Just finishing David Rensin’s Miki Dora biography, “All For a Few Perfect Waves”.
I grew up and learned to surf in in the SM Bay area while Dora was still riding the 'Bu occasionally but, being much younger than he, never actually met or had any direct interaction with him (though I guess I could’ve changed that by dropping in in front of him, eh?) Nonetheless, it was clear to me and (everybody else in the area) that he was an extraordinarily talented surfer with a reputation for somewhat shady behavior.
But I never understood just how manipulative and utterly self-serving a person he apparently was til I read this book, which is mostly comprised of interviews of Dora himself and the comments of friends, acquaintances, family and enemies (as opposed to merely a bunch of unsubstantiated opinions of the author alone).
I still think of him as one of the greatest surfers of all time (especially factoring in the relatively crude equipment available during his surfing prime), but some of the rotten crap he pulled, on even his “friends”?
I read it when first published. I was surprised to see a guy I knew a long time ago mentioned in the book as a friend of Dora’s. I contacted Rensin and got the email addy of my old friend. We re-connected after a good 30 years of not hearing from each other. Last I knew he was living in Malibu, but now I found out he’s been in Hawaii for decades.
I have given copies of the book to two people. One said she could not put it down, the other found the writing style not to her liking and never finished it. Neither of these women surf.
The main thing I took from the book was this…
It poses the question we all must have asked ourselves at one time in our lives. How far are you willing to go to pursue the thing that makes up your core? Would you sacrifice everything and anything? Your freedom, even? Would you be willing to abandon old friends, alienate loved ones? Dora took it to an extreme. His actions were those of a man with a broken moral compass. But still, where would you draw the line? How important is this complete waste of time called “surfing” to you as a person?
I bought that book. Mine has a little story to it.
I bought the book to read on a flight to Italy. While waiting in a ridiculously long check in line at LAX, I see a guy come through the doors with a board bag and was thinking, “Lucky Arse. Wonder where he’s going?” When the person passed by it was none other than Kelly Slater. Now I’m not a celebrity hound and never chase after autographs, but Damn! This was Kelly Slater. He was by himself, checking in at a Thai Airlines counter where no one else waiting. When he went to drop off his boards I slipped out of line (I asked some German guys to save my place and told them it was Kelly Slater and they looked at me like, Kelly who?) and had him autograph my Dora book. He was totally cool, almost like he wanted to chat, told me about the time he met Dora in France but I think I was a bit star struck and didn’t know what to say. I think this was just before he won title #9. I wished him luck.
So my Dora book has a Slater autograph. Pretty cool…
“How far are you willing to go to pursue the thing that makes up your core?”
I’ve never stopped surfing, but I admit that it has risen and fallen on my priority list over the years. I cut way back on my beach time while raising a family and don’t regret it. Especially since, now that my kids are grown and independent and I’m retired, I’m back to being as much of a beach rat as I ever was during my teens and twenties. So I guess I opted for the middle ground.
Pablo Picasso was a great artist. But from what I’ve read about him, he was pretty rough on the women in his life and drained the energy out of just about everyone who came with range. I guess that such single-minded focus, and jealous dedication to a single pursuit just tends to exact a price in other departments of a person’s existence.
[img_assist|nid=1062661|title=doravaggio|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=89|height=100]Caravaggio was an impulsive arrogant walking-disaster-waiting to happen, but he was also the most talented, sublime and true artist of his time & really, of all times - there were no compromises with his work. Dora is the Caravaggio of surfing - I read the Rensin bio & it did the whole deal justice, in my opinion.
I don’t need to be like him, but I think I understand, & really the title says it all!
I always figured that the evil twin brother version of the classic life skills book "how to win friends , and influence [love] people" , would be a book with a title like " how to USE / LOSE friends , and ALIENATE people " .
... [was THAT ever written , by the way ? I've met a few experts who could write that from personal experience , but who wouldn't have the honesty needed to do it , unfortunately !]
If so , perhaps the sequel / follow-up volume could be a more humourous / ? less depressing ? volume called something along the lines of ....
"if I wanted to hear from an arsehole ... I would have FARTED ! "
.... just random 'musings' ..... ( a humourous piss-take book like that could be FUN , eh ?! Maybe Roy Slaven and H.G. Nelson [google them , if unsure!] could be the joint authors ....)
I met Miki just once while he was staying at my friend Jean-Yves Robert’s place in Bidart. I was introduced to him as being a shaper and he started talking about having his own Greg Noll model and how much money those were worth and so on. I said that even in France, a few people did know about the “Da Cat” model and he seemed surprised… Frankly, I wasn’t much impressed by the guy. That afternoon, he was trying to find someone who would know some veterinary because he needed vaccinations to be done on his famous King Charles dog before leaving for South Africa. For free, of course… I didn’t know him enough to judge his behaviour but when I read the book (much later) I realized that he acted like this all the time: picking up from others whatever could be picked. Again, I didn’t know him so I can’t say whether he gave anything in exchange or not…Doesn’t seem so, though.
As for the “what would YOU do for a few perfect waves?” , I would answer “certainly not much”. I have had a lot of them, already and I intend on having a few more for sure but there are other things in life that are much more important than waves and surfing. I surely would not sacrifice my family or friends for any so-called “perfect wave”. We have a saying that goes something like: “The most beautiful woman in the world can only give what she has to offer”.
I think that what I am trying to say is that we have so many more individuals in surfing who are much less advertised although they are much more interesting as human beings.
he was smart, quick, and from the little time i spent with him, i realized he could “read” people quickly, and know who he could mess with verbally, or who he could “work” for something else he may have needed. yes, he screwed people over and did some unsavory things, but i admire him for his dedication to his desire to surf when and where he wanted to. . in that respect he stuck to his guns and did what was necesary to live that life.
it may sound romantic to some-surf, travel and not work, but i imagine in reality it was unpleasant for him most of the time…
“recon youre a bit of a romantic. Dora is the caravaggio of surfing? Really…Mike”
o.k., you busted me, but hey I’m an art teacher, what do you expect?!!
I’ve read both of Slater’s (ghosted) bios too…
Looking at the big picture, I admire Dora’s anti-establishment/contest/commercialism stance. He drew a line that said surfing shouldn’t be about a few corporate moguls getting rich off of what he saw as a purist pursuit. I can’t find any fault in that line of thinking.
yes be he mostly ripped off individuals...not corporations...
and his "quest" wasn't noble..it was selfish..
and shit...when your friends have to make excuses for knowing you..
"i respected his intelligence, his creativity,and obviously, his surfing prowness. he was interesting, but our ethics were different, and i just couldn't hang out with him as a buddy."
-micky munoz/no bad waves
no one ever says stuff like that about phil edwards or jerry lopez...
There are bad people that surf well, and Dora was one of them. Dora was a manipulative, sociopathic, narcissistic loser. A total punk. My favorite part of the book was when he tried to bully someone smaller and got his ass kicked. Turns out the "little guy" was a Golden Gloves boxer. But, I've heard he could surf well (although there is little cinemagraphic evidence documenting this). IMHO not better than Edwards or Lopez or Hynson, though. Had Dora's addiction been something other than riding waves, he would not have been anyone worth mentioning, let alone knowing or having a book written about him. I think even he, at some level, understood this. I'm glad I never met him.