Speaker 1: Pushkin Hey, Lost Tills listeners, it's Dana. I wanted to
Speaker 1: let you know that you can hear the entire new
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Speaker 2: Mickey was highly intelligent, well read, and he didn't give
Speaker 2: a fuck, and he saw that what the future was
Speaker 2: going to bring to surfing, and so he acted accordingly,
Speaker 2: and he wouldn't capitulate.
Speaker 1: This is Chris molloy. He's a documentary filmmaker who moved
Speaker 1: to Hawaii to be a professional big wave surfer in
Speaker 1: the nineties. Chris is a big fan of Mickey Dora.
Speaker 2: He was like, you know what, I can get paid
Speaker 2: to surf, But he said, I'm going to take credit
Speaker 2: cards and checks and go around the world and surf
Speaker 2: waves that nobody knows about. And he said, God damn it.
Speaker 2: He goes, if they gave you this plastic card and
Speaker 2: you could just go get stuff for free, what the
Speaker 2: fuck would you do.
Speaker 1: I'm visiting Chris at his sprawling ranch on California's Central Coast,
Speaker 1: where he and his wife are raising three kids on
Speaker 1: one hundred acres. He's part of that Kelly Slater generation
Speaker 1: of surfers who grew up on Mickey Dora Lore. Mickey's
Speaker 1: status as an iconoclast spoke to them.
Speaker 2: He was very aware of the big public and governmental
Speaker 2: systems and was smart enough to go, Hey, I'm going
Speaker 2: to do it my way and you guys can pretty
Speaker 2: much fuck off. That was Mickey, you know what I mean,
Speaker 2: and he did it with style.
Speaker 1: Two years before Mickey died, Chris got to spend a
Speaker 1: couple of weeks with him in Chile surfing.
Speaker 2: I was very very focused when I was with him,
Speaker 2: just taking it in because I knew I knew I
Speaker 2: was in a special space.
Speaker 1: So Mickey talked a lot on the trip and Chris
Speaker 1: was listening, but he was also thinking about posterity, and
Speaker 1: so secretly at first, because Mickey was so paranoid, he
Speaker 1: started recording him. As Chris is telling me this, he
Speaker 1: hands me a mini disc.
Speaker 2: So this is a recording that you guys can take
Speaker 2: if you want. That I did with him. So this
Speaker 2: is very unjournalistic, but I'm not a journalist, so I
Speaker 2: can do whatever the fuck I want. He didn't know
Speaker 2: I was recording, and I don't think there's anything good
Speaker 2: in there, honestly, Like I listened to it once and
Speaker 2: it's horrible. Sound testing Testing one, two three, Avocado Balloon.
Speaker 1: There are very few recordings of Mickey Dora. He rarely
Speaker 1: sat for interviews, and when he did, they tended to
Speaker 1: be incredibly contrived, not to mention, full of lies. But
Speaker 1: this tape is different. It captures the final chapter of
Speaker 1: Mickey's life. He was sixty five and he knew he
Speaker 1: was falling apart.
Speaker 3: People do what they want. They have to live with
Speaker 3: their conscience. I want to live the way and I
Speaker 3: want to live.
Speaker 4: It's hard to do and it's an experiment, but I don't
Speaker 4: want anyone to live the way. I wanted to serve
Speaker 4: like everybody else. I want to do anything like anyone
Speaker 4: outside just struggle in my life what suitable for me.
Speaker 1: After years of seemingly perpetual youth, Mickey looked his age.
Speaker 1: A picture from around this time shows him with a
Speaker 1: silvery goatee, wearing some kind of cravat, a soft twinkle
Speaker 1: in his eye, like the most interesting man in the world.
Speaker 1: If he was left on the beach for a week.
