Hanging 20

Dogs and their humans often are best friends, so it was a logical progression for men and women who surf and skate to want their pets involved with them in their favorite sport.

Surfing and skateboarding dogs are becoming more common on the North Carolina coast as local events and competitions grow.

While living in Virginia Beach, marketing professional Jay Carrillo took a call from a woman from Fayetteville, North Carolina, with a suggestion. He sold commercial television advertising for professional football and Major League Baseball. Eleven years ago, he added professional surfing, including local surfing events. 

“She called and said, ‘You should do a dog surf event.’ I looked into it the next day and all the doors just opened for me. Surf Dog is a God thing, I just run it for Him,” Carrillo says. 

He staged the first Surf Dog Experience in Carolina Beach in 2019 at the boardwalk.

As Covid was shutting down the world the following year, on April 1 Carrillo secured a lease on a place to relocate, one block from the Carolina Beach pier. Not only did he move across state lines, but he traded professional sports skyboxes for the beach.

“I came to Carolina Beach because it is dog friendly,” Carrillo says.

He held two Surf Dog experiences at the pier in 2020. The ensuing years have seen a lot of dogs hanging 20.

“I’ve had 303 dogs on surfboards since 2019. That’s a lot,” Carrillo says. “I typically get 40 dogs per event. There are always 10 to 15 dogs that are my regulars.”

Ocean Events USA usually puts on one Surf Dog Experience before Memorial Day and another before Labor Day. Big names like T-Mobile, Nestlé Nesquik, and Diamond Pet Food are among long-term sponsors.

Dogs typically ride the waves on surfboards with foam-covered tops.

The ninth annual Surf Dog was held May 18 on the north side of the Carolina Beach Pier above the jetty in good conditions.

A crowd pleaser, Ziva a Golden Retriever was surfing her fourth Surf Dog, alongside her Goldendoodle daughter Ivy at her second competition. The mother/daughter duo’s owner and trainer is Ivan Stahnke. Ziva began surfing with Stahnke, when she was one year old. 

“It is such a novel thing, to surf with a dog,” says Tristen Harbowy, a lead instructor of the Sweetwater Surf School.  

The Surf Dog Experience team members volunteer their time. While some dogs like Ziva are accomplished surf dogs, many are not. For these dogs, multiple team members work with each dog, each wave. Saivion Bellamy, also a lead instructor of the Sweetwater Surf School, says working with the dogs in the water is a workout for them. Each dog has an opportunity to experience multiple waves.

The 2023 Skate Dog champion was Cosmo, and this event was his first-time on a surfboard.

“Training dogs to surf is more like training them to like getting on a board. We don’t force them to do it,” says Maya DePasquale,  a professional dog trainer with Wilmington’s Cape Fearless Dog Training. “It’s fun to see the dog just hop on the board,” DePasquale says.

The inaugural Skate Dog event was held at the Carolina Beach State Park skatepark in April 2023.

“It’s harder to teach a dog to skate than it is to surf,” Carrillo says.

The phenomenon had swept from west to east.

“When you go to skate parks in Ventura, California, there are probably 20 dogs skating,” Carrillo says.

The second annual Skate Dog was held outside the Aussie Island Surf Shop in March. Jeff Gordon Chevrolet is a reoccurring event sponsor. Libby, short for Liberty, a one-and-a-half-year-old cavapoo, took top prizes for the second year in a row.

Her humans, Jody and Bruce Kemp, live in historic downtown Wilmington, having relocated during Covid.

“Jay Carrillo was in my Friday small group at my church. He told me what he was doing, and I said I am in. When I found out it was Christian-based, I was really excited to share it with people and to get involved,” Jody Kemp says.

Libby had no previous experience on a skateboard until the Kemp family went to their first Skate Dog in Mike Chappell Park, Carolina Beach in 2023. Kemp says DePasquale was their on-site trainer, provided free to competitors by Ocean Events.

“The only way to grow Skate Dog is recruit dog trainers in the greater Wilmington area to teach dogs to get on the skateboard and how to skate. We began with three. I have them work with dogs and they brought them to the event,” Carrillo says.

Libby took to skating quite naturally; she jumped on the board and stayed on it.

“That’s what judges like. She took first place in 2023,” Kemp says. 

That brought Libby her first skateboard. It was the first-place prize.

 “The first time Libby saw the skateboard she jumped on it and went like 20 to 25 feet. What dog does that?” says Carrillo.

The Kemps have entered Libby into the August Surf Dog Experience. It will be her first. They will make use of an Ocean Events trainer.

Ocean Events offers three ways for dogs to surf: on their own, with their owner, or with a trainer that Carrillo makes available.

He does at least five local events a year: two Surf Dogs, a Skate Dog and, for human surfers, the World Surf League WRV Outer Banks Pro on Labor Day, and the East Coast Surf Shops Shootout in November at Holiday Inn Resort Lumina, Wrightsville Beach.

In April Libby answered a casting call for canine extras to appear in Merv, director /producer Roma Downey’s rom-com filming in Carolina Beach and Kure Beach. Set in a dog-friendly beachfront town, the redemptive storyline follows a couple who are splitting up and are not in agreement over who gets their dog,Merv.

“There were probably 25 dog trainers on the set,” Carrillo says.

Dark Horse Studios hired Ocean Events to bring two skate dogs and seven surf dogs, as well as Carrillo’s dog surfing team, for two days in April to perform.

Libby was one of two dogs filmed for the part of Merv’s canine friend. 

In a location not that far from Britt’s Donuts, there were a lot of extras walking around pretending to shop. After being on the set all day and practicing, practicing, practicing, when it was Libby’s turn to be filmed she didn’t do that well. 

But after a period of time, they called her back.

“They wanted Libby to get on the skateboard. She had to make a turn to the left. She did it, she stayed on. The photographer was right there filming her,” Kemp says.