Hood River Christmas parade... Up on the roof - a 7-foot doxie! Windsurfing dogs, and all the Whos in Who-Ville!

‘Tis the season!

Ride along with us - Surf Dog Diaries - in our annual Christmas parade in the Columbia River Gorge. Together, we’re surfing the streets in Hood River, Oregon.

Doxie Doodle and I surfin’ the streets 12/7/18. We did the same thing last weekend in 2019 Photo: (c) Terri Vann, DogDiary.org

All the Whos were out on the streets - Hood River Holiday parade. Photo: (c) Blane Franger, BeautifulHoodRiver.com

We surf dogs love our home town, tiny town - Hood River/ Who-Ville. Photo: (c) Barb Ayers, DogDiary.org

Hood River Holiday parade float. Photo: (c) Barb Ayers, DogDiary.org

Doodle windsurfs. Photo: (c) Barb Ayers, DogDiary.org

Surf dogs - human and canine. Photo: (c) DogDiary.org

Back of the windsurf rig - license plates from our three stomping grounds. Photo: (c) Barb Ayers, DogDiary.org

Dog Beach. Dog River. Dog Mountain.

We surf dogs have lived (and surfed) in three states, searching for life’s perfect wave - Dog Beach (California,) Dog River (Oregon) and Dog Mountain (Washington).

Yes, those are real places, all important to the history of the wild, wild west. And surf dogs everywhere - man and animal.

By the way, Dog River and Dog Mountain are neighbors here, across the Columbia River where we live and surf.

Surfing the streets

We started parade surfing the streets in San Diego’s Ocean Beach in 1992, promoting our old home beach, Dog Beach, which needed repairs.

Back then, my first surf dog, Howdy Doody and I marched with the O.B. Geriatric Precision SurfBoard Drill Team - an OB institution, and a killer-good surf club.

OB geriatrics were surfers that were 30 or older. We carried surfboards in parades. Howdy and I “skied” behind a ski boat or “surfed” land boards down Newport Avenue.

At the time I was OB Town Council President. Howdy and I were co chairs of the OBTC Dog Beach Committee, responsible for fixing up America’s first leash free beach.

The parade tradition carried on, after the OB Geriatric surf club retired for good, and after we moved to Oregon.

Today, doxie Doodle is the fourth generation Ayers family surf dog to ride waves, and parades, with me.

All four of my surf dogs were low riders- three bassets and a doxie. All were rescue mutts. No pedigree necessary.

Up on the roof! A 7-foot weiner dog. “Doxie Dasher - up, up and away….”

Dasher in this year’s parade. Photo: (c) Barb Ayers, DogDiary.org

Windsurfing right behind - 16-pound doxie Doodle...

My dog son, surf doxie Doodle, and his rad rig. Photo: (c) Barb Ayers, DogDiary.org

Surfing the streets- downtown Hood River, on Oak Street. The Surf Dog Diaries crew. Left to right: Tree girl Kelsey Jacobson, Barb and Doodle Ayers, dog mom Stacey Castleberry. Photo: (c) Robb Severdia, DogDiary.org

Christmas Tree girl Kelsey Jocobson. Photo: (c) Barb Ayers, DogDiary.org

Who’s that green “Who” of Who-Ville?

Kelsey Jacobson, our next door neighbor girl, dressed as the Christmas Tree in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation movie.

On her shoulder is the cat that tore down the Griswold’s Christmas tree, tangled in lights.

This is small town community spirit.

Here, we all come out to celebrate the holidays - together - at the parade. Or ANY day!

Together, we are all the Whos in Who-Ville.

As the parade ends, the countdown to Christmas begins… with kids and adults chanting…

… Then lights fill the sky -

and songs fill the streets - carols filling homes and hearts all around…

All the Whos in Who-Ville. Hood River Christmas parade & Tree Lighting 12/7/2018. Photo: (c) Blane Franger, BeautifulHoodRiver.com

From Doctor Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas:

“Every Who down in Who-Ville,

the tall and the small,

was singing — without any presents at all!”

“… and then the true meaning of Christmas came through…

and the Grinch found the strength

of ten Grinches, plus two!

“Maybe Christmas, he thought, doesn’t come from a store -

maybe Christmas perhaps, means something more….”

The front window view the week of the parade. Holiday magic on our Columbia Gorge cliffs! Photo (c) Barb Ayers, DogDiary.org

The week of the parade - a Christmas visitor…

Who-Ville got its first gift of snow the week before the 2019 parade, decorating hills and homes… rivers and forests, mountains and roads…

Doodle and I, Surf Dog Diaries writers and riders, lit up by snowflake lights.

Photo: (c) Terri Vann, DogDiary.org

Don’t stop believing!

Snow magic - Santa magic - Grinch magic.

The spirit of Who-Ville.

It can happen any time - any season.

Give with your whole heart - just like your best friend dog does - every moment of every day.

JOY TO YOUR TWO FEET AND FOUR PAWS!

Barb & Doodle Ayers

Surf Dog Diaries

Paddling out for a friend on a chilly, wind-whipped day. All 400 of us. Surf dogs 'n friends.

For a dinky dog town, we showed up in force. It’s who we are in Hood River, Oregon.

Today was a paddle out ceremony in honor of longtime Hood River waterman Steve Gates.

He was owner of Big Winds and was a mainstay of the Gorge windsurfing, kiting and paddling scene from back in the day.

Photo courtesy BigWinds.com

Steve created the Columbia Gorge Paddle Challenge, one of the top standup paddle boarding races in the country, held right here where we’re paddling out today.

His waterman skills were amazing! He was a gnarly paddler for Hood River Outrigger Canoe Club, where he paddled OC-6’s through it all.

He was always smiling, even though he faced the uncertainty of cancer. He fought it like a warrior - like a windsurfer. He showed us how to face challenges we thought we could never handle. He paddled, and built a business, and ran our town as Mayor, and our windsurfing organization and our paddling scene. And he had a full family life.

He gave it all - he gave it back, right up to the end.

The end? Life is so unfair. Friggin’ cancer.

He gave his heart to our community. And on a cold and blustery day, we said thanks. We, of tiny Gorge towns, on a blustery winter day, donned wetsuits and dry suits and ski parkas and jumped on boards. We paddled out for our friend. Ohana.

Here’s what Rod Parmenter captured overhead on a drone:

My dog son, my dachshund, Doodle, Hood River style. Photo: (c) Barb Ayers, Dog Diary.org

This helpful retriever grabbed a flower from Steve Gate’s paddle out. Bringing a piece of Steve back to the beach for family and friends gathered there. Photo: (c) Kris Kohlhase Kendall

Doodle and I double-tripled our wetsuit layers, and paddled out with about 400 others.

Together, we rode all sizes, shapes and styles of boards, from half-submerged surfing short boards to old school windsurf long boards, to kayaks, outriggers, surf skis, trad and inflatable SUPs.

If it floated, it was there.

If you hang out on the Columbia River, you were here.

A bunch more folks stood on the beach and cheered. And cried. And hugged. Dogs chased balls and tried to help their humans cope.

It was a frosty, windy day. The house rattled all night and all morning. It was hard to get out there into the water. Conditions, not the best for paddling. Half of our community has already left for warmer climes, in Baja.

But everyone of us stood up for Steve. We’re standup paddle boarders. Everyone of us- on a board, or a shore - wherever in the world you are.

And the air warmed up here, and it was an endless summer moment… for Steve.

Steve Gates memorial paddle 11-24-19. Photo courtesy Lisa Peterson

That’s Doodle and I lower right on the blue board - Steve Gates Day in Hood River 11/24/19. Photo courtesy Lisa Peterson

RIP Mr. Gates.

May you find fair winds and epic paddling on the other side.

Much of our windsurfing/kitesurfing/paddling community winters in southern Baja. This Hood River crowd paddled out for Steve in La Ventana today, at about the same time we Oregonians paddled. Photo: (c) Heidi Stiefenhofer Ribkoff‎

Speaking of the other side…

Those of us who can sneak away all winter, and escape that slicing Gorge wind (and snow) - do.

Here’s what Hood Riverites in La Ventana (Baja Sur, Mexico) saw on their Paddle Out for Steve today…

Heidi Stiefenhofer Ribkoff‎ and friends paddled out, at about the same time we Oregonians hit Steve’s Beach, a.k.a. Nichols Basin, back home - 2,100 miles away.

Is that you in the distance, Steve?

Paddler in La Ventana standing up for Steve 11-24-19. Photo: (c) Heidi Stiefenhofer Ribkoff‎