Speaker 1: The cancer that would kill him was most likely already
Speaker 1: eating him away. Mickey had been on the outside for
Speaker 1: so long, in exile, in prison, forsaken and the surf world,
Speaker 1: the whole world had moved on. He'd lost his kingdom
Speaker 1: and most of his fawning fans. His fame was underground,
Speaker 1: deep underground. Did the new wild kids of Surf Rider
Speaker 1: even know who Mickey Door was. Mickey always said he
Speaker 1: hated attention, but he craved relevance. He wanted to be wanted.
Speaker 1: The one thing Mickey hadn't lost was his legendary charm.
Speaker 1: So when he met Chris molloy and Kelly Slater, two
Speaker 1: of the surf world's biggest celebrities, he turned it on.
Speaker 1: Mickey was ready for his last act. I'm Dana Goodyear
Speaker 1: and this is Lost Hills, episode eleven, Writing on the Wall. Hi, Kelly,
Speaker 1: how good?
Speaker 3: How are you doing good?
Speaker 1: I'm on a zoom with Kelly Slater.
Speaker 5: You guys see me? No, no cameraw oh I didn't.
Speaker 6: Realize I never had an on cool?
Speaker 5: Okay great.
Speaker 1: He's at home on the north shore of O Wahoo
Speaker 1: and when the camera turns on his zoom. Background's got
Speaker 1: real Hawaii vibes, whitewashed wooden walls, a ceiling fan, and
Speaker 1: surfboards stashed in the roof beams.
Speaker 5: Cool.
Speaker 1: Well, I'm going to start by asking you a question
Speaker 1: that you probably haven't been asked in twenty five years,
Speaker 1: which is who are you and what do you do?
Speaker 6: Funny enough, I get asked that a lot to set
Speaker 6: up interviews. But I'm Kelly Slater. I'm a professional surfer.
Speaker 6: I have been for I've actually been a professional for
Speaker 6: thirty thirty three years now and I'm still competing full time.
Speaker 6: I'm a father. I do a little bit of business
Speaker 6: here and there, so that's kind of my thing.
Speaker 1: It's taken a while to schedule this call because Kelly
Speaker 1: is busy right now.
Speaker 6: I'm actually just I'm in a process of packing and
Speaker 6: kind of closing up my house for the winter because
Speaker 6: I'm going to Portugal tomorrow for a competition.
Speaker 1: It's March, and Kelly's on the World Tour and he's
Speaker 1: hoping to qualify for the Olympics.
Speaker 6: The results from the World Tour feed into the Olympics,
Speaker 6: so it's really essentially like a year long Olympic trials
Speaker 6: and I need to make the top two from the
Speaker 6: US and the men's in order to make the Olympics.
Speaker 1: Kelly Slater is fifty two years old and the winningest
Speaker 1: pro surfer of all time. He just barely missed making
Speaker 1: the US team for surfings first Olympics in Tokyo in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty one. He really wants to make it in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty four.
Speaker 6: This would be my one and probably only Olympics that
Speaker 6: I would ever do.
Speaker 1: Kelly Slater met Mickey in the late nineties, right in
Speaker 1: the middle of a streak in which Kelly won the
Speaker 1: world title five years in a row. Mickey was spending
Speaker 1: time in Jeffrey's Bay, South Africa, another perfect rite, another
Speaker 1: stand in for Malibu. After he was released from prison,
Speaker 1: Mickey kind of alternated between Gettorie, his spot in France,
Speaker 1: and Jay Bay. His constant companion was a small King
Speaker 1: Charles Spaniel named Scooter Boy after a hot dogging Hawaiian surfer.
Speaker 1: Scooter Boy ate at the table from a plate. Mickey
Speaker 1: was surviving on the kindness of others and the fumes
Speaker 1: of his legend. The surf apparel company Quicksilver had come
Speaker 1: to Mickey's rescue when he got out of prison and
Speaker 1: appeared destitute, they paid him a monthly stipe, got him
Speaker 1: a small apartment, and gave him a tab at a
Speaker 1: local restaurant. In return, he agreed to be essentially their mascot,
Speaker 1: showing up at parties and attending surf events. It was
Speaker 1: more or less the same gig Gidget has at Dukes
Speaker 1: in Malibu.
