It's an event made for the social media world.
Nearly 4,000 people — smartphones and digital cameras at the ready — descended on Pacifica State Beach on Saturday morning to watch and photograph about 50 dogs catching some waves.
"It's so Instagrammable," said Kay-Dee Lane, who drove up to Pacifica for the event from San Diego with her daughter and dog Beezel, who used to surf but has recently 'retired.' "The best part is the night after when you are looking for all the photos online."
The annual World Dog Surfing Championships in Pacifica has multiple heats for dogs, based on size, and contests where a dog and their human ride on boards together.
"This is definitely the largest it has ever been. This contest started four years ago," said Michael Uy, owner of previous champion Abbie Girl, an Australian Kelpie rescue dog. "It was literally a handful of people that showed up one morning on a beach. This is crazy!"
Like many of the dogs in the event, Abbie Girl has a robust online persona including a web site, Instagram account and Youtube videos. Abbie holds the Guinness World Record for the longest surf by a dog, and in 2014 she was the first dog to make it into the International Surfing Hall of Fame.
There should be a dog 🐶 🐕 surfing 🏄🏾 🏄♀️ emoji pic.twitter.com/m81dZ3XrEL
— ethan toven-lindsey (@Ethan_Lindsey) August 3, 2019
Uy said that the online presence actually helps drive the community and popularity of dog surfing as a sport.
"A lot of the people who are here follow a lot of the dogs on Instagram," explained Uy.
