“Wow! That’s great!” On a giant inflatable surfboard, Rebekah Abern and Elizabeth French paddle down the California waves under the watchful eye of an unlikely instructor: Chupacabrah, a small black goat stationed steadfastly at the front of the boat.
This one-year-old pup is an integral part of her first lesson on the beach at Pismo Beach. Despite the turbulence in the foam, the goat shows the two tourists from Montana that all you have to do to keep your balance is to be relaxed.
“The goat surfed a lot better than me,” laughs Rebekah. “She had the positioning and it was clear that she had already done it (…) she was all in.”
AFP
The 41-year-old agricultural insurance agent is thrilled by this unusual experience. “Who surfs with goats?” It’s extraordinary,” she told AFP.
Enough to give the banana to his real teacher, Dana McGregor. The Californian has made a name for himself by throwing his goats into the water for over ten years.
In the land of surfers, where it’s no longer exciting to take your dog along on a board – dogs even have their own world championship – he believes goats hold unimaginable sliding potential.
“You have incredible balance,” he says from behind his generous goatee. “They have these hooves that allow them to hold onto the board.”
The crazy idea came to him in 2011 after he purchased a goat to clear poison ivy and weeds from his mother’s house.
After clearing the pasture, the animal should first land on a grill. But the surfer became so attached to her that he put her on his board on her birthday. Armed with a paddle, he pushed the goat into a wave, a challenge it mastered with flying colors.
AFP
This moment of shared joy remains like a revelation for him.
“I had the impression that I had found paradise on earth, as if something supernatural had just happened,” says the little blonde with blue eyes. “I said to myself, ‘Wow, this animal would never have had the opportunity to surf.'”
The simple joke then turned into an existential mission. Over the years, the former professional footballer had other goats with whom he went on many water adventures.
As heroines of numerous YouTube videos and two children’s books, they were also invited to his surfing courses. So much so that its owner is now nicknamed “goatfather” in his small town with 8,000 inhabitants.
“My calling is to bring joy to people,” summarizes the forty-year-old. “And that’s because of the goats and the surfing.”
It’s hard to miss this shepherd of the seas in Pismo Beach. He drags his goats everywhere with him, to the beach or to the supermarket, in a car with a goat-shaped emblem on the hood.
In the sea, the eccentricities of his animals prove helpful in overcoming the fears of surfing apprentices.
“When you start, you really focus on things like, ‘Are my feet okay?’” says Rebekah Abern. “But when the goat is there, it’s just confident and goes along with it. And suddenly you say to yourself: +I’ll let myself go too+.”
“People are inspired by it,” says Dana McGregor, who has watched many children overcome their fear of water. “They say to themselves, ‘If a goat can do it, then so can I’.”
One of his goats, Pismo, even pushed the limits of what the trainer thought was possible. Together they caught a wave more than two meters high before the animal knocked him off the board with a headbutt and ended the “ride” single-handedly.
Since then, the experienced surfer has dreamed of sharing a tube with one of his protégés.
When he steps on a roller, “it’s just an incredible feeling,” he fantasizes. “So a goat in a tube would be epic!”