Speaker 6: Over the years. I've told a few of the stories
Speaker 6: that I know where Mickey did like rip people off
Speaker 6: and treated people kind of badly, you know, And I
Speaker 6: don't say those stories to like tarnish his image or
Speaker 6: anything like that. To me, it was a defining part
Speaker 6: of his personality and who he was, that he was
Speaker 6: so paranoid and untrusting of other people. That it was
Speaker 6: maybe because of his own skeletons, but you know, he
Speaker 6: had all these tricks he would pull, and people who
Speaker 6: knew him well would get ahead of his tricks.
Speaker 1: Though Mickey was too scared after prison to pull any
Speaker 1: serious scams, he was still seemingly incapable of paying for
Speaker 1: his own meal.
Speaker 6: One thing that comes mind is he lived in France
Speaker 6: for a long time and he would go to dinner
Speaker 6: with people there, and he always had this trick where
Speaker 6: he'd show up at dinner with one hundred dollar US bill.
Speaker 6: And at the time, it was French Francs, and you
Speaker 6: couldn't just readily exchange a hundred dollars bill at any restaurant,
Speaker 6: and so when the bill would call me, go oh,
Speaker 6: all I have was one hundred dollars bill. And so
Speaker 6: my friend's wife caught onto it. She goes, oh, I
Speaker 6: know he's gonna pull that trick on us again this dinner.
Speaker 6: So she brought enough money to exchange his one hundred
Speaker 6: dollars bill in Frank's at dinner, and as soon as
Speaker 6: he picked it up, when I have one hundred dollars bill,
Speaker 6: she grabbed it out of his hand and goes, I
Speaker 6: got changed for that.
Speaker 1: Kelly was charmed by Mickey. It was incredible to meet
Speaker 1: someone who had been there back at the birth of
Speaker 1: California surfing. His little brother was a big Mickey Dora fan.
Speaker 1: So the first time he met Mickey, Kelly asked if
Speaker 1: he would sign a picture for his brother, and he
Speaker 1: just like.
Speaker 7: Went, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
Speaker 6: No, Kelly, I really like you. He seemed like a
Speaker 6: great guy. But I can't do that, and I said,
Speaker 6: why not, you can like personalize it to my little brother.
Speaker 6: You know, I'd probably signed a thousand autographs at any
Speaker 6: particular event, and Mickey just said, no, you know, these
Speaker 6: Japanese think that my autograph's worth five thousand dollars and
Speaker 6: I can't change that. I can't let him down. And
Speaker 6: what he meant by that was that every surfboard that
Speaker 6: he signed, him and Greg Noel had a surfboard deal
Speaker 6: together and they would sell these boards in Japan and
Speaker 6: they would sell for about five thousand dollars. So he
Speaker 6: equated his signature to being worth about five thousand dollars.
Speaker 1: I guess Mickey's weirdness about signing, about giving any part
Speaker 1: of himself away was a motif Kelly noticed. It might
Speaker 1: have been the fact that in the forged passport case,
Speaker 1: the FBI forced Mickey to submit hundreds of handwriting samples.
Speaker 1: They were never able to get a match, but maybe
Speaker 1: Mickey wasn't taking any chances. Sometime later, Kelly ran into
Speaker 1: Mickey in France. Kelly was sponsored by Quicksilver. He'd been
Speaker 1: invited to play a round of golf with Mickey, the
Speaker 1: Quicksilver mascot and a couple of executives. At the end
Speaker 1: of the round, Mickey and Kelly sat down for a
Speaker 1: drink and Bruce Raymond, who ran Quicksilver International, passed around
Speaker 1: the scorecard for everyone to sign, and.
