Location : LMB
Time/Length : am/2.0
Rating : ***
Performance : ***
Board : md 2.0
Notes : I go there early – 7AM – at least early for me on a weekend. Already 10 in the pod at the creek. Only two people at DOX so I suited up and headed there. Glad I did. It was only S and JK and one other woman and there were sets- smallish – waist high – but very nice. We all traded off waves – very civil. People kept packing it in at the creek peak – we laughed because – for a Saturday – it was like we had DOX all to ourselves. Creek folk were all just less than 3 minute paddle away from us – but they stayed put in their crowd. Eventually S and the woman left so it was only me and JK – for a full half hour. Go figure.
Anywho- I noticed a HUGE traffic jam on the road down into the MAR and the beach was getting JAM PACKED. JK told me – it’s the “dog surfing championships” – its gonna be insance. Indeed it was. By the time I got out the beach by the A LOT was jam packed with people and tents. I had never seen SO many people on Linda Mar beach before- I estimated the crowd at 1200 at 945 AM when I was de-suiting. I asked M what gives – because previous iterations of the dog surf/show had drawn only a 100 or so people. He said beginning last year (I must have been away) the organizers had put their social media skills into OVERDRIVE and turned it into not just a California Event – but advertised EVERYWHERE. So the place was full of tourists – dog lovers – that had travelled from every corner of America to see this freakshow. And they all brought their dogs- shepards – dalmations-corgis-beagles- retrievers- pocket book dogs of every size, and pugs pugs pugs.
Cops CLOSED access to the beach -A and B Lot. Norcal lot was way full – as well as Safeway and the
Crespi Civic lot. People were parking in the resident hills above Crespi and walking down in DROVES.
IT WAS INSANE. Beach patrol were vainly trying to get folk to stay away from the shore – but they wouldn’t listen. They all wanted to get a snap of a Corgi in sunglasses being pushed into some white water. Sure enough a set came in and the tide rushed in over the crowd- SCREAMS and barks as people were swept down in a tangle of leashes, dogs and iphone selfie sticks. It was Best in Show on brown Acid. I got this depressing old school Yankee doodle Carny vibe from the whole affair- this shit has been going on since the civil war days in frontier wagons- The Dancing Bear, The Talking Horse, The Tambo-playing Monkey and now The Surfing Dog. Made a video to thye whole affair soundtracked ny the Monkee’s hilarious song buy me a dog https://vimeo.com/852194179
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