#2. Miki Dora
Miki Dora is, in large part, responsible for the rebel-side of surfing. The undisputed king of Malibu in the 1950s and early ’60s, “Da Cat” rode with what is possibly the most definitive style in surfing’s history. On and off the waves, Miklos “Miki” Dora carried himself in such a way that attracted throngs of followers and hangers-on, much to his very apparent disdain. Thought of as somewhat of a walking contradiction, Miki seemed to often seek out attention, then chastise who ever gave it to him. For all of his fame and press, Dora remains today one of the least known surfers. While much of his personal life has been exposed on paper and in countless books, one thing that remains constant in almost all of them is his aura of mystery, who some say was slightly affected in an effort to stay in the public’s eye. He spent much of his life as a loner, not for lack of people in his life, but for his own personal dislike for most of them. “I don’t expect everyone to live my life,” he said in an interview. “Why should they? It’s pretty lonely.”
Born in 1934 in Budapest, Hungary, Dora’s parents divorced before he was ten. His mother married a surfer named Gard Chapin from California, who, according to David Rensin in All For a Few Perfect Waves, drank heavily in his later years. Chapin was regarded at one point, as California’s best surfer, and introduced Miki to the sport at a young age. As a teen, he spent most of his time bouncing from San Onofre to Malibu, and frequented spots in between. As he grew older, though, he spent more time at Malibu, eventually mastering the wave in a way that no one had before, or has since. He turned his back on the Gidget-era, horribly disappointed with how Hollywood’s intervention on his beloved lifestyle changed it forever, but conflicted at how easy it was for him to make a quick buck in it, given his stature at the epicenter of the movement.
Dora died of cancer in 2002 at the age of 67, after a troubled few decades. A warrant was issued for his arrest in the early ’70s, which was quickly followed by a few more. By the mid-7os, he was on the run, and stayed that way until 1982, when he spent most of that year in jail. One of the most fitting descriptions of Miki Dora came from a London Times obituary that described him as a “West Coast archetype and antihero . . . the siren voice of a nonconformist surfing lifestyle.”