Speaker 6: Mickey gets up and goes to the bathroom. And I've
Speaker 6: already told you this story about Mickey's autograph, but the
Speaker 6: problem is that Bruce is basically his boss and the
Speaker 6: oneer determines whether he gets a paycheck every month, and
Speaker 6: he gets his travel and all that stuff. So I said,
Speaker 6: you know, Mickey's not going to sign this, Bruce, and
Speaker 6: he goes, he'll sign it, and I said, no, he
Speaker 6: won't sign it. I'm telling you this will be a fight.
Speaker 6: He goes, just put it in front of his seat
Speaker 6: and when he gets back, he'll sign the scorecard. And
Speaker 6: so after about he gets back and he sits there
Speaker 6: for about five or ten minutes and he hasn't signed
Speaker 6: it yet, and Bruce finally goes, Hey, Mickey signed the scorecard,
Speaker 6: and Mickey goes, he just totally freaked out here, Who's
Speaker 6: is this, Who's going to where's this going? I'm no,
Speaker 6: I don't sign things. And Bruce real calmly goes Mickey
Speaker 6: signed the score card, and he goes, well, where's this
Speaker 6: going to go? Who's keeping this? And Bruce goes, don't worry, Mickey,
Speaker 6: it's mine. I'll keep it. All gentlemen signed their scorecards.
Speaker 6: You have to sign your scorecard.
Speaker 1: Mickey agreed reluctantly.
Speaker 6: And Bruce to this day has that scorecard framed on
Speaker 6: his wall at home. He put it in a box
Speaker 6: frame behind glass and I told him, I said, Bruce,
Speaker 6: if you ever pass away before me, I want that
Speaker 6: to go into my house.
Speaker 1: During the golf game in France, Kelly had noticed that
Speaker 1: Mickey's clubs were badly out of date.
Speaker 6: After we had our drinks and he'd signed the scorecard,
Speaker 6: and we're walking to our car and I said, Mickey,
Speaker 6: you know you should probably get a new set of
Speaker 6: golf clubs. I go, those things are like thirty years old.
Speaker 6: You want to get a new set. And he goes,
Speaker 6: what do you mean how am I going to get
Speaker 6: a new set? And I said, I'll get you a
Speaker 6: set of clubs. And he goes, well, if you're not
Speaker 6: going to get me a set of clubs, I need
Speaker 6: to make other plans. You need to let me know
Speaker 6: right now, because I need to make some other plans.
Speaker 6: And I said, Mickey, you haven't made plans of twenty
Speaker 6: five years. I don't think you're worried about how long
Speaker 6: this is going to take. I said, don't worry. I'll
Speaker 6: send you a set of golf club and he goes, well,
Speaker 6: how long is it.
Speaker 8: Kind of taken?
Speaker 6: But I said, I don't know. I got a friend
Speaker 6: at a golf company and I'll order them and i'll
Speaker 6: send him over here to you, and I think I
Speaker 6: flew to California and within a few days I got
Speaker 6: a fax from him. That was when we had faxes
Speaker 6: in the late nineties, and it said, you know, if
Speaker 6: the same thing, Kelly, if you're not going to be
Speaker 6: able to get this set of golf clubs, you're gonna
Speaker 6: have to let me know because I need to make
Speaker 6: other plants, the same exact thing he had told me.
Speaker 6: And I said, Mickey, I don't want to hear from
Speaker 6: you again until you get your golf clubs.
Speaker 9: Okay.
Speaker 6: A month or so later, I got the clubs and
Speaker 6: I sent him to him, and then he sent me
Speaker 6: this fax and it said, Kelly, thank you, thank you,
Speaker 6: thank you. These King Kobra Golf clubs have changed my life.
Speaker 6: Signed to Mickey Dora. I had a really bad facts,
Speaker 6: but I saved the facts and I have his signature
Speaker 6: and stuff. But I'm almost positive that that fact has
Speaker 6: faded to nothing now.
Speaker 1: I was thinking that if you find your facts and
Speaker 1: the signal has vanished, that would be like a perfect
Speaker 1: Mickey from the Grave moment.
