Ryan Rustan: Sugar,
you want to go surfing today?
You wanna go surf?
Do you wanna go surf in the water?
Sugie, do you want to go surfing?
You want to go surfing today?
Let's go to the beach!
Yeah, let's go!
Is that your board up there?
(dog barking)
Which one is your board?
Is it this one?
(dog barking)
Is it that one?
Which one?
Do you want to get on that one?
(relaxing music)
I didn't really like growing up as a kid.
I had a lot of problems..
People didn't really know what was up with Rusto
back in the day.
They didn't really know, you know,
what was up with me.
And, I didn't like school,
even from a young age.
I always had my desk turned around backwards
and check marks on the board and I never could go home
when all the other kids went home.
I just had a lot of anger, you know,
as a young kid.
Just like rage at four or five years old..
I just was pissed..
When I was like in first grade,
I couldn't talk the whole time in school,
because I was screaming the whole time at home.
I have no idea why I was screaming..
My dad would ask me, what's wrong with you?
I have no fucking idea, I just was..
Yeah, I have natural aggression,
I am fucking straight up raw, and I cannot hide that at all.
It's funny, like, I go out there
and you'd think I'd be like not stressed out
after like three hours of surfing.
Sometimes, I come in and I'm like more mad.
I have to like cool off..
She was found in the streets of Oakland
and all skinny and missing her teeth
and I just fell in love with her.
She needed me, and I never had anything
that really needed me before,
and I guess that having that thing
that, you know, something that really needs you,
means a lot, so..
Anyways, yeah, it's third generation,
my grandpa was a surfer, my dad was on the Gordie team
in the 60's, before the Hole in the Wall Gang.
I basically just told her, you know,
like, hey, we're a surfing family,
we surf.
I say to Sugar, do you want to go surfing?
She gets all excited when I put her fins in her board,
watch..
(laughing)
You gotta stay here, we'll go surfing another day!
Inside, inside!
(laughing)
Are you ready to go?
On any given day, when there's people out there,
when Sugar comes out,
the whole pier lines up with people
and all the local rippers from here
they all support Sugar and they're all super nice to her.
People just get stoked on Sugar..
I never expected her to be so good, you know?
I feel like Sugar has this ultra sense,
she knows what she's doing in the water
from counter-balancing to just staying low
to moving back when I'm moving forward.
Everything that she does she's working with that board
to make it to shore.
(rock music playing)
When I'm out there in the water
after she catches a good wave
I spin her around and am biting her
in this part of her head,
I bite it with my mouth, you know..
(laughing)
Yeah, we're always having moments..
(yelling)
She has the record for the biggest wave
on a short board,
you know, how many times did she fall today?
Um, none?
There's no dogs better than Sugar.
(TV playing)
TV Anchor: With 35 hours of tattoo work
on his head alone, Rusty is quite admittedly
a tough looking guy..
An unlikely love story between man and dog..
-: My little job at the surf shop,
it just means the absolute world to me,
and I just love it.
I can bring Sugar there,
and I get to work on my communication skills with people,
for people to have a chance to get to know me.
Sugar The Surfing Dog..
(relaxing music)
I've always kissed Sugar right here in the middle.
Even if I just press down really hard right there
with my lips, and just rest right there for a minute
and just mentally talk to her..
Really, just let her know I'm so proud of her,
and just give her that.
Four years of her wearing on my heart
has really changed my life.
She's allowed me to love..
My own father never taught me how to love,
church didn't teach me how to love,
the ocean didn't teach me how to love.
Sugar straight up taught me how to love.
She is like the release to all the negativity in life.
My mind stops, everything stops,
I don't think about anything, I can just be.
All I want to do is just be like the nicest, coolest guy,
and, you know, before I had Sugar, I really didn't care.
You know, I don't have much,
I've got like a hundred bucks to my name,
I don't have a car, driver's license.
I'm 37 years old..
I got my Sugar, and I'm stoked.