WEBVTT - 7. Misdirection 0:00:15.036 --> 0:00:22.036 Pushkin Hey, Lost Hills listeners, it's Dana. I wanted to 0:00:22.076 --> 0:00:24.196 let you know that you can hear the entire new 0:00:24.236 --> 0:00:27.556 season of Lost Hill's ad free, along with other great 0:00:27.596 --> 0:00:31.836 binge listens by becoming a Pushkin Plus subscriber. Find Pushkin 0:00:31.916 --> 0:00:35.156 Plus on the Lost Hills Show page in Apple Podcasts 0:00:35.356 --> 0:00:45.556 or at pushkin dot fm slash Plus. It was the 0:00:45.636 --> 0:00:49.476 nineteen sixties, the surf media was just getting started, and 0:00:49.556 --> 0:00:51.796 Mickey Dora was it's darling. 0:00:52.796 --> 0:00:55.756 Although the phrase was not extant at the time, I 0:00:55.836 --> 0:00:58.716 think badass would do it. Yeah, not to be fucked 0:00:58.756 --> 0:01:01.876 with the reigning king as it were. I mean, he 0:01:01.996 --> 0:01:04.556 was acknowledged to be the best there was. 0:01:05.796 --> 0:01:08.916 This is Drew Campion. He started surfing in Malibu in 0:01:08.956 --> 0:01:12.556 the early sixties. He wrote for Surfer Magazine and later 0:01:12.596 --> 0:01:13.396 became the editor. 0:01:14.436 --> 0:01:17.996 So it was a conservative publication. And I had been 0:01:18.036 --> 0:01:21.716 living over the hill up and from Malibu in the 0:01:21.756 --> 0:01:28.036 San Fernando Valley and had been introduced to LSD and marijuana. 0:01:29.076 --> 0:01:31.396 I had tasted enough of each of them to have 0:01:32.076 --> 0:01:34.396 a bit of a wrinkle in my perception of the world, 0:01:35.076 --> 0:01:38.316 and so I brought that wrinkle to Surfer. I think 0:01:39.116 --> 0:01:41.716 and people seemed to respond to it. 0:01:43.076 --> 0:01:45.956 Right after he got hired, Drew got a plumb assignment 0:01:46.876 --> 0:01:51.316 to interview Mickey Dora. It was the fall of nineteen 0:01:51.356 --> 0:01:56.156 sixty nine. Mickey had made his reputation as an enigmatic misanthrope, 0:01:56.356 --> 0:01:59.876 a trickster. If you asked him to zig, he would zag. 0:02:01.156 --> 0:02:04.836 He was quote the angry young Man of surfing. One 0:02:04.836 --> 0:02:07.116 of the mags had printed a photo of him flipping 0:02:07.196 --> 0:02:12.276 off the camera. He was also quote mister Malibu, a 0:02:12.356 --> 0:02:17.076 singularly good surfer, singularly identified with the most iconic surf 0:02:17.116 --> 0:02:20.636 spot in the country. Mickey was hard to pin down. 0:02:20.916 --> 0:02:24.356 He rarely gave interviews. This would be a big get 0:02:24.356 --> 0:02:25.156 for the magazine. 0:02:26.156 --> 0:02:27.916 We're on the second floor. We could see down on 0:02:27.916 --> 0:02:30.876 the parking lot. Here comes Mickey and his van, you know, 0:02:30.916 --> 0:02:35.316 and somebody alerted everybody, Oh, Mickey's coming. So Mickey comes 0:02:35.356 --> 0:02:38.356 into the office and looks around, but there's too many 0:02:38.356 --> 0:02:41.716 people in the office, and he says, well, I don't 0:02:41.796 --> 0:02:43.516 really want to I really don't want to do an 0:02:43.596 --> 0:02:47.116 interview here. Can we go somewhere else? And I said, well, 0:02:47.436 --> 0:02:50.836 I live just down the road in San Clementy. We 0:02:50.836 --> 0:02:51.436 could meet there. 0:02:53.276 --> 0:02:55.996 Mickey agreed, Drew told him which exit, and they got 0:02:56.036 --> 0:02:59.276 in their separate cars. Mickey followed Drew on the freeway 0:02:59.396 --> 0:03:03.276 until they reached the exit. Drew got off, but Mickey 0:03:03.316 --> 0:03:04.956 didn't what the fuck? 0:03:05.476 --> 0:03:08.276 So I went straight ahead. At the bottom of the off, 0:03:08.356 --> 0:03:12.196 Ram got back on the freeway and basically chased him 0:03:12.236 --> 0:03:15.236 down the shore and said, Mickey, did you miss the exit? 0:03:15.276 --> 0:03:17.636 And he said, oh, yeah, well, and I had this 0:03:17.796 --> 0:03:20.276 distinct feeling that he hadn't really missed the exit, he 0:03:20.396 --> 0:03:23.596 just dodged the exit, like he dodged a lot of things. 