Incredible Dog Challenge: Dog Surfing Western Regional | NBC Sports

The Incredible Dog Challenge is brought to you by pirina Pro Plan nutrition that performs beautiful day continues here at Huntington Beach California now we head from the Pina Arena to the ocean waves and check in with Smitty to see what's happening what's going on Sean well Trace there's a lot going on down here right now of course we have the Sun the waves the dogs and the surfboards we're about to dive into one of my favorite events and one of the most unique events you're ever going to see in the Sporting Dog world we're talking about surfing dogs now we have our professional surf judges that will be scoring these dogs on a bunch of different categories the number of waves that they catch the length of the ride the confidence and of course the style we have both small and large dogs that will be competing and we take the top two scores for a surf off in the finals guys it's time to go surfing it is time Sean so much fun to watch as we check out some highlights from earlier heat Chen and tell you what this event is not about competition it's really about celebrating the special bond between dogs and their owners here on the waves so much fun it is a blast to watch we're talking about six different dogs in each size category three head-to-head heat each heat is 10 minutes and during that 10 minutes they can catch as many waves as they want but only the best ride score counts so the handlers are out there making sure their dog catches the wave they they want the judges are set on the beach judging those three different categories that we just heard Sean mention size of wave length of the Bride confidence and incredible style it's all about that balance and control and these dogs have mastered it tackling the waves here in hun Beach Surf City USA and the top two earn a position to the final round it'll be head-to-head between py and Carson there's K Del loan py the 5-year-old West Highland Terrier cool dog and Jill Nano and Carson the 10-year-old terrier mix here we go we're off with small dog finals in Surf got to love it of course you see the life vests on the dogs and before the break we heard our head judge and lifeguard Chris Egan talking about how important safety is all those lifeguard from Huntington Beach State Beach out there in the water watching these guys hang 20 I guess right down low they do look at that as being a sign of style judges judge on a score of 1 to 10 in each of the different categories do they look confident are they still on the board he talked about that sandbar out there today and that makes it really easy for the handlers to be able to stand up and take the dogs out on the boards and Catch the Wave they want pushing them off as you imagine to see the life jackets on all the dogs and the great job by our lifeguards making sure all the dogs are safe but they're having so much fun out there PD riding it all the way in trying to impress those judges a lot of good competition out here in the white water he loves the water and the spotlight getting it all in soaking it in throughout the day and now we're looking at the scores from the judges a total of 52 for pety and K delos and what will Carson weit at 50 points so it is K delos and pety who will win it and they are stoked of course the owners are the ones that know they won it he's just like man I'm just out here doing my thing and a great job that he did Catching that we had two to three foot swells today which was perfect for the competition pety look at the downward stance that style points right there and man did he catch some long ones all the way into the beach all right what a fun small dog surf competition and now we are set for the large dogs to hit the waves and you're looking at some local celebrities who have earned a lot of well-deserved attention over the years that guy right there Kentucky and his dog Derby let's learn more about them I got Derby from a loving family that just realized that they didn't have time for him and needed a little bit more training one of my good friends said dude you should name him Derby so y'all be Kentucky and Derby and that's what stuck and it's been that ever since Derby taught me how to surf I just put him on a board one day pushed him in a wave he rode that wave all the way to the beach he turned around and looked at me like is this what you're trying to do cuz this looks pretty easy after watching him do it a couple of times I kind of got some tips on how he stayed on the board and moved his weight around I was like you know what I think you're just taught me how to serve we get a lot of looks and a lot of people ask to take pictures and we're like yeah go ahead cuz you know we wouldn't look like this if we didn't want you to we love doing the Incredible Dog Challenge as one reason is to see all of our Surf Dog friends again like I said when surf season comes it's like seeing your family every year but you know anywhere we can go to the beach and be on some waves we're all about it yeah he's just been my best friend through some of the greatest times in my life and some of my worst times in my life and he's been there every step of the way I want people to understand like hey you know if uh you know you feel in a type of way you know just know that you're not you're not alone and I want people to know that that uh hey there's people out there that want to help you and it could be you know people or it could be your best friend love the hair love the blue mohawks the best friends right there all right here we go with some highlights of large dog surf the top two head to the final heat taking their own Bo out to the waves the lifeguards enter beautiful day for surfing here in Huntington Beach California you know our head lifeguard was saying after the small dogs man today's competition is so good he's judged for three years now this is some of the tightest competition he's seen he says judging the dogs really hard today on seeing all of these great Heats all these long rides and the style and built up confidence backwards hello confidence right there nice Derby thr it down has a lot of style going for those big points trying to get into that final heat some K9 surfing Talent underway here and all sorts of breeds out there on the water the goggles the glasses I think uh you know the getups all part of the hype and part of the fun how do you know if they're goofy or regular foot that makes a little hard when you've got four I I'll I'll say backwards is Goofy and then frontwards is is regular with that'll work that'll work all right Derby looking solid as usual look at the balance in The Stance just utilizing the entire board right there and Derby's Talent pays off 53 points and COA and Christina Welch with 53 they will take each other on in this final heat there's COA and Christina right there the 10-year-old Labrador and Derby who we just met with Kentucky the 12-year-old golden doodle and there's the horns syndicating we are off large dog surf finals they're so excited to get in the water Head to Head they were tied coming into our finals here so we're going to have to catch some good waves and strut their stuff and the length of ride where they start is looked at and then where they finish and if they can ride that board all the way in and jump off at the beach our judges say that's a 10 Derby crouching down on the board those are style points right there got to love the signature blue Mohawk and sunglasses rocked by Derby right now having some good rides and barking away is COA in fact Christina says coa's biggest strength is her Stoke for the sport and the obsession for surfing which is evident by her non-stop barking shellene the excitement right there the confidence I'm going to tell you all about it why I'm writing in [Music] backwards on the board that's confidence points huge and right up to the sand well judges like it judge one of 25 judge 2 26 for 51 points for Derby and Kentucky but 52 points for Christina and Kaa nice Kaa edging out derby with stand up runs like that but they were both impressive out there on the water so congratulations and the celebration Begins for Christina Welsh and Co if you like dogs 2 subscribe to NBC Sports YouTube channel for more