A surfing contest where everyone doggie paddles

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In our NewsHour Shares series, we show you things that caught our eye recently on the web. What about you? Leave your suggestions in the comments below, or tweet to @NewsHour using #NewsHourShares. We might share it on air.

HARI SREENIVASAN: Now to our NewsHour shares, something that caught our eye that may be of interest to you as well.

A unique surf competition was held near San Francisco earlier this month. The participants weren’t your normal wave riders, but their four-legged friends.

Laura Klivans of PBS station KQED was there and sent along these sights and sounds.

KENTUCKY GALLAHUE, Dog Owner: We’re at World Dog Surfing Championship here in San Francisco at Linda Mar Beach. We’re going to surf today in the large dog competition. Hopefully put a lot of smiles on people’s faces.

ALECIA NELSON, Dog Owner: Gidget has been surfing three years. This is her third season. I took her on paddle boarding and then threw her on a surfboard, and, lo and behold, there she was. She balanced and took off.

(LAUGHTER)

MICHAEL UY, Dog Owner: She’s been doing this for 10 years. She’s the longest competing surf dog.

She has two records for the longest wave ridden by a dog in open water by herself.

I think it’s four or five years ago, and been unbeaten since. Well, today, hopefully, we can place in her weight division. She always surfs the medium dogs.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

MICHAEL UY: It’s a really cool sport. It’s about the best thing you can do with your dog. It beats going to the dog park.

HARI SREENIVASAN: That’s about as cute as we expected that story to be.

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