0:03:24.516 --> 0:03:27.436 Finally, Drew got Mickey to his house and the interview 0:03:27.436 --> 0:03:31.916 could begin, but Mickey wasn't feeling it, so. 0:03:31.996 --> 0:03:35.196 He said, you know, whyn't you just give me the 0:03:35.276 --> 0:03:38.836 questions and I'll take him home. I'll do a proper job. 0:03:38.836 --> 0:03:40.596 I'll fill him out for you, and i'll get him 0:03:40.676 --> 0:03:43.276 right back to you. And we went back and forth 0:03:43.276 --> 0:03:45.836 in a little bit. Finally I agreed, he drove off 0:03:45.836 --> 0:03:46.676 with the questions. 0:03:48.756 --> 0:03:51.836 Micky wasn't going to trust some magazine writer with his image. 0:03:52.356 --> 0:03:55.516 His image was his most precious asset. 0:03:56.036 --> 0:03:59.516 So he went home and he started to riff on 0:03:59.676 --> 0:04:02.676 the answers You know, and I don't know. He could 0:04:02.676 --> 0:04:04.116 have smoked a bowl. I don't know. 0:04:05.116 --> 0:04:10.676 Question what is your relationship with drugs? Answer? It is 0:04:10.796 --> 0:04:14.516 possible to find pleasure in hallucinatory fantasies. I'm quite sure 0:04:14.516 --> 0:04:17.956 of it, but I've made my peace with reality. Either 0:04:17.996 --> 0:04:20.396 one one way or the other is going to solve 0:04:20.436 --> 0:04:22.956 the acute overpopulation problem. 0:04:23.756 --> 0:04:29.676 The answers were let's say, free form. They really didn't 0:04:29.676 --> 0:04:34.276 address the subjects directly. They're more like a philosophical treatise, 0:04:34.676 --> 0:04:36.636 divided up in the question and answer for him. 0:04:38.156 --> 0:04:42.556 Question why do you think bombs were planted in your car? Answer? 0:04:43.276 --> 0:04:46.476 Probably to blow me to bits. By the way, there's 0:04:46.516 --> 0:04:49.356 no evidence that anyone ever planted bombs in Mickey's car. 0:04:50.396 --> 0:04:53.436 One of the words that Mickey was often associated with 0:04:53.676 --> 0:04:56.596 behaviorally was something called misdirection. 0:04:57.516 --> 0:05:00.756 Question what changes have you witnessed during the course of 0:05:00.796 --> 0:05:05.876 your surfing career? Answer? First of all, I have no career. 0:05:06.556 --> 0:05:09.596 I was here before and I'll be hereafter. We are 0:05:09.636 --> 0:05:13.316 all soon to undergo the sport's demise in the immediate future. 0:05:15.036 --> 0:05:18.316 So he would do that in conversation. He would do 0:05:18.396 --> 0:05:22.756 that in his kind of approach to surfing and being 0:05:22.756 --> 0:05:25.556 in a crowd, how to avoid people and how to 0:05:25.716 --> 0:05:29.116 encounter them selectively, How to keep people confused and not 0:05:29.236 --> 0:05:30.476 be direct about anything. 0:05:31.716 --> 0:05:34.756 Question why do you feel this fall is going to 0:05:34.756 --> 0:05:39.996 occur in the near future? Answer? The advent of professionalism 0:05:40.116 --> 0:05:43.236 to the sport will be the final blow. These few 0:05:43.356 --> 0:05:47.156 Wall Street flesh merchants desire to unify surfing only to 0:05:47.276 --> 0:05:51.596 extract the wealth. A surfer should think carefully before selling 0:05:51.596 --> 0:05:54.756 his being to these people. Since he's signing his own 0:05:54.796 --> 0:05:56.996 death warrant as a personal entity. 0:05:58.156 --> 0:06:01.396 Something about the word conundrum kind of comes into my mind. 0:06:03.596 --> 0:06:06.556 Mickey was a profit of doom, and he was especially 0:06:06.596 --> 0:06:11.676 gloomy about the idea of surfing becoming professionalized, organized, commercialized. 0:06:12.356 --> 0:06:15.116 He was against anything that took surfing away from its 0:06:15.116 --> 0:06:18.996 simple origins, from that moment when it was just him 0:06:19.036 --> 0:06:21.036 alone in a wave at Malibu. 0:06:25.116 --> 0:06:27.116 So we ran that in Surfer magazine. 