Product Description

There will never be another surfer like Miki 'Da Cat' Dora. For twenty years the dashing and enigmatic dark prince of California surfing dominated the Malibu waves and his peers' imaginations, blazing a rebel trail that would inspire generations to come. But when the sport exploded into the mainstream and surfing changed for ever, Dora's paradise was lost. Outraged at gridlocked swells and a scene that had grown ever more commodified, Dora eventually fled Malibu, seeking empty waves - and anonymity - beyond America. He'd also run afoul of the law, and he led the authorities on a seven-year chase around the globe. After his arrest and imprisonment, he would return to America once in a while, but never again to live, and in the end only to die.Dora would never give up searching for the spirit of the Malibu he'd lost. Wherever he made his home - New Zealand, South Africa, France - he personified the rebel heart of surfing and became a legend in his own time. This brilliant biography, based on interviews with more than three hundred people who knew Dora, finally uncovers the truth about surfing's most seductive and complicated icon. It is the story of one man's insistence on personal freedom - and the rewards and the costs that brings. It is also a story of innocence lost, of the growth and commercialization of the California lifestyle. Loner. Rebel. Wanderer. Legend. The life of Miki Dora is the greatest surf story never told.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #81911 in Books
• Published on: 2008-04-03
• Binding: Paperback
• 496 pages

The Observer
`Book of the week by a mile is David Rensin's excellent biog of Miki `Da Cat'

About the Author
David Rensin has written and cowritten twelve books, five of them New York Times bestsellers. His previous book The Mailroom: Hollywood History from the Bottom Up, an oral history of what it's like to start at the bottom in a talent agency mailroom while dreaming of the top, spent ten weeks on the Los Angeles Times bestseller list. He lives in Los Angeles.

Customer Reviews

"the greatest surfer that ever lived"
Miki Dora spent his life looking for the perfect wave.

Dora has been described as the greatest surfer that ever lived. Even after his death his nickname of "Da Cat" still appears grafittied on the wall of a Malibu Beach. For twenty years the dashing and dark Dora dominated the emerging California surf culture of the fifties. A rebel to the core, Dora was graceful and aggressive on wave and land (hence being called Da Cat). He was worshipped for his style and attitude; he was cursed for his methods of maintaining his idyllic lifestyle - scamming and even stealing his friend's credit cards if he had to.

Then Hollywood crashed the beach party with the Gidget movies. Suddenly every Dick and Jane wanted to surf and the money grabbing surf industry moved in. Eden was now over for Miki and he fled America disillusioned, the FBI hot on his tail for a string of fraud charges. Thus began a world tour in search of the perfect wave before Dora was forced to return to the US to spend a year in jail. Following his release he lived out his life in places such as New Zealand, France and South Africa, leaving a trail of awe and deceit until he finally returned to California to die of cancer.

David Rensin, an experienced and accomplished US journalist who has interviewed and written on just about everyone in Hollywood has done fine research with hundreds of people who knew and had contact with Dora over his life and Rensin lets them tell the story of this enigmatic character.

It's a book not just about surfing and a surfer. It's a story about a birth and death of a culture, of someone who is not prepared to sell out to the system no matter what the cost.

The book describes Miki's many alleged exploits that include stunt doubling Elvis Presley in a movie, mooning the judges at a surf contest, snogging Barbara Streisand at a Hollywood party, buying jewellery with a stolen cheque book in South America, spending time in the same prison as serial killer Charles Manson, turning down film and book offers, looking for uncut diamonds in South West Africa and sending "a friend" some his excrement in the post.

I read the book because I'm a surfer but the man's audacious life was so beyond the bounds of what most of us would consider normal it would interest many readers beyond the beach and board.

Hollywood seems to think so. They bought the film rights of the book before it was released and Leonardo de Caprio is planned to play the charming and cheating Miki Dora in the same spirit as Catch Me if You Can. The movie could succeed on a big scale. Miki's life was a story rich with character, conflict and climax and even an unexpected twist at the end.

Miki may not have found the perfect wave of heaven but he had one hell of a time searching for it.

an inspirational tale about a misunderstood guy
A true insight into the real life of "Da cat" an emotional journey through his unconventional lifestyle made me quite envious by the end... one hell of a life!! A legend who will always hold a place in my heart. If your a soul surfer this is the book for you.

Dora Lives
I love surfing and I wanted a surfing book to read when I went on holiday. This book is amazing. The life of Miki Dora was so interesting. Reading this book put a smile on my face, inspired me, made me want to go and surf, make the most of life.. and even put a tear in my eye.
If you surf, this is a must read.