Speaker 8: Yeah.
Speaker 6: Really, yeah, he'd be like, I got you, I got you.
Speaker 1: Mickey's greatest accomplishment, in the eyes of many of his admirers,
Speaker 1: is that he managed to orient his life entirely around surfing.
Speaker 1: He was free of the obligations that anchor most of
Speaker 1: us to the shore. He didn't let anything or anyone
Speaker 1: get in the way of his wave.
Speaker 6: He told me, he goes, Kelly, I've almost made it,
Speaker 6: and I said, what, he goes, I'm going to be
Speaker 6: whatever age, sixty two years old, sixty three years old
Speaker 6: next year, and I've never worked a day in my life.
Speaker 6: And that was success to him, was never working. I
Speaker 6: think that was very sincere, you know, like he felt
Speaker 6: that was his accomplishment, that was his legacy. I got
Speaker 6: all the way through life without ever having to work
Speaker 6: a day of my life. He worked harder than he
Speaker 6: probably would have had he just had a job, I.
Speaker 10: Mean Chili on the coastline in a little town called
Speaker 10: Pici Limo.
Speaker 5: I'm in a little one bedroom hotel room. It's Mickey Dora.
Speaker 1: That's Chris molloy, the former pro surfer and documentarian. It's
Speaker 1: the year two thousand. Mickey has just left the room
Speaker 1: to run an errand, and Chris has pulled out his
Speaker 1: mini disc recorder.
Speaker 5: It's been an interesting stay with Mick.
Speaker 10: I feel like after a few days now, I can
Speaker 10: ask him anything I want and he likes to talk
Speaker 10: about it, and she's offended.
Speaker 5: He just skips it and keeps going, doesn't get mad.
Speaker 5: So far. We'll see I set the recorder up and
Speaker 5: he seems to ignore it. Anwer Micky Dora.
Speaker 2: I was living in Hawaii at the time, and my
Speaker 2: friend he called me and then he said, hey, Mickey,
Speaker 2: door's in town. I said, and he goes, I think,
Speaker 2: you know, YouTube should get together, and I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 2: that will never happen.
Speaker 1: At his ranch on the Central Coast, Chris is describing
Speaker 1: how he ended up traveling to Chile with Mickey Dora.
Speaker 1: It was one of the last great adventures of Mickey's life.
Speaker 2: At the time. I was living with my two brothers
Speaker 2: on the North Shore right near pipeline. And I get
Speaker 2: a phone call. And so this is when we just
Speaker 2: had phone a phone on the wall, right, there's no
Speaker 2: cell phones and stuff like that.
Speaker 7: So I pick up the phone.
Speaker 6: Hello.
Speaker 2: He goes, who's this. That's rude, like you just called
Speaker 2: me if I didn't say that. And I'm like, this
Speaker 2: is Chris. Who's this? And he goes, Mick.
Speaker 3: So I go.
Speaker 2: Mick. Who He goes, it's Mick. And so now I
Speaker 2: don't know who it is, and he goes, I heard
Speaker 2: you're going south.
Speaker 1: Chris was planning a trip to Antarctica to go surfing,
Speaker 1: the kind of crazy surf odyssey that Mickey was famous for.
Speaker 2: Anyway, so uh, he goes, well, I'm going to Chili
Speaker 2: and I had never been to Chili, and he goes,
Speaker 2: you want to go? And I didn't.
Speaker 3: Still, I was like, I don't know who this is.
Speaker 2: And I'm like, yeah, no, I'm not stopping in Chili, man,
Speaker 2: I'm going from Lima to Ushiwaia or wherever we're you know,
Speaker 2: my flight plan was. He goes, okay, bye, click, and
Speaker 2: then I'm like kind of like making dinner. I go,
Speaker 2: that was fucking Mickey Dora.
Speaker 3: Ohle shit.
Speaker 2: And so back then you could do the Star sixty nine.