0:06:30.076 --> 0:07:02.156 I'm Dana Goodyear and this is Lost Hills, Episode seven, Misdirection, 0:07:11.036 --> 0:07:16.076 nineteen sixty seven. The Malibu Invitational. A beautiful day and 0:07:16.116 --> 0:07:19.476 the waves are perfect, four to six feet and clean. 0:07:20.116 --> 0:07:24.036 It's the best day at Malibu in years. All the 0:07:24.036 --> 0:07:28.476 biggest names in surfing are there, including of course, Mickey Dora. 0:07:29.516 --> 0:07:33.596 This is from a contemporary report quote the cat crept in. 0:07:33.956 --> 0:07:37.316 Dressed in his original tattered and torn trench coat. He 0:07:37.356 --> 0:07:40.476 smiled from under a week's growth of beard. This was 0:07:40.516 --> 0:07:43.196 his Malibu unquote. 0:07:43.516 --> 0:07:47.436 And I had to sit in the judges stand and record. 0:07:47.916 --> 0:07:50.956 The judge would count to a number, you know, black 0:07:51.396 --> 0:07:54.516 eight points, you know, and I was writing it down. 0:07:55.196 --> 0:07:58.996 When it came to the finals. Mickey was quite the 0:07:59.156 --> 0:07:59.796 young showman. 0:08:00.636 --> 0:08:03.556 This is Linda Kai. She was a teenager, a member 0:08:03.596 --> 0:08:06.516 of the Malibu Surf Association working in the judges booth. 0:08:07.196 --> 0:08:11.996 Everyone was watching Mickey and then he did something totally unexpected. 0:08:13.516 --> 0:08:15.436 He did a little bit of a pull my pants 0:08:15.476 --> 0:08:17.036 down and here you go, judges, what do you think 0:08:17.076 --> 0:08:17.276 of that? 0:08:18.756 --> 0:08:22.596 Mickey was, as they called it back then, hanging ba 0:08:23.556 --> 0:08:25.236 for bare ass. 0:08:26.436 --> 0:08:30.716 I don't know. The moon came out. I think people 0:08:30.716 --> 0:08:33.716 were shocked. You know, there wasn't like a uterrae or 0:08:33.756 --> 0:08:37.036 you wouldn't get stuff like that. Now people would go nuts. 0:08:37.116 --> 0:08:39.876 But you know, what are you gonna do? Blow the 0:08:39.876 --> 0:08:42.476 air horn or the air gun or what? Did you 0:08:42.556 --> 0:08:45.156 think you can't just qualify him? Yeah? Well, I was 0:08:45.196 --> 0:08:49.156 like everybody else. I was pretty stunned, you know, being 0:08:49.196 --> 0:08:53.236 the complex character that he was. Not me knowing this 0:08:53.676 --> 0:08:57.836 but now I do. It was probably appropriate because he 0:08:57.916 --> 0:09:01.156 hated commercialism. Although he wanted to be seen. 0:09:02.356 --> 0:09:05.996 Micky didn't like surf competitions. The whole idea of surfing 0:09:06.036 --> 0:09:10.916 going professional just bugged him. It was a threat. Didn't 0:09:10.956 --> 0:09:13.996 everybody already know who the rightful king of Malibu was. 0:09:14.876 --> 0:09:18.796 He didn't need pretenders to his throne. But he didn't 0:09:18.796 --> 0:09:23.356 set the contest out. He invalidated it and burnished his 0:09:23.476 --> 0:09:27.916 legend in the process, And fifty plus years later, the 0:09:27.956 --> 0:09:31.556 only thing anyone remembers about the nineteen sixty seven Malibu 0:09:31.636 --> 0:09:38.676 Invitational is Mickey's bear butt. There were so many Mickey tricks, 0:09:39.556 --> 0:09:43.076 so many things he's rumored to have done. Rumors he 0:09:43.116 --> 0:09:47.236 may well have started himself, stealing surfboards from the sets 0:09:47.236 --> 0:09:50.796 of the movies he worked on and reselling them, setting 0:09:50.876 --> 0:09:54.156 up an anti civil rights group at a UCLA protest 0:09:54.236 --> 0:09:58.916 in nineteen sixty five, calling up Surfer magazine pretending to 0:09:58.916 --> 0:10:03.196 be a rabbi, releasing three thousand moths into the projector 0:10:03.236 --> 0:10:06.236 at a screening of a Gregnole surf movie while wearing 0:10:06.236 --> 0:10:11.396 a Groucho Marx disguise, throwing his surf contest trophy in 0:10:11.436 --> 0:10:14.276 the trash at the Malibu Pit because he got third 0:10:14.316 --> 0:10:19.676 place when he thought he should have won. People say 0:10:19.756 --> 0:10:23.316 Gidget