An online video of a dog riding a surfboard went viral, and the dog’s owner said that he was not prepared for the level of response. Since he was 13 years old, Jeroen Kuling of Haarlem, the Netherlands, has loved surfing.
His parents took him to Newquay when he was young, where he first tried the pastime at Fistral Beach. He explained, “It was my birthday, which is always during the holidays.”
“They gave me a bodyboard and it was my first time in the ocean playing with the waves. I then started surfing here in the Netherlands. I was planning to go to Spain or Italy, but then I wanted to go back to Cornwall to see how it is now.”
After a quick trip to Cornwall in July, Jeroen learned that some friends were trying to get rid of Jip, a one-and-a-half-year-old dog, due to problems with his behavior.
“They wanted to put him in a kennel, I said no I’ll take care of him. I took him on holiday in my camper van,” Jeroen continued.
“I was just on my board at Fistral Beach, and Jip was there too. He really likes to swim which is lucky. He was swimming with me and coming towards me, then he kept sitting on my board.
“He was basically taking over it. I got off to cool down, he leaped onto it, and I waited for a wave to come and gave the board a little push. Jip surfed away, he was just sitting there. It was a beautiful day and the beach was busy with Boardmasters – he was just there, he stood up once or twice, surfing the whole time.”
When he did it over the weekend, Jeroen claimed that many beachgoers found the sight amusing. He acknowledged that it must have been a strange sight, but he had no idea how many people were photographing it.
Then he continued, “It’s pretty funny to see a dog surfing, yet all these people post footage of it online.
The traveler was shocked by what happened next since he was blissfully unaware that his dog had become popular online. He said that Jip even managed to make it onto the festival’s big screen.
He continued: “I call him Jip the surfing dog now, and that’s how he’s being known. People are now recognizing us on the beach. I’m planning to get him surfing more, maybe just come back again next summer. I’ll continue doing this with him and see what happens.”
“Maybe he’ll ride bigger waves. I don’t want to push anything, keep it with him. It’s hard to explain why Jip has become such a star. It’s not the first dog that has surfed.
“People must just see this dog comfortably surfing like a pro and they’re like where’s this dog come from? Another surfer was paddling out to get a wave, the surfer joined him on this wave and didn’t notice until he went passed.”
Depending on the weather, Jeroen said he’ll stay in Cornwall for another week or more before returning home.
