http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tchHtWNZkDE
…ambrose…
period stuff quite eclipsed by now
but refreshingly familiar
to an appreciative eye.
easy to identify frame grabs
published as stills
through the years.
I’ve seen video of Dora surfing in the 70’s and it’s just not the same. There’s some shots of him in “Surfer’s the Movie” from the 90’s (?) too. His best surfing was on the longboards in the 60s.
Nat Young’s short board surfing from the 70’s was so powerful but so smooth. I think that style influenced a lot of us in Hawaii.
Dora was an asshole who had no problems ripping off anyone in his path. Sadly because of the time and where he grew up, and could surf he became iconic. Not my hero in any capacity. I can’t stand anything Dora. Besides Phil ripped over him always. So many people who surf merit respect, but not him.
Totally disagree. Dora is awesome. Thanks ambrose for pointing this out
My Dora says your dora is a pendejo.
As a kid Dora was literally abandoned at the beach by his parents for weeks at a time, surviving and even thriving by becoming utterly self reliant, and as a result spent the rest of his life with zero compunctions about doing whatever it took to make his way, no matter how ruthless.
Had lunch with Greg Noll in his home town a few years back, he talked a fair amount about Dora. The best all around surfer he had ever seen, could not be trusted in any way, working with him on the Da Cat model the biggest pain ever. And in spite of that, couldn’t help but like him for who he was.
master stylist, scoundrel, prankster, perpetual wanderer, Dora is legend.
just watch the trim line.
pathological sociopath
criminal outsider with
a swath of a ronin.
would that we could
ask P.E. who he would
like to surf with/like…
…ambrose…
bought his own
turtlenecks and
not sponsored
by corperate
but would have taken
their money and
urinated on their mail.
next on the shortlist
for crucifixion.
love him or dont
an original beach rat.
dora,
popular with the bullfighting cultures.
…ambrose…
in a time of so much bull the need for a skalliwag
to stand before the tide and stand for somthing
greater than a market share.
In the time of dora, noll was the bull es verdad?
corperate wanted him so bad.
remember the bull fighting -surfing era?http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgCclnvkehA
or maybe not,manolete was the icon
to understand the men look to their heros
ah yes the untouchable heros
the more remote they reside the more influential they become.
let us not forget
Don Juan Matus Matus is described as a Yaqui Indian to whom Castaneda was first introduced at a bus depot inYuma, Arizona in the early 1960s. He turns out to be a ‘Man of Knowledge’ who imparts much of his wisdom and clarity through his ‘connection’ with Castaneda. The Knowledge is passed on to Castaneda by means of actual experiences, simple exercises and much patience on the part of both which ends in further transforming both characters’ view of the world.
Yale University's Anthropology Chair, William W. Kelly:[1]
nothing like a good Dora exchange.... ''real men don't use the handle...'''“I doubt you’ll find an anthropologist of my generation who regards Castaneda as anything but a clever con man. It was a hoax, and surely don Juan never existed as anything like the figure of his books. Perhaps to many it is an amusing footnote to the gullibility of naive scholars, although to me it remains a disturbing and unforgivable breach of ethics.”[1]
max graham told me dora said that… HA!
real men?..HA!
faccimalies all of us are…
Anyone familiar with Dave Rensin’s Dora bio will know the title and what it stood for.
The book, and Dora’s life story, basically asks the questions: “How far would you go? How deep is your commitment?”
Dora’s flawed character drove him to forsake friends, family, security, and stability all so that he could surf. His methods were far less than admirable at times and he left a trail of broken trust and relationships in his path. It was all for a few perfect waves.
Dora’s report card (at least in my book):
As a surfer: A+
As a human being: F
“As a kid Dora was literally abandoned at the beach by his parents for
weeks at a time, surviving and even thriving by becoming utterly self
reliant, and as a result spent the rest of his life with zero
compunctions about doing whatever it took to make his way, no matter how
ruthless”
Lots of people have crappy childhoods, but not all of them turn into self-serving assholes. Explaining away a person’s adult bad behavior based on his unfortunate experiences during childhood may serve as an excuse, but certainly doesn’t offer any valid justification. One of the benchmarks of adulthood involves accepting responsibility for your own behavior instead of blaming the world for your misdeeds.
I think it’s funny that the people criticizing Dora for his lifestyle are doing the same. The surfing industry including the small time builders are just as bad. The big names just want to keep sales going paying magazines and “pros” to sell their crap, be it clothes, boards, accessories. It’s OK to lie and sell crap to the public, which is to me ripping them off. The small guys will do whatever they can to copy what seems to be selling to hopefully be able to have a “name” and make a living in the “surf industry”.
There’s only a small percentage of originals, carving out their unique products, and once they get something really interesting, everyone here tries to copy it. Look at the compsands, the hollows, the hess rips offs. Guys are trying to figure out what coil does and mess with their sales. Why? So they can make a few bucks. Look at all the Tomo style boards out there, Bonzers, or the variations of Joe Bauguess’ mini simmons.
Dora may have been a con man, he may have lied or stolen to get what he wanted, but he didn’t deny it once he got caught. He burned a lot of bridges but just kept on moving along. He never blamed anyone or anything for the way he lived, he just did what he wanted.
