with dogs!

All proceeds from sponsorships and t-shirt sales will go to a local dog rescue, Pescy Dogs. There will also be a "donation bag" walking around (it is usually strapped to a dog! haha). This is such a fun event, and it is a great way to give back to the community (by donating), you definitely do not want to miss it if you're in town.

Last year my dog Marshmellow decided to play professional surfer and he entered into the competition. About 6 months before the competition we started by practicing on a boogie board.

Then, about 2 months before the competition, I heard of a "trainer" we could go to– aka a professional surfer with a love for dogs– so we went out a handful of times with Perry, who is seriously THE BEST. If you ever want to learn to surf– as a human or dog, could not recommend him more highly.

Someone even captured a go-pro video of one of Marshmellow's practice sessions. I was impressed with how much MM seemed to enjoy it. Granted, Perry's strategy did involve bacon and petting, so what's not to like?

And here's a video of MM catching a solo wave during a practice session (captured on an iPhone from shore, sorry about the quality).

Then came the big day– I honestly couldn't believe how many people came to watch the event. I totally forgot to take a photo of the crowd, because I was so nervous for my competitor (haha, but seriously). You can get an idea of how many people were on the beach in the drone video further down. The small dogs wore life jackets, the bigger dogs seemed to opt without. My mom even decorated MM's jacket with some hula frills! He won best dressed, haha!

As I was driving from Cabo to Cerritos I came upon a Jeep filled with some friends from my work (Acre at the time). It was so great of them to come and cheer me and MM on, and I was able to get a ton of photos of Marshmellow doing his surfer thing thanks to Raquel (below in the striped skirt) who used my camera to take photos of our heat.

For the most part, Perry stayed on the board with Marshmellow because of how powerful the waves were (after all Marshmellow is only 5lbs)– but he did let him solo ride and I got a photo of it on my phone. Afterwards MM hung out with my friends and got even more cuddles.

I wasn't able to take photos of every competitor because I was preoccupied with my own little surfer, but I happen to catch the eventual top 3 surfers, look through the slideshow below for some of their highlights!

I'm not sure if Marshmellow will compete again this year, I was hoping to just come as a spectator without having to worry or being nervous for my pup (MM seriously loves to surf, I'm the one who is nervous about him on the water!). Either way, we will definitely be on the beach in Cerritos next month to support this wonderful event!

This is Kim Wexman, the woman behind the whole event (and you can see me and MM photobombing in the back!). Thanks to Luis Flores, local photographer who has amazing work, for the shot.

Love, waves, and pups,

Perry & Marshmellow