Speaker 2: So call I go chick jink jink Mickey. Yeah, Hey,
Speaker 2: when do you want to fly? And so I changed
Speaker 2: my whole flight plan.
Speaker 1: Chris was born in nineteen seventy one. His generation of
Speaker 1: surfers grew up in the era of established surf brands, competitions,
Speaker 1: and an official professional surf league. He grew up and
Speaker 1: started surfing and the Dora Lives era when Mickey had
Speaker 1: vanished from Malibu, but traces of him lingered in the
Speaker 1: writing on the wall. Chris grew up on a farm
Speaker 1: in Ohi, California, about an hour from Malibu. He'd heard
Speaker 1: the stories from his dad, who knew Mickey back in
Speaker 1: the fifties.
Speaker 2: My dad had served with them. I always loved surfing history,
Speaker 2: so I was aware of the Dark Knight. And so
Speaker 2: it's somebody you thought you'd never meet because he was
Speaker 2: so elusive, you know, he was so elusive.
Speaker 3: That was sort of if.
Speaker 2: There's an adjective that might be the most appropriate for
Speaker 2: meekless Dora is how elusive he was.
Speaker 1: When Chris told his dad that he was going surfing
Speaker 1: in Chile with Mickey Dora. His dad was not too thrilled.
Speaker 2: Anybody that knew him didn't miss him.
Speaker 1: Chris and Mickey agreed to meet at Lax and head
Speaker 1: south from there. But first Mickey had a little job
Speaker 1: for Chris. Mickey was going to send a surfboard to California.
Speaker 1: He wanted Chris to pick it up and bring it
Speaker 1: to the airport.
Speaker 2: And I said, of course, you know, of course, and
Speaker 2: and my dad said, keep your fucking wallet in your
Speaker 2: front pocket. Then he took the border out of the
Speaker 2: box and he held it up. It was nighttime. He
Speaker 2: held it up to his headlights because he was convinced
Speaker 2: that Mickey had like put contraband in the surfboard. He
Speaker 2: was like, there's no way that this is on the
Speaker 2: up and up.
Speaker 1: Chris understood his role. Mickey had made it clear. Mickey
Speaker 1: was sixty five years old and getting weaker. Chris was
Speaker 1: there to carry his stuff like a caddy.
Speaker 2: So we land in Santiago and I'm like, okay, this
Speaker 2: is your trip, you know, and You're I'm coming at
Speaker 2: your behs.
Speaker 10: Okay.
Speaker 2: I've never been a chip. I don't even know if
Speaker 2: there's waves here. I don't know anything. And we land,
Speaker 2: I load all his shit. Well, he's just standing there
Speaker 2: and the cab drivers like, Okay, where are we going?
Speaker 2: And he goes, well, take us to the take us
Speaker 2: to the beach. And the guy's like, it's a big country,
Speaker 2: like you know in Spanish, and he's.
Speaker 3: Like, just just take us to the ocean.
Speaker 2: And I'm like, I'm fucked, Like I don't even know
Speaker 2: what I don't even know where we're going.
Speaker 1: The cab driver took them four hours to pitch a lemu,
Speaker 1: a surf spot on the coast.
Speaker 2: Then we get to the first hotel, haul all of
Speaker 2: my shit in there, haul all of his shit in there.
Speaker 2: There's no hot water because we're not staying here, and
Speaker 2: I'm like, yes we are. I'm like, we just flew
Speaker 2: all night. I'm not, no, we're moving. So I got
Speaker 2: everything out, freaking dragged it through the streets, found another hotel,
Speaker 2: and yeah, he was a bit of a prince.
Speaker 1: Mickey was high maintenance, but for Chris it was worth it.
Speaker 1: He couldn't believe he was traveling and surfing with the
Speaker 1: Mickey Dora, not just Prince the Dark Prince we had so.
