When the Frisbees Fly Dogs Rise to the Occasion

When Hans Barth goes back home to Heidelberg, Germany, he will have plenty to tell his friends about yesterday’s Freestyle Frisbee Competition at the Ventura Pier.

“When I think of Frisbee I think of throwing, catching and running,” said the 21-year-old Barth, who is staying with friends in Camarillo. “This is performance. I’ve never tried anything like this.”

The first day of the weekend competition on the beach outside the Holiday Inn featured about 20 of the country’s top two-man Frisbee teams, mostly from Central and Southern California, as well as an exhibition by three championship dogs and their owners.

Ventura’s Chip Bell, a past World Frisbee champion, organized the event. “My goal was to have about 36 of my friends come up and play Frisbee with me,” he said.

One of those friends was Glenn Medford of Valencia and his Labrador retriever, Britt. As a canine Frisbee team they are ranked sixth in the Far West region. Medford said catching Frisbees comes naturally to Britt.

“Catching a Frisbee in the air is like catching game--it’s like a bird flying in the air,” he said. “I think it’s more natural than catching a tennis ball.”

Medford said dogs try to intimidate their opponents in Frisbee competitions. “You see it with the male dogs more than with the females,” he said. “You can tell by the way they walk. They just sort of prance around, like the head of the pack.”

The team of Mike Miller and Pro, a Belgian tervuren, were also on hand. Miller said his 18-month-old dog has been catching Frisbees since she was 6 weeks old.

“I specifically went to get a dog that could do that. I went where she came from, took all the females and threw a 3-inch Frisbee in the middle of them,” Miller said. “She went after it right away. I knew she was the one I wanted.”

On the human side of the action, Bell and his partner, Dave Bailey, who have been tossing to each other for five years, admitted that their training schedule isn’t quite as strenuous as that of some of the other duos because they both recently became fathers.

“It’s harder to get out and practice,” Bailey said. “A lot of guys get together both days of the weekend and work out all day. We maybe have one day to work out and then we can only do it part of the time.”

David Zeff of Santa Barbara, the 1990 World Beach Freestyle Frisbee champion, said he has also cut down on his practice time. He no longer works out at the beach three to five hours a day, six days a week, as he said all beginners should do if they want to succeed in the sport.

“It takes a lot of work. It’s embarrassing to say, but I practice only about 10 hours a week now,” he said. “This sport takes a lot of dance movement. I even took two years of beginning ballet to get my legs strong.”

Though Zeff said about 30% of the participants in the sport are female, no women competed during the first day. Mixed doubles had to be canceled because most of the top women players were participating in Frisbee competitions elsewhere.

The one female competitor who did show up was Bethany Porter of San Diego.

“It’s a little lonely,” she said.

Competition will continue today.