It’s actually the road trip launch of an ambitious video awareness campaign called “Rescue, Rehab, Re-home” but according to surfing dogs pioneer Chris De Aboitiz, Rama’s appearance with Chris and his pack at this weekend’s opening day of the Noosa Festival of Surfing will be a farewell tour for the faithful hound who has been the star of Chris’s dog surfing exhibitions and behavioural Pack Mates program.
Says Chris: “Rama is the second generation of my pack, and he took dog surfing to the next level with jumping on my shoulders, and he always answered to Lani, who was the first generation. He was my second dog teacher and now he is the grumpy old man who free ranges the paddock and knows where every food bowl is. He’s been an incredible friend and teacher, and that’s why we’re honouring him.”
Chris, Rama and the rest of the Pack Mates will be at Main Beach, Noosa on Saturday, 15 March from 3pm for the festival’s 14th annual VetShopAustralia Surfing Dog Championships, which will be Rama’s last public appearance with the Pack Mates after nearly a decade of service and surfing, since Chris found him at Red Collar Rescue near Bundaberg. Rama was Red Collar’s 113th recue dog to be re-homed, joining the pack at Chris’s holiday park and dog behavioural centre The Summit at Agnes Water on Queensland’s Discovery Coast, the first of a succession of rescue dogs to do so ever since.
The four-part video series Chris calls “Triple R” has already made a splash, with its first episode telling the Rama story attracting nearly 6000 views in 24 hours. Subsequent episodes portray a day in the life of the pack at The Summit, the re-homing of Koa and Molly, two more rescue dogs from Red Collar Rescue who have been nurtured at The Summit, and a look at the underlying philosophy of “Rescue, Rehab, Re-home”.
Meanwhile, with Rama transitioning to retirement, Jarrah is the new leader of the pack. Says Chris: “He’s strong, thinks he’s invincible, the new buck on the block. He can’t wait to jump on a surfboard and never thinks before he acts. He’s absolutely fearless and just as loyal, and he always wants to be by your side.”
Check out the Triple R clip on Instagram at @packmatestraining
What was it all about, Alfie?
Fortunately, at least as far is Noosa is concerned, not much. While so many communities to the south got smashed by TC Alfred, we had a wet weekend and more than a week of great surf preceding it. Not to take a frightening near miss lightly, but we dodged the bullet so let’s rejoice in the waves we had, courtesy of our own amazing shutterbug Fenna De King, who captured the very best of what the points had to offer over so many good days, and Amber Cowley, who shot maybe the most-posted pic of the swell, when veteran charger Damian Coulter took a very rare fall at The Bluff. Falling Man went viral very quickly.
See more of Fenna’s incredible output at @fennadeking on Insta.
It’s surf fest time!
Over the many years when I directed the surf festival, a great swell the week before or the week after was always my worst nightmare. Certainly that was the way it was looking when the points fired up as March began, but it seems like the current crew might have won a reprieve in the nick of time, with a steady flow of east swell developing, at least for the latter part of the event.
In the meantime, the beach bar will be cranking from this afternoon (Friday 14) and the surfing dogs, paddle out and opening festivities tomorrow. Great times in store for surfers of all ages, but I do wish the organisers would throw a bone at the old blokes and recognise the fact that some of us like to surf gentlemen’s hours, and reckon we’ve earned the right.
My first round heat hits the water first up at 6.40am, for pity’s sake! Help me out, dawn patrollers, is it even light then?
If you’re a competitor see the full draw now published on liveheats.com
