All For A Few Perfect Waves

Reclusive and gregarious, cocksure and cryptic, uncompromising and contradictory, Miki Da Cat Dora was surfing s most outspoken practitioner, chief anti-hero and enduring mystery. At a time when the Beat poets were howling about the need to just, like, be yourself, man, Miki and a small group of social fringe-dwellers were realising those desires on the translucent swells of Southern California. But who was the real Miki Dora? Born in Los Angeles in 1934, Miklos Sandor Dora was one of the pioneers of the 50 s surf scene - chasing wave after perfect, empty wave, from San Onofre to Malibu to Rincon. But as the beaches became more crowded and the businessmen took over the sport, Miki turned his back on the culture that had made him a hero, preferring instead the life of an outlaw. As his scams caught up with him, in 1973 he was charged with fraud, but he skipped bail and went on the run. He was finally arrested in France in 1981 and spent a year behind bars in the US. After his release Dora quickly became an expatriate and settled variously in New Zealand, South Africa, and France. He would return America once in a while but never again to live, and in the end only to die. Yet t