started the commercialization of surfing when the movie came 0:10:23.316 --> 0:10:26.436 out in nineteen fifty nine, and there's some truth to that, 0:10:27.636 --> 0:10:31.196 but ironically, the roots of the modern surf industry lie 0:10:31.236 --> 0:10:34.516 in the reaction to Gidget by surfers who are trying 0:10:34.556 --> 0:10:37.116 to counter the phony image of surfing portrayed in the 0:10:37.116 --> 0:10:42.876 Hollywood beach movies. These guys, these pure surfers, wanted to 0:10:42.916 --> 0:10:46.876 show the world that surfing was not some sacran tiney 0:10:46.876 --> 0:10:51.036 bopper romance that climaxes in a luau, but an epic 0:10:51.236 --> 0:11:00.836 male adventure around the world in search of waves. So 0:11:00.916 --> 0:11:04.076 they made documentary style surf movies and showed them in 0:11:04.116 --> 0:11:05.796 school gyms around the country. 0:11:07.956 --> 0:11:11.396 And one of those people is Severson, who in nineteen 0:11:11.436 --> 0:11:15.876 fifty nine decided to create a booklet to go with 0:11:15.996 --> 0:11:21.556 his latest movie, and that booklet became Surfer Magazine, which 0:11:21.596 --> 0:11:23.156 debuted in nineteen sixty. 0:11:24.436 --> 0:11:27.716 John Severson became a major figure in the dissemination of 0:11:27.756 --> 0:11:32.756 surf culture throughout the World surf historian Matt Warshaw that. 0:11:32.836 --> 0:11:35.556 To me, sort of when surf media takes a big 0:11:35.596 --> 0:11:39.076 sort of step forward. By nineteen sixty, you've got the 0:11:39.116 --> 0:11:42.756 beginnings of what would become the surf industry. 0:11:43.116 --> 0:11:47.716 Surfer magazine sold the surfing lifestyle literally with ads for 0:11:47.836 --> 0:11:51.236 boards and fins and reef booties and swim trunks. It 0:11:51.276 --> 0:11:54.356 became a vehicle for the nascent sport to present itself 0:11:54.396 --> 0:11:59.676 to the American public. The magazine loved Mickey the anti gidget. 0:12:00.236 --> 0:12:03.916 He was always good copy and in those early days 0:12:04.036 --> 0:12:06.316 there were just not that many surfers to choose from. 0:12:07.276 --> 0:12:10.876 Mickey likewise found Surfer Magazine to be a good medium 0:12:10.916 --> 0:12:11.956 for his message. 0:12:12.996 --> 0:12:16.156 It does kind of change everything. It certainly changed things 0:12:16.196 --> 0:12:18.516 for Mickey Dora because now he had a platform. It 0:12:18.596 --> 0:12:20.596 was just something that he could have a great time with. 0:12:20.676 --> 0:12:23.756 I think he just loved being sort of a provocateur 0:12:23.836 --> 0:12:26.276 right from the beginning, and things that he had been 0:12:26.276 --> 0:12:29.796 doing in the water was just sort of being aggressive 0:12:29.796 --> 0:12:32.516 and funny and he could now do in the pages 0:12:32.556 --> 0:12:35.796 of a magazine, and you know, and he played it 0:12:35.836 --> 0:12:38.276 to the hill. 0:12:38.316 --> 0:12:41.356 But there was an inherent conflict between Mickey Dora and 0:12:41.396 --> 0:12:45.196 the direction that surfing was going. This thing that had 0:12:45.236 --> 0:12:49.116 been in pursuit of bohemians and dropouts was being made 0:12:49.156 --> 0:12:54.956 over into a sport that was respectable and organized with rules. 0:12:55.396 --> 0:12:58.356 And it was happening right in the pages of Surfer magazine. 0:12:59.556 --> 0:13:03.196 When John Severson and others started to push this thing 0:13:03.276 --> 0:13:07.436 called the United States Surfing Association, whose mission was to 0:13:07.476 --> 0:13:10.876 clean up the sport and have contests, and a lot 0:13:10.916 --> 0:13:13.036 of people just thought, men, get out of here, let 0:13:13.116 --> 0:13:15.236 us just surf. Dora certainly felt that way. 0:13:16.996 --> 0:13:21.116 Mickey nominated himself to be the spokesman for surfing's rebel spirit, 0:13:22.676 --> 0:13:36.076 it's dark side. A decade after Gidget, it was clear 0:13:36.756 --> 0:13:40.036 there was money to be made in surfing, but how 0:13:40.076 --> 0:13:42.276 to do it without working too hard. 0:13:43.436 --> 0:13:45.796 What our generation wanted to do is figure out how 0:13:45.876 --> 0:13:48.636 you could make a living at it and still keep surfing. 