HUNTINGTON BEACH – Let it be said that you haven’t truly lived until you’ve seen hundreds of corgis running on the beach, many in costume and all with their bellies dragging in the sand.

Corgi Beach Day returned to Huntington Beach on Saturday for the ninth time and largest event yet. Owners of the beloved stumpy breed came from across Southern California so their dogs could pose for photos, compete in the limbo contest and play in the waves.

Beneath a “So Cal Corgi Nation” banner sat Mr. Pickles, an 8-year-old, tan-and-white corgi dressed in his beachwear best.

“He’s the official host and reason we’re all here,” said Dan McLemore, who organizes the event with his wife, Kelly.

Mr. Pickles is the Lakewood couple’s first corgi, adopted after Kelly McLemore fell in love with the breed’s “unique physique.” The McLemores started connecting with other Southern California corgi owners on social media about five years ago, joining forces to crowdfund when someone’s pooch needed surgery or spread the word when one went missing. In October 2012, they decided it was time to meet in person.

“It more started as a group of friends,” Dan McLemore, 41, said, with around 20 corgis and their owners gathering for the first Corgi Beach Day.

They have met just about every three months since, their numbers growing each time. They were still tallying the total Saturday, though they estimated there were around 500 corgis spread over nearly a mile of coastline.

There were So Cal Corgi Nation stickers, flags and T-shirts for sale, with profits supporting Queen’s Best Stumpy Dog Rescue out of North Hollywood. The nonprofit – its slogan is “saving low-riders, one bark at a time” – has placed 31 corgis in forever homes since Susan Luong and her husband, Mike Dong, founded the group in 2013.

Luong and Dong adopted two corgis of their own several years back and fell in love. As they learned more about the dogs, they became determined to help people understand them.

“They’re a very headstrong breed,” Luong said, which can lead to destructive behavior if they’re not trained.

Corgis’ roots as Welsh herding dogs was evident when a group of them joined forces to edge a larger, confused mutt away from the waves.

Moose, a stocky, 7-year-old English bulldog, didn’t seem to know quite what to make of the sea of corgis around him.

Owner Kevin Song of San Clemente had come with a friend and her corgi, Bunny. Song said he’s never heard of a similar event for bulldogs and suspects it might have something to do with the breed’s nature.

“I think if a bunch of bulldogs got together, they might just lay around. It would be like a bulldog kickback,” he said.

Corgis – and apparently their owners – are much more social, he said.

That friendly, outgoing disposition is what drew Katherine Crotty of Long Beach to recently adopt her first corgi.

“I was just obsessed with them for a really long time, and I told my husband, ‘We’re getting one.’ And that was it,” she said.

Crotty, 26, and her 1-year-old corgi, Mavis Elizabeth, were waiting patiently in line to get a “pawtograph” and photo with the “Corgis of Instagram” of social media fame.

The prize for best costume went to Pippin, a 9-year-old corgi named and dressed for one of the “Lord of the Rings” hobbits.

The Reilly family of Thousand Oaks loves the JRR Tolkien books, mom Eyde Reilly said. They spent a couple days researching and fashioning Pippin’s costume to be authentic, with a foil-covered dagger strapped to the dog’s side, a curl of red hair on his forehead and an elven broach hanging from his neck.

Other contestants included an Elvis, an Ewok, a Little Mermaid, a hammerhead shark and Nala, a 2-year-old corgi disguised as a lobster.

Shonna Trinh of Rosemead bought Nala’s costume during an after-Halloween sale at T.J. Maxx. When she saw a post about Corgi Beach Day on Instagram, she knew it was the perfect opportunity for Nala to make her lobster debut.

The group will gather again at Huntington Dog Beach on July 11, Dan McLemore said, with plans for a corgi surfing contest and corgi kissing booth. They’re also busy organizing a corgi pool party at a pet resort they’ve rented out in Murrieta at the end of August.

“I don’t really know how it’s gotten as big as it has,” McLemore said. “I’m just glad it happened.”

Contact the writer: 714-796-7963 or BStaggs@OCRegister.com