If you watched the 2017 Tournament of Roses Parade, you couldn’t miss it — a float with surfing dogs. Veteran boarder Sully headlined, but the crew included another eight canines of all varieties, including a Dachshund named Coppertone. All were surrounded by a tableau comprised of 250,000 flowers.
Hanging 20 Down Colorado Blvd.
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With contributions from companies such as Pentair Aquatic Systems and Raypak, a pet organization devised a float for surfing dogs -- and a mobile wave pool to audition them.
Play slideshowBesides the ooh’s and aah’s from broadcasters and viewers, the float won the Tournament of Roses’ Extraordinaire trophy and broke records as the longest and heaviest single-chassis float in history. “It’s not a float tied together with rope,” said Joey Herrick, whose foundation and company, Los Angeles-area Lucy Pet, entered the float. “It’s all steel and a single chassis.” Indeed, telecasts devoted several seconds of camera-time showing the 126-foot-long, 148,200-pound float maneuver around the corners.
To find the talent, Lucy Pet commissioned a mobile wave machine that traveled the country to audition approximately 1,000 dogs. The first mobile wave machine, according to Herrick, would travel empty, then be filled at its various destinations.
Believe it or not, there is a pool-industry component in all this: Manufacturers Pentair Aquatic Systems and Raypak donated pumps and heaters, respectively, for both vehicles and helped engineer parts of the float that involved their equipment.
Herrick does this to generate awareness for his foundation, which sends mobile spay and neuter clinics around the Los Angeles area, and for his emerging pet-products company.