0:13:50.436 --> 0:13:54.236 This is Jim Kempton, the president of the California Surf Museum. 0:13:54.596 --> 0:13:57.356 The result of the sixties was nobody wanted to work 0:13:57.436 --> 0:13:59.276 nine to five, nobody wanted to wear a suit and tie. 0:13:59.316 --> 0:14:00.156 Everybody wanted to. 0:14:01.756 --> 0:14:02.556 Live their own. 0:14:02.396 --> 0:14:05.916 Life and be cool, and at the same time, nobody 0:14:05.956 --> 0:14:08.996 wanted to be poor and so you know the trick. 0:14:09.356 --> 0:14:11.756 How do you do that? And the answer was, you 0:14:11.796 --> 0:14:15.316 figure out how to make the surfing industry work for you. 0:14:16.036 --> 0:14:19.676 And so for me, that was discovering that when I 0:14:19.676 --> 0:14:21.396 was going to school in Europe, I went to graduate 0:14:21.436 --> 0:14:24.796 school in England, and realizing that there was this huge 0:14:25.476 --> 0:14:28.796 market for anything related to California and surfing. 0:14:30.316 --> 0:14:34.236 Jim remembers the exact day he figured it out. He'd 0:14:34.276 --> 0:14:37.156 taken the train into London wearing a Hawaiian shirt he 0:14:37.276 --> 0:14:40.476 bought at a thrift store back in California. After spending 0:14:40.516 --> 0:14:42.276 the day in the city, he was hurrying back to 0:14:42.316 --> 0:14:45.076 the train station to catch the last train home. 0:14:45.636 --> 0:14:49.076 Rushing down you know, Sloan Square to get to Victoria, 0:14:49.276 --> 0:14:52.156 and this guy stops me and says, I'll give you 0:14:52.196 --> 0:14:54.316 fifty quid for that shirt. And I guess, you know, 0:14:54.356 --> 0:14:55.676 I made that look and he said, I'll give you 0:14:55.716 --> 0:14:57.636 fifty pounds sterling. I said, now, I know how much 0:14:57.636 --> 0:14:59.156 money it is, but what do you want my shirt for? 0:14:59.556 --> 0:15:01.716 He said, you're from California, aren't you, And I said yeah. 0:15:01.756 --> 0:15:03.636 I said you're a surfer, aren't you, And I said, yeah, 0:15:04.236 --> 0:15:07.076 I want that shirt. So you know I'm calculating, God, 0:15:07.116 --> 0:15:10.156 that's like three months in beerits, you know, for their shirt. 0:15:10.356 --> 0:15:12.156 But I'm thinking, God, I got to catch the train. 0:15:12.196 --> 0:15:14.036 I haven't got time to go find try to find 0:15:14.076 --> 0:15:16.236 a shirt. So I said, I gotta go. And the 0:15:16.276 --> 0:15:18.716 guy took the fifty pound note out of his wallet 0:15:18.756 --> 0:15:21.996 and he held it up and he said, I want 0:15:22.036 --> 0:15:26.996 that shirt. Take it off right now. And I rode 0:15:27.036 --> 0:15:28.876 home on that train for three and a half hours 0:15:28.916 --> 0:15:32.836 with their shirt on, and a couple of things became 0:15:32.916 --> 0:15:37.196 really clear to me at that stage. This thing about 0:15:37.236 --> 0:15:41.116 surfing is way bigger than I realized. Right, This wasn't 0:15:41.156 --> 0:15:43.636 just this little band of us that were living in 0:15:43.676 --> 0:15:46.956 France and living in Hawaii and living at Noose Ahead, 0:15:47.156 --> 0:15:50.636 you know, in Australia. This was something everybody knew about. 0:15:50.916 --> 0:15:53.916 They knew about us, they liked it, they were dying 0:15:53.996 --> 0:15:57.076 for it, right. And then I went back after I 0:15:57.156 --> 0:16:00.876 graduated and went to every thrift store from Santa Barbara 0:16:00.916 --> 0:16:04.196 to San Diego and bought every single Hawaiian shirt for 0:16:04.236 --> 0:16:06.676 fifty cents apiece, put him in a giant container and 0:16:06.676 --> 0:16:08.916 shipped him to Europe. And for the next five years, 0:16:08.956 --> 0:16:10.556 that's what I did. That's all I had to do 0:16:10.596 --> 0:16:11.236 to make a living. 