--- title: Dog Surfing Competition in California Has Pets Hanging Twenty description: In Unleashed, the U.S.'s largest dog surfing competition, pets ride the waves without their owners. canonical: https://time.com/2987687/this-dog-surfing-competition-is-totally-gnarly/ author: Kyle Chayka article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-07-15T18:40:42.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:11:41.812Z og:title: WATCH: This Dog Surfing Competition Is Totally Gnarly og:description: Get ready for some ruff waves og:url: https://time.com/2987687/this-dog-surfing-competition-is-totally-gnarly/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt24e718f7bfc6a8b4/69869bcce53aba55b04d393c/pic6.jpg?branch=production&width=263&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 263 og:image:height: 148 og:image:alt: pic6 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: WATCH: This Dog Surfing Competition Is Totally Gnarly twitter:description: Get ready for some ruff waves twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt24e718f7bfc6a8b4/69869bcce53aba55b04d393c/pic6.jpg?branch=production&width=263&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # This Dog Surfing Competition is Totally Gnarly > Sponsored content. 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The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. by [Kyle Chayka](https://time.com/author/kyle-chayka/) ## Kyle Chayka Jul 15, 2014 6:40 PM UTC  by [Kyle Chayka](https://time.com/author/kyle-chayka/) ## Kyle Chayka Jul 15, 2014 6:40 PM UTC What’s cooler than surfing? Surfing with your dog. And not just riding the same board as your pet, but pushing your pup to ride a wave on their own. That’s what the dogs in [Unleashed](//www.khou.com/video/featured-videos/Video-Surfing-dogs-draw-crowds-at-California-beach-267048621.html#), the largest dog surfing competition the U.S., do, and they rock at it. Hanging 20, the dogs perch on top of the boards as the waves sweep toward the beach. When the wave collapses, the canine surfers hop off, no harm done (some are wearing adorable life jackets, just in case). But are the dogs scared to go on the surfboards? Are their owners forcing them into unwanted roles as surf bros? Eric Felland, owner of the champion of the large dog heat, tells [The Guardian](http://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2014/jul/14/dogs-surf-waves-california-video) that his dog “loves what he does.” Fellow owner James Wall says “it’s hard to say it’s cruel; some dogs like it some dogs don’t.” One thing’s for sure—it’s great for everyone watching. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/2987687/this-dog-surfing-competition-is-totally-gnarly/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/2987687/this-dog-surfing-competition-is-totally-gnarly/"},"headline":"This Dog Surfing Competition is Totally Gnarly","datePublished":"2014-07-15T18:40:42.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:11:41.812Z","description":"Get ready for some ruff waves","url":"https://time.com/2987687/this-dog-surfing-competition-is-totally-gnarly/","keywords":["Newsfeed","California","Sports topic","animals","Dogs","Pets","Surfing"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt24e718f7bfc6a8b4/69869bcce53aba55b04d393c/pic6.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Kyle Chayka","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/kyle-chayka/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt24e718f7bfc6a8b4/69869bcce53aba55b04d393c/pic6.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"pic6","caption":"","creditText":"","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/2987687/this-dog-surfing-competition-is-totally-gnarly/","name":"This Dog Surfing Competition is Totally Gnarly"}}]}] ```