I heart hotdogging

I literally wanted to talk about this topic for ages, because I love this name SO MUCH. I first came across it when researching the shortboard revolution. The revolution that effectively killed it. But today, we’re all about hotdogging.

‍♂️ What is hotdogging?

Hotdogging is a term from the golden age of surfing—roughly the 1950s and 60s—that described a flashy, highly maneuverable style of riding, usually small waves. Hotdoggers were surfers who didn’t just ride waves straight to shore or perform the classic “trim”—they performed radical turns, noserides, drop-knee cutbacks, walk-the-board footwork, and other tricks that showed off their control and flair.

Quick side note. Before hotdogging, surfing always had its circus (I say circus with love) performers, such as Waikiki surfer John Hawkshaw Paia, who in the 30s was doing headstands on the board, somersaults, and spinners.

Why is it called hotdogging?

You kinda get now why it’s called hotdogging, right? The slang “hotdog” was common in American sports as early as the 1920s, meaning a show-off or someone who performs flashy tricks.

Think of it like calling someone a “showboater” today.

Who was the Big Hot Dog?

But who was the father of hotdogging, the hotdogging father, the big Hot Dog? Depends whom you ask.

You ask Sports Illustrated and it’s Phil Edwards who, I quote:
“One day, quite by accident, he rode into the curl of a wave, and modern ‘hot dog’ surfing was born.”

But if you ask Matt Warshaw, he will tell you it was Dewey Weber, who was famous for his drop-knee cutbacks and invented hotdogging. Dewey used to ride a wide-backed pig, easier to turn than the Malibu chip, and he could whip through as many as 6–8 90-degree turns per wave.

It did help that Dewey was small and light—he stood at 5’3’’. Both of these features make sense when you learn that he was called “the little man on wheels.” His fashion sense was also cool. He bleached his hair white, wore red trunks, and rode red surfboards.

Classic hotdogging moves

Let’s hear about these popular hotdogging maneuvers. I’m stealing this from the Encyclopedia of Surfing:

• The head-dip – where a surfer bends over and dips his head in the curl.
• The spinner – a pirouette, performed two or three times.
• The fin-first takeoff – where you start the ride with the surfboard tail first and then you quickly slide it 180 degrees.
• A couple of hunched-over positions, including the butterfly and the quasimoto.

Oh, and Gerry Lopez actually got noticed because of his sidelip, a hotdog move where the surfer bends over, jams a hand in the water, and drops sideways down the wave face.

✨ Why it mattered

No wonder, according to Dewey, hotdogging is the only style of surfing that allows the surfer to express himself as an individual. Amen.