0:16:12.916 --> 0:16:16.436 Jim's peers were doing the same thing, figuring out how 0:16:16.436 --> 0:16:20.436 to capitalize on the global surfing craze, how to export 0:16:20.556 --> 0:16:23.676 California surf products to the rest of the world. It 0:16:23.716 --> 0:16:24.756 was a team effort. 0:16:25.596 --> 0:16:28.916 So everyone wanted everyone else to be successful. I mean, 0:16:28.956 --> 0:16:33.396 that's kind of how the surf industry evolved in the 0:16:33.436 --> 0:16:36.436 surf world was all about cooperation. It was all about 0:16:36.516 --> 0:16:39.276 rooting for the other guys because if they could make 0:16:39.276 --> 0:16:41.676 it admant there was a market out there for you 0:16:41.756 --> 0:16:44.996 to exploit as well. Some people were showing movies, some 0:16:44.996 --> 0:16:47.996 people were selling Hawaiian shirts, some people were selling dope, 0:16:48.036 --> 0:16:51.036 some people were selling surfboards, some people were you were 0:16:51.076 --> 0:16:53.276 trying to figure out how to make clothes and so 0:16:53.596 --> 0:16:57.996 or wetsuits or whatever it might be. So everybody at 0:16:57.996 --> 0:17:00.476 that time we were kind of willing that industry into 0:17:00.516 --> 0:17:04.076 existence so that we could continue to do what we 0:17:04.116 --> 0:17:08.156 love doing and make a living in the real world. 0:17:09.836 --> 0:17:12.436 If you've ever gone anywhere in the world and seen 0:17:12.516 --> 0:17:15.796 people's eyes light up when they hear the word California, 0:17:16.516 --> 0:17:20.916 this is why. This is when the world became obsessed 0:17:20.956 --> 0:17:29.276 with California youth culture. Specifically the surfers. Mickey he started 0:17:29.316 --> 0:17:32.396 hawking boards branded with his nickname the Cat. 0:17:33.556 --> 0:17:36.916 Hey, there another California Gold sneak peek. You are bidding 0:17:36.996 --> 0:17:40.036 on one of the most collected surfboards of its era, 0:17:40.196 --> 0:17:41.036 of any era. 0:17:41.916 --> 0:17:44.876 This clip is from a vintage surfboard auction that was 0:17:44.916 --> 0:17:45.996 held in twenty twenty. 0:17:46.596 --> 0:17:49.276 Every serious collector has at least one of these beauties 0:17:49.276 --> 0:17:51.996 for you. This year we offer a rare to cat 0:17:52.116 --> 0:17:56.276 color workup all original nine foot eight inches nineteen sixty 0:17:56.316 --> 0:18:00.196 six to Cat model Greg Nole Mickeydora slot bottom with 0:18:00.356 --> 0:18:04.716 green and orange mind melt splash on bottom and deck. 0:18:05.316 --> 0:18:06.796 The sport has the original slip. 0:18:06.876 --> 0:18:10.716 The Cat boards, which were manufactured by Mickey's friend Greg Knowle, 0:18:11.196 --> 0:18:15.476 are still very coveted. That nineteen sixty six board sold 0:18:15.516 --> 0:18:17.916 for seventeen thousand dollars. 0:18:19.036 --> 0:18:21.556 You have to ride the wave and the way it's breaking. 0:18:21.996 --> 0:18:24.036 You know, you can't go left on a right in 0:18:24.116 --> 0:18:27.476 a way that goes to the right. And so he 0:18:27.716 --> 0:18:32.676 could make a rep by bitching about Paradise lost, but 0:18:32.756 --> 0:18:36.436 it's not as if he didn't at times profit from it. 0:18:37.876 --> 0:18:41.116 This is journalist David Renson again. He wrote the Mickey 0:18:41.156 --> 0:18:44.596 Dora biography all for a few perfect waves. 0:18:45.476 --> 0:18:49.156 I mean, it's very complex and how he was trapped 0:18:49.156 --> 0:18:52.876 by his own celebrity in his own story, and he 0:18:52.916 --> 0:18:55.116 couldn't appear to be selling out, so when he did 0:18:55.236 --> 0:18:58.036 sell out, he mocked people. Look at all the ads 0:18:58.036 --> 0:19:02.356 for the Cat surfboard with Greg Knowle. It's a classic. 0:19:04.076 --> 0:19:07.436 Ads for the Cat boards appeared all over the surf magazines. 