Pismo Beach To Lift Ban On Surfing Goats — That’s Right, Surfing Goats, OK? Just Watch The Video

The outlaw surfing goats of Pismo Beach may soon win the legal right to surf their little cloven hooves off. Dana McGregor, a resident of the small beach community on California’s central coast, owns the goats and, when you live in a city where the main attraction is great surfing, what would you do with goats other than teach them to surf?

That is exactly what McGregor did. But there’s one problem: Pismo Beach does not allow goats to be kept within city limits. What Pismo Beach has against goats is anyone’s guess, but the law is the law and goat-surfing instructor McGregor has already received four tickets for the not-insubstantial sum of $400 a pop, just for the offense of taking his goat buddies around town.

By the way, if you think this whole surfing goats thing is some kind of joke, please check out the video. And if you’re still not sold on the surfing goats of Pismo Beach, you can see more surfing goat videos on McGregor’s site, surfinggoats.com.

In any case, after getting slapped with stiff fines again and again, McGregor finally said enough is enough. He marched down to Pismo Beach City Hall and petitioned the city council to change the law.

“I didn’t know it was illegal to bring them to parks,” said McGregor. “I just thought it was cool. It’s pretty fun.”

The council in Pismo Beach has been mostly favorable to the McGregor’s appeals on behalf of his surfing goats. On May 20 the five-member board voted 4-1 to draft a new law that would allow goats within the city as long as they meet certain regulations. They will need to be kept on leashes, for one thing.

Only one council member, Mary Ann Reiss, dissented.

“I’m just having a lot of trouble with it,” Reiss said at the council meeting. “I don’t understand why we’re doing this.”

Nonetheless, the law is expected to be drafted and approved by the Pismo Beach lawmakers later in June.

“It’s not a situation where it’s ‘goats gone wild surfing in Pismo,'” said McGregor’s pal and lawyer Matt Janowicz. “It’s providing people an opportunity to have other pets and get enjoyment out of other types of animals that are not a detriment to the city, but in fact are bringing the city attention.”

McGregor said that as much enjoyment as he gets out of his surfing goats, the children of Pismo Beach have been even more delighted as have Pismo Beach seniors, when he brings his surfing goats to local retirement facilities.

“Everyone connects with animals,” said the Pismo Beach surfing goats impresario. “I do it in a very friendly and loving way that I don’t think anyone would be offended by.”