Miki Dora

Miki "Da Cat" Dora, a.k.a. Mickey Dora, a.k.a. "The Black Knight," "the Gypsy Darling," "Malibu Mickey," "Kung'Bu," "the Fiasco Kid," (b. Miklos Sandor Dora 11 August 1934, Budapest, Hungary - d. 3 January 2002, Montecito, California, ) was an iconic Malibu surfer of the 1950s and 1960s. He featured in the surf movie The Endless Summer, and is credited in several beach party films: Beach Party (1963), Surf Party (1964), Muscle Beach Party (1964), Bikini Beach (1964), Beach Blanket Bingo (1965), Ski Party (1965) and How to Stuff a Wild Bikini (1965).

Dora was introduced to surfing by his father, Miklos, in the late 1930s. Steve Pezman, in The Surfers Journal (volume 11, Number Two, Spring 2002), writes:

"Mr. Dora returned and invited us into the den where the walls were covered with photos. Pointing to an image on the wall, he explained the young boy and young man in surf trunks standing on the sand in front of a bluff. "Here I am with Miki on our first day at San Onofre in 1940. Miki is six in the photo." Surprised, Munoz asks, "Did you surf?" Miklos answers, "Oh, yes. I wasn't ever that good, but I frequented the Cove and San Onofre back in the '30s and '40s. I took Miki to the Cove for his first surf at age four." We had both always assumed that it was Miki's stepdad, Gard Chapin, who launched his surfing, that his real father was more the city sophisticate, removed from the beach scene. But, no, not at all."

His stepfather Gard Chapin was also a "surf pioneer . . . a roughneck rebel who neer fit into polite society." Chapin's obsessions with surfboard design brought Dora into contact with California industrial designers including visits to the studio of Charles and Ray Eames.

Dora's signature board, released in 1966, became the biggest seller in history, and again on its rerelease 25 years later. One of the advertisements features Dora being crucified on two of his boards.

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Wikipedia