0:19:08.076 --> 0:19:11.956 There's one where a square jawed cartoon American pilot says 0:19:12.436 --> 0:19:14.756 Da Cat is the greatest threat to our pure white, 0:19:14.836 --> 0:19:18.756 virgin sport. Now it's up to the CIA to crush him. 0:19:19.116 --> 0:19:22.156 There's a black puma wearing a crown and the promise 0:19:22.276 --> 0:19:28.396 that quote de cat will have its revenge someday. There's 0:19:28.436 --> 0:19:32.876 another one where Mickey says, quote, as you are obviously aware, 0:19:33.236 --> 0:19:38.076 most all of my ads are being constantly sabotaged, twisted, censored, 0:19:38.156 --> 0:19:42.556 and the dialogue rearranged. Da Cat has barely five lives left. 0:19:42.996 --> 0:19:45.756 The power mafia that is now controlling the sport is 0:19:45.796 --> 0:19:49.556 on my back as never before. This possibly could be 0:19:49.596 --> 0:19:54.076 the end. In one of the most famous and controversial ads, 0:19:54.276 --> 0:19:58.476 he creates a Da Cat's theory of evolution. It starts 0:19:58.476 --> 0:20:02.076 with a knuckle dragging kook and culminates with the quote 0:20:02.316 --> 0:20:08.876 peak of perfection, Homo sapiens Mickey Dora, It's easy. 0:20:08.556 --> 0:20:11.156 To understand and why this is one of the most 0:20:11.156 --> 0:20:16.436 collected sixties era longboard models, complete with stinging, sarcastic ad campaigns. 0:20:18.316 --> 0:20:21.956 In that twenty twenty Surfboard auction, Mickey's ad campaign is 0:20:21.996 --> 0:20:23.876 one of the board's biggest selling points. 0:20:25.196 --> 0:20:28.356 He also promoted his signature Greg Nole surfboards to cat 0:20:28.396 --> 0:20:31.636 model with full page Surf magazine ads in sixty six 0:20:31.636 --> 0:20:35.396 and sixty seven, including one with Dora crucified on a 0:20:35.476 --> 0:20:39.236 cross made of two surfboards. Dora's acts struck a nerve 0:20:39.316 --> 0:20:42.836 with magazine readers, many writing letters to the editor in praise, 0:20:43.476 --> 0:20:46.476 while others described him as a sick and ignorant person 0:20:46.796 --> 0:20:48.716 who should be banned from the beach. 0:20:50.156 --> 0:20:53.436 Apparently, the ad that showed Mickey wearing a Nazi iron 0:20:53.516 --> 0:20:56.236 cross was not as offensive as his joke that he 0:20:56.356 --> 0:21:01.276 was the Martyred Savior of surfing. But the ads worked, and. 0:21:01.316 --> 0:21:03.276 They're so good and so funny and so kind of, 0:21:04.036 --> 0:21:06.156 you know, middle finger to the surf establishment that you 0:21:06.196 --> 0:21:10.516 forget he's trying to sell surfboards, writer Matt If you 0:21:10.636 --> 0:21:13.556 just know him from that and from watching him in 0:21:13.596 --> 0:21:16.596 a few clips at Malibu or Sunset Beach, it's hard 0:21:16.636 --> 0:21:19.556 not to say this was the greatest surfer of all time, 0:21:19.836 --> 0:21:21.516 not just for the way he rode ways, but for 0:21:21.556 --> 0:21:25.836 the way he represents the sport. The rebelliousness and the 0:21:26.756 --> 0:21:31.236 anti establishment vibe he's putting out seems deserved. It's going 0:21:31.276 --> 0:21:35.516 toward nonsurfers and it's going to the surf establishment. It's funny. 0:21:35.596 --> 0:21:38.476 He's really bright, and he's just putting the best possible 0:21:38.516 --> 0:21:40.556 face on kind of trolling all these people that you 0:21:40.596 --> 0:21:43.516 would want to troll in the world. All of us 0:21:43.516 --> 0:21:45.716 do as surfers, even if we don't act out on it. 0:21:45.796 --> 0:21:46.276 He did it. 0:21:48.236 --> 0:21:51.156 Micky wasn't going to stop at selling a few thousand surfboards, 0:21:51.156 --> 0:21:56.036 though his sense of the possible was expanding. This was 0:21:56.076 --> 0:22:00.956 a man with expensive taste. Mickey's girlfriend Diane talked about 0:22:00.996 --> 0:22:03.516 how they used to dress up and crash Hollywood parties, 0:22:04.116 --> 0:22:07.916 then steal the credit cards of unsuspecting guests, but then 0:22:08.036 --> 0:22:12.236 Micky asked her to steal airline tickets. That was a 0:22:12.276 --> 0:22:15.956 line she wouldn't cross. Author David Renson. 