His surfing at Malibu during the longboard era was perhaps the smoothest controlled riding ever. Lot of people will say Phil was better, but I think Miki was the smoothest of all. Mr Cool on a surfboard. I have not seen movies of anyone surfing Malibu better than Miki during that time.
“Dropknee, I didn’t make my statement towards you personally.”
Nor did I take it personal. No problem. Sorry if I came across that way. I think we’re basically on about the same page.
“There’s still a bunch of A-holes surfers that think they can be like that today”
Amen to that: especially the “I’m a hot, young, aspiring pro and you’re just a recreational surfer so I’m entitled to snake your wave” syndrome. Localism is another one…yet another excuse for acting like a selfish dick. Or surf schools: “who cares how many kooks on sponges I dump into the already-overcrowded local breaks? Just so long as I can finance MY next trip to the South Pacific”. Talk about fouling your own nest…
That’s why I think it’s so important to not shrug off Dora’s significant character flaws just because he ripped (and I don’t mean to say that that’s what you, personally, are doing). The more people are allowed to get away with rationalizing bad behavior, the more they will keep behaving badly.
steps down off soapbox
“I think it’s funny that the people criticizing Dora for his lifestyle are doing the same. The surfing industry including the small time builders are just as bad. The big names just want to keep sales going paying magazines and “pros” to sell their crap, be it clothes, boards, accessories.”
“The same”? Please explain to me how stocking a retail outlet with lame merchandise and offering it for sale (some surf shops) is the equivalent of crashing a party and stealing wallets and purses out of the coat room (Dora).
In the first case, the mark has freedom of choice as to whether or not he falls for the hype and forks over his money. In the second case, a thief sneaks into a private home uninvited and steals stuff from unsuspecting guests. I’d say there’s a difference of several orders of magnitude between the two.
Don’t get me wrong: I have no love for commercialized surfing or the over-priced flip-flops that surf shops hawk, nor do I own or work in a surf shop. But all I have to do is choose not to buy into or support those things in order to keep from being victimized by them. Neither the ASP nor my local shaper has ever snuck into my house at night to steal my credit cards. If they had, I’d say that your comparison had more merit.
As for the people who are still enamored by Dora even after having been personally burned by him? Hey: that’s certainly their right, but it kind of reminds me of “beaten wife” syndrome.
Some of the crap Dora did to enable him to “live the dream” was beyond “sketchy” or “shady”…it was flat-out criminal. Was he one of the best surfers to ever ride a wave? You bet, especially when evaluated within the context of his times. Was he also a scumbag of a person? Yup. In my world, his exceptional surfing skills don’t buy him a pass for the other stuff he did, so I’ll stick with my original “report card”.
Of course, Dora was not unique in this regard: many (though certainly not all) “exceptional talents” are also prima donas, borderline sociopaths and/or generally despicable people, despite their gifts. They’re seldom as squeeky-clean as us mere mortals ;-).
In 62 or 63, when I was 12 or 13, I saw him intentionally and brutally take out a kid that was riding in front of him at Malibu.
Dora was a grown man…the kid was pre teen. The kid stumbled up the beach holding his bleeding head. I tried to get my buddies to team with me and give da cat a proper beat down…We did nothing…
Dora probably never got the ass kicking he needed…Took years…but someone finally straightened out Nat Young and he is probably a better man for it.
When it comes to riding Malibu though, no one could finesse the place like him!
rogelio
Dropknee, I didn’t make my statement towards you personally. I don’t know what your
involvement in the surfing industry is, but a good number of those in the
“industry” including the wannabe builders here are hypocrites, do what you have to do to make enough money and live the surfing life.
I don’t condone anything he did, and I surely don’t like seeing people who do that today. Dora did what he did, paid the price for some of it, maybe a lot of it. He’s dead and gone, died a lonely soul in his father’s care. There’s still a bunch of A-holes surfers that think they can be like that today.
He wasn’t a good person, but he sure was a great surfer in his prime, and his style of riding affected many of us, myself included.
I bought the bio of Miki read it and gave it to my brother. I found it interesting and I also bought the bio of Micheal Peterson, another great surfer and surfing influence who was terrible person.
Or surf schools: "who cares how many kooks on sponges I dump into the already-overcrowded local breaks?
Amen to that. I love to see kids learning to surf but when 30 of them paddle out into the lineup - when empty waves are 100 yards north (in front of a lifeguard) - I start to feel like a grumpy old man. It seems that every surf camp forgets to teach the rules of surf etiquette.
Ain’t that the truth. I’ve found myself working for quite a few of them in this industry .
What struck me most after watching those videos (thanks Ambrose) was seeing how anarchical Malibu was even back then. If you grew up surfing a spot uncrowded and then found it over run with anarchists…I wonder how we’d react?
Another thing that struck me watching those videos was that if he really wanted to, he could have took off a lot of (deserving?) heads. Most of the time he’s just kicking out and timing it just right so that nothing happens. He seemed almost forgiving to me.
hahaha, we don’t often agree Mr. Rat but, I couldn’t have said this better myself…
by every account, the guy was a troll