Speaker 2: Much like solitude, you know, And this is a short
Speaker 2: period of time, but I was just locked on at
Speaker 2: all times. We were in a hotel room and I
Speaker 2: had been I was tired of listening to him talk,
Speaker 2: and I wanted to go sleep, but I don't want
Speaker 2: to miss anything. I didn't want, so I put on
Speaker 2: my little mini disk.
Speaker 3: It's hard to get vitamins in France, very difficult, is it.
Speaker 3: I can't get anything of that. That's why you must
Speaker 3: see them my nutcase. No, I don't.
Speaker 7: I don't think in that case at all.
Speaker 3: I just try to ward off any type of room.
Speaker 3: Louis following rics from your movie to Fiji. And if
Speaker 3: I got sick, man, I'm screwed.
Speaker 1: It was an intimate experience being with Mickey like that,
Speaker 1: one on one for two weeks.
Speaker 3: Well you're doing well.
Speaker 7: I can't believe you're sifting fire years old.
Speaker 3: I can't believe it either. I don't know what happened.
Speaker 3: It was like that. It was fun.
Speaker 4: See, yeah, it's not the end.
Speaker 3: I'm afraid silver.
Speaker 1: In spite of his age and signs of infirmity, Mickey
Speaker 1: was still an unbelievable surfer.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we happened upon some incredible surf. There was this
Speaker 2: left and it went from here to that ridgeline right there.
Speaker 2: I'm not kidding. He gets us way from the top
Speaker 2: all the way through and it's a left and I'm
Speaker 2: at the bottom because I got the way before. And
Speaker 2: he kicks out and I'm like, Mick, we did it,
Speaker 2: and he goes, I fucking hate left. You just got
Speaker 2: the most beautiful wave I've ever seen. And he's like,
Speaker 2: we got to find it right. So, and that sums
Speaker 2: Mickey Dora up.
Speaker 1: The whole time they were together, Chris avoided talking about
Speaker 1: his surf career. He'd read Mickey's rants about commercialization. He
Speaker 1: didn't want Mickey to know he was a sellout a pro, so.
Speaker 2: I hid the fact that I was a pro surfer
Speaker 2: from him. Okay, he didn't know that I was a
Speaker 2: pro serfer. Any loathed pro servers, even though he was
Speaker 2: the prototype of a pro surfing right.
Speaker 1: But Chris delicately inquired about the surf industry and what
Speaker 1: Mickey thought about other pros.
Speaker 9: I played tennis golf with these guys, Slater and Rabbit.
Speaker 9: You know, they played with tennis and real good golf minutes.
Speaker 9: But I don't get in involved with their lives. I
Speaker 9: just you know, as a exercise.
Speaker 3: And they're really decent to be no problem.
Speaker 8: I mean I don't.
Speaker 3: I don't tell them, you know how they should be relaxing,
Speaker 3: and they don't tell me. So I mean it's let
Speaker 3: them live, no big deal. But I mean I won't.
Speaker 3: I would never do what they do. It's a whole
Speaker 3: different way of looking at me. Who am I to say?
Speaker 7: I think it's more like the industry that the businessmen,
Speaker 7: that everyone in the sport, not the surfers. The surfers
Speaker 7: are just opportunity to say, just take what's given to them.
Speaker 11: You can't you relax? How can you do anything with
Speaker 11: caravans or camera people and going everywhere you go and
Speaker 11: you have no privacy nothing. I don't conserve that lifestyle ridiculous.
Speaker 1: Chris kept his secret for two weeks, the whole time
Speaker 1: they were together. But after Chris had left Jile, Mickey
Speaker 1: discovered the truth at a local restaurant.
Speaker 2: And there was there there's this poster of me surfing
Speaker 2: the pipeline, and Mickey goes, wat's that And apparently he
Speaker 2: tore it off the wall and threw it. I pretended
Speaker 2: like it was on fire, and it was like I
Speaker 2: thought I knew who that kid was. I felt so
Speaker 2: bad and I'm like, in the same breadth though, I'm