0:22:15.996 --> 0:22:18.956 Again, if you don't want to work, and you don't 0:22:18.996 --> 0:22:21.156 have any money, and you want to put food on 0:22:21.236 --> 0:22:25.156 the table, and you can't steal from the supermarket too 0:22:25.156 --> 0:22:30.036 many times, or can't go to a Hollywood party and 0:22:30.516 --> 0:22:35.236 have your girlfriend Diane, you know, rifle through the pocketbooks 0:22:35.276 --> 0:22:38.956 and the the you know. Eventually you got to do 0:22:39.076 --> 0:22:42.916 stuff to make money. And I think as time went on, 0:22:43.236 --> 0:22:46.516 the scams got worse because you want to travel, so 0:22:46.556 --> 0:22:50.436 there somebody steals a ticket in printing machine, you know, 0:22:50.476 --> 0:22:55.476 and then they make some phony airline tickets. There's a 0:22:55.596 --> 0:23:01.396 prevailing ethos in the serf world and other worlds where 0:23:02.396 --> 0:23:06.476 artists feel they're getting ripped off by the man. Make 0:23:06.556 --> 0:23:07.876 you want it to be who he wanted to be, 0:23:09.156 --> 0:23:11.276 and he was willing to pay the price. But in 0:23:11.356 --> 0:23:13.276 order to be who he wanted to be, he had 0:23:13.316 --> 0:23:15.236 to be able to slip in and out of society. 0:23:15.556 --> 0:23:18.196 He had to put on a tuxedo, go to a party, 0:23:18.436 --> 0:23:22.116 rip some money off. He wanted the finer things. 0:23:23.116 --> 0:23:28.236 Specifically, he wanted a zebra rug, a new haircut, some 0:23:28.396 --> 0:23:34.196 items from Bullock's department store. Those checks bounced at PC 0:23:34.396 --> 0:23:37.676 lou An Antique store at the Mandarin Hotel on Connaught 0:23:37.756 --> 0:23:41.476 Road in Hong Kong. Mickey wanted a carved gilt panel 0:23:41.556 --> 0:23:47.316 from the Qing dynasty and an embroidered tiger scroll. But 0:23:47.356 --> 0:23:50.076 when the manager at PC Lou wrote to ask why 0:23:50.116 --> 0:23:53.076 he had stopped payment on the check, he responded on 0:23:53.196 --> 0:23:58.116 Quantas Air stationery that PanAm had lost his luggage. It 0:23:58.116 --> 0:24:00.356 will take a few weeks to straighten out my claim, 0:24:00.436 --> 0:24:03.196 he wrote to the manager. You must understand that I 0:24:03.236 --> 0:24:05.796 not only lost the wood carvings, but a great deal 0:24:05.796 --> 0:24:10.996 of expensive jewelry. So sorry for the embarrassment. Some of 0:24:11.036 --> 0:24:14.476 these things would come back to haunt Mickey, but for 0:24:14.596 --> 0:24:19.796 now he seemed able to sideslip any serious trouble. That's 0:24:19.836 --> 0:24:23.476 not to say the cops weren't getting suspicious. In the 0:24:23.476 --> 0:24:26.516 fall of nineteen sixty six, Mickey was arrested and taken 0:24:26.556 --> 0:24:29.436 to the Malibu station of the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department. 0:24:30.316 --> 0:24:35.236 The charge against him grand theft was dismissed, but he 0:24:35.356 --> 0:24:39.916 was definitely on the cops radar. At the station, Mickey 0:24:39.916 --> 0:24:43.636 had been booked under the name Mikil spring Chapin. He 0:24:43.716 --> 0:24:48.236 gave his occupation as occasional salesman for Greg Nole Surfboards. 0:24:49.196 --> 0:24:52.036 The answer to who to notify in case of illness 0:24:52.716 --> 0:25:09.916 was no one, but that was about to change. Linda Kai, 0:25:10.236 --> 0:25:14.516 who witnessed Mickey Dora's iconic mooning of the judges at Malibu, 0:25:15.076 --> 0:25:17.836 was and as a surfer girl. 0:25:18.836 --> 0:25:23.876 Okay, well, I started in North Hollywood, California, and my 0:25:23.996 --> 0:25:27.356 neighbor across the street was twelve years old. And every 0:25:27.356 --> 0:25:30.316 morning I'd see him drive away and his Cadillac convertible 0:25:30.396 --> 0:25:32.956 with this huge thing sticking out of the back. I 0:25:32.996 --> 0:25:35.236 thought it was some kind of a ski, a water ski, 0:25:35.316 --> 0:25:38.036