E-Book Overview
There will never be another surfer like Miki 'Da Cat' Dora. No one. Not even close. Dora was surfing's most outspoken practitioner, charismatic prince, chief antihero, committed loner, and enduring mystery. From the early 1950s through the early 1970s, this enigmatic rebel with movie star looks and a restless intelligence dominated the Malibu waves and his peers' imaginations -- both on and off the beach -- blazing a singular trail that would inspire generations to come. But when, post-Gidget, the sport exploded into the mainstream in 1959-60, and surfing changed forever -- many say for the worse -- Dora's paradise was lost. Outraged at gridlocked swells and a scene that had grown ever more commodified, as well as what he perceived as society's inevitable corruption and compromise, Dora eventually fled Malibu, seeking empty waves - and anonymity - beyond America. He'd also run afoul of the law, and he led the authorities on a seven-year chase around the globe. After his arrest in 1981, and some jail time, he left America, returning once in a while to visit, but never again to live -- and in the end (2001) only to die. Dora would never give up searching for the spirit of the Malibu he'd lost, or for the freedom to live as he chose. Wherever he made his home - New Zealand, South Africa, France - he personified the rebel heart of surfing and, unlike other wavemasters, became a legend in his own time. This brilliant oral/narrative biography is based on interviews with more than three hundred people who knew Dora, as well as the author's own encounters with him. It uncovers more truth than thought possible about surfing's most seductive and complicated icon. It is the story of one man's insistence on personal freedom, and the rewards and the costs that brings. It is also a story of innocence lost, of the growth and commercialization of the post WWII California lifestyle. Loner. Rebel. Outlaw. Wanderer. Legend. The life of Miki Dora is the greatest surf story never told. It's all about surfing, and not about surfing at all.
E-Book Content
All for a Few Perfect Waves The Audacious Life and Legend of Rebel Surfer Miki Dora DAVID RENSIN For Miki and his family: in salt water, in secret, and in blood For Ernest, Gerda, Joe, Sarah, Elizabeth, and Adam Rensin For Helen, Pete, Gary, and Paul Peterson For Suzie and Emmett, for always . . . as always Whoso would be a man, must be a nonconformist. He who would gather immortal palms must not be hindered by the name of goodness, but must explore if it be goodness. Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind. Absolve you to yourself, and you shall have the suffrage of the world. —Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Self-Reliance" I do not recognize anyone’s right to pilfer one minute of my life, nor to any achievement of mine, no matter who makes the claim, how large their number, or how great their need. — Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead He who is a legend in his own time is ruled by that legend. It may begin in absolute innocence but to cover up flaws and maintain the myth of divine power, one has to employ desperate measures. — Victor Hugo Contents Epigraph iv Foreword by Harry Hodge viii DoraWorld 1 LONER 1. Same Son of Different Fathers 27 2. The Vintage Years 58 REBEL 3. Portrait of the Artist as a Young Wave Rider 77 4. The Angry Young Man of Surfing 106 5. Throwing a Monkey Wrench into the Works 122 6. What’s in It for Me? 135 7. Da Cat 162 8. The Point of No Return 173 OUTLAW 9. Horseman of the Apocalypse 191 10. Whereabouts Unknown 220 11. Honorable Gentleman, Guest of the State 251 vii Co n te n t s WANDERER 12. Sink or Swim 293 13. Deep Cover 307 14. You’ve Got to Ride the Wave in the Direction It’s Going 331 15. In Search of Da Cat 347 16. Da Cat in Search of Himself 359 17. Man Ove