Surf City’s easy rider

Mike Sciacca

Tyson is a lot like any other 2-year-old.

Precocious. Rambunctious. Wanting and needing constant attention.

And most of his cravings were met Monday afternoon, when the

double-takes and finger-pointing from the beach-going crowd must have

made him proud.

One by one, they spotted Tyson coming from the north on the

boardwalk. It was unusual to see a 2 1/2-year-old riding a

skateboard so proficiently. More unusual was the fact that Tyson is

an English bulldog.

With his front right paw pressing down on the board, and the other

three white paws pushing off the pavement to generate momentum, Tyson

hopped completely on the skateboard.

Cameras clicked and video cameras went into record mode in an

effort to capture the image.

“That’s amazing,” said Jim Andersen of Cypress. “I’ve never seen a

dog ride a skateboard like that.”

Unruffled by the commotion of the crowd gathering around him,

Tyson continued to put on quite a show.

“He does get a lot of attention,” said Jim Blauvelt, 50, who, with

his wife Lana, owns Tyson. “He just loves it out here.”

The talented canine, who resides in Surf City, maneuvered circles

and turns with precision while listening to Blauvelt’s commands.

He took short breaks to slurp down one of the four 16-ounce

bottles of water he usually drinks on a typical two-hour ride.

Tongue wagging, panting and drooling, Tyson was done -- and by

picking up his skateboard with his mouth, he was signaled Blauvelt

that he was ready to ride.

“This is his favorite spot to skateboard,” Blauvelt said, as he

stood under the pier, next to Pier Plaza. “It’s a smooth surface here

and it’s cool for him in the shade.”

Tyson came into the Blauvelt family at 6 weeks old. While most

toddlers learn to walk within the first year, Tyson picked up

skateboarding.

“We often compare Tyson to a 2-year-old child,” Blauvelt said. “He

will actually have temper tantrums -- where he’ll bark, whine and

pout -- if he doesn’t get what he wants. Some people would say he is

spoiled, but we appreciate his assertive and expressive nature.”

Tyson, a rock-solid 65 pounds of muscle, is a gentle giant who

loves the attention and hams it up for the camera.

He lives among the Blauvelt’s menagerie of animals that includes

two cockatiels and five cats. He even shares food and water bowls

with the felines.

“He really is a wonderful dog,” Lana Blauvelt said. “He’s low-key

around the house but his personality changes when that skateboard

comes out. We can’t even say the word, ‘skateboard,’ around the

house. We have to spell it out. Otherwise, if he hears it, he gets

revved up and is ready to go.”

Tyson has been around skateboards his entire life. As a puppy, he

watched the Blauvelt’s son, Kyle, and his friends, ride their boards.

Kyle Blauvelt would push Tyson around on his board on the carpet.

But Tyson would go “nuts,” Lana Blauvelt said, when a skater or

skateboarder would pass by them as they walked the boardwalk.

“We really thought he hated skateboards because he’d jump and

lunge at them,” she said. “We thought he was acting angrily toward

skateboards.”

When Tyson was 1, the Blauvelts let him play with a skateboard in

the backyard.

“He went nuts,” Jim Blauvelt said. “He was barking and biting the

board and my wife said, ‘see, he hates skateboards.’ Just as she said

that, he jumps on the board, just for a moment. He is still going

crazy on our little patio, and the moments on the board quickly

increased. It became obvious to us that this dog was trying to ride

the skateboard. He wasn’t hating the skateboarders on the bike path,

he just wanted to jack them for their boards.”

The Blauvelts got Tyson a skateboard -- he rides a board provided

by Bulldog Skates of Huntington Beach -- a harness and extra long

leash. “He’s on his board almost every day and is mad and pouts, just

like a child, when he can’t go out and skate,” Jim Blauvelt said.

“With Tyson and his skating, it’s not so much a trick as it is a

lifestyle.”

Although he may be biased, Jim Blauvelt says Tyson is the

“smartest dog I’ve ever known.”

He knows all of the tricks masters teach their dogs but, he said,

Tyson’s best skill is his ability to communicate.

“With skating, for example, I never have to ask him if he wants to

go,” Jim Blauvelt said. “Instead, he asks me. Whenever he gets the

idea in his head that he’s ready to go skating -- and it’s almost

always his own idea, we do nothing to prompt it -- he comes over to

me and taps me with his paw, and stares into my eyes, tilting his

head from one side to the other.

“In doing this, he’s asking, ‘can we go skating?’” As soon as I

acknowledge his question by repeating, ‘you want to ride your

skateboard?,’ he will answer ‘yes’ with a double bark and run to

where we keep his harness, or to the front door. Occasionally, he’s

even more direct in asking us to go skating. He’ll bring me his

harness in his mouth while wagging his tail, or walk over to his

board and look at me or bark.”

Tyson had his way Monday, and was in all his glory, bringing joy

to those who caught a glimpse of this skateboarding bulldog.

“If he weren’t harnessed in, I think he’d skateboard as long as he

could along this bike path,” Jim Blauvelt said, smiling. “He just

lives to skate.”

* MIKE SCIACCA covers sports and features. He can be reached at

(714) 965-7171 or by e-mail at michael.sciacca@latimes.com.