Dog Surfing Hilarity Conquers Flagler Beach as Chi-weenie, Corgis and Costumes Thrill to 4th Hang 8 Extravaganza

Ocean the Chi-weenie surfed two perfect 10 rides in league with his human, Palm Coast resident JJ Crane, to win the Human/Dog Tandem Surfing category at the 4th Hang 8 Dog Surfing Extravaganza.

Ocean also won the Small Dog Surfing category as well as Best Wave in both the Small and Human/Dog Tandem categories, making the Chi-weenie the most decorated canine at the event, which drew hundreds of people, and almost as many canines, to the competition held Saturday in Flagler Beach just south of the Pier. The six-hour event combined hilarity with humane causes against a picture-perfect backdrop of blue skies, blue oceans and gentle waves perfectly calibrated to surfing paws.

Winnie, a petite brown dog, won the costume contest by strutting across the judges’ stage with an entourage and a carriage fit for royalty. The showboating Winnie impressed the judges enough to beat out the crowd’s sentimental favorite, Minus the Tripod, a three-legged dog who moved from Harrisburg, Pa., to Flagler Beach three years ago with his owners, Amber and David Jones.

Corgis, a Doberman fittingly decked out in faux human police gear, French Bulldogs, English Bulldogs, Schnauzers and numerous other breeds made the scene, with some canines taking to the water to compete atop surfboards, while many more dogs were content to watch the action from the shore.

The Hang 8 event (the name is a play on the human surfing term “hang 10,” which means to ride a surfboard with all ten toes curled over a board’s front edge) benefits three area animal aid organizations, with 100 percent of proceeds going to K9s for Warriors, the Flagler Humane Society, and S.M.A.R.T. of Flagler County (Saving Missing Animals Response Team).

Hang 8 co-founder Suzie Johnston said funds come from sponsors, dog surfing and costume contest entry fees, and spectator donations, but that the tally had not been completed as of early Saturday evening. An estimated attendance had also not been calculated as of late Saturday, but Johnston added that numerous attendees told her the crowd appeared larger than in past years.

“Friends and locals volunteering really made a giant difference,” Johnston said, citing Flagler Beach city staff, the police and fire departments “and our private beach community. The entire community of our city came together to make this event a success.”

Johnston, a former mayor of the city, also cited Hang 8 co-founder and City Commissioner Eric Cooley, “who was in the water the entire time running the contestants. I do a lot of the admin and he does the heavy lifting.” The pair founded the event four years ago after attending one like it in St. Augustine and deciding that a beach town like Flagler Beach could not go without one. It was an immediate success, drawing visitors and competitors from up and down the state’s coast and turning it into a signature annual event, to the delight of the county’s tourism bureau.

Cooley said the favorite part of the event for him was “the crowd’s response to the dogs. If a dog caught a really good wave, or if a dog had a really good costume, hearing the response from people was priceless.”

Ocean’s owner Crane, who served in the Air Force and retired as an engineer with Hewlett-Packard, has won the Human/Dog Tandem category all four years of the Hang 8 event. Crane took that title three years running with his dog Reef, but decided to retire Reef from competition this year.

Dan Worley, a lifelong surfer, a professional competitive surfer and the head judge of the four-man Hang 8 judging team, detailed what he and his fellow judges look for: “We like to see when the dog has awareness of where they are on the board. Some dogs just stand there and other dogs will go up and down based on what the wave is doing.

“In the tandem division, the standout was JJ Crane and Ocean. They got two perfect 10s. They were probably the two best waves I’ve ever seen with a dog and a dog owner.”

Marlee, a Pembroke Welsh Corgi owned by Doug Critchett of St. Augustine, won three awards: second place in Small Dog Surfing, honorable mention in Human/Dog Tandem, and third in the Costume Contest.

Marlee’s Instagram page, firstcoastcorgi, has 4,388 followers, and photos there of her in the ocean sport such captions as “When your ancestors were bred to herd cows but you live near the ocean.”

“Marlee likes to fish more than she does surf,” Critchett said. “One of her fishing videos has like two and a half million views. She runs out in the water and gets a fish and brings it up on the shore and turns around and poses with it. She loves the water. She took to it naturally.

“She’s three years old and we’ve been going to the beach since she was about four or five months. She rode her first wave when she was five months old. Last year she surfed in the Purina Incredible Dog Challenge in California, an invite-only, made-for-television event. We’re going back to that in June. She’s been on NBC an ESPN several times.”

What makes a good dog surfer?

“That’s a great question,” Critchett said. “A dog who likes the water – Labs are really good at it. They have to be calm and they need to be well-trained to know where to stand in their spot and so forth. So it takes a little bit of training.”

The Costume Contest was judged by Dale Martin, Flagler Beach City Manager; Shelly Edmonson, Flagler County Tax Collector; and Julie Shinew, a dog hygienist and canine teeth cleaner for more than 30 years.