Meet Tico the thrill-seeking Labrador who loves nothing more than soaking up the rays – while SURFING with a massive SMILE.
The fox red Labrador took to the sea when he was just a couple of months old and first learned how to paddle board.
He now regularly joins his owner Chester Mackley on his surf school lessons – but sometimes gets confused and jumps on backwards.
And it was the perfect way for the pair to cool down in the heat as they surfed the waves at St. Ouen´s Bay in Jersey.
Chester said his pooch is a natural in the water but often gets distracted by his innate desire to “rescue” – and abandons his board to ‘save’ surfers who have fallen in.
Dad-of-two Chester runs Splash Surf Centre, a surf school in Jersey, and Absolute Adventures, a water-based activity centre at St Brelade’s Bay.
He said Tico spends every day with him at work on the boat – and his four legs help him keep balanced on the board.
Chester, 45, said: “He has been in the water and on the boards from the first day we got him.
“We are a surfing family so Tico needed to fit in with the family, and thankfully he loves it and has done ever since he was a pup.
“He started off paddle boarding and loved that, and then he moved onto surfing. He loves to be in the water. As soon as you put a board down he jumps on it.
“My students are always having to fight him off their boards.
“His only problem is when people jump off or fall off their boards he always wants to save and help people. Being a Lab it’s what he loves to do.
“He’ll jump off his board and try to save them. I think he loves the sensation of movement, because he loves the trampoline and being on the boat with me.
“He does get confused sometimes though. If I push him into a wave he will turn round and look at me and what I’m doing, leaving him going backwards.”
Tico lives with owner Chester, originally from South Africa, his wife Emma, 43, and their eight-year-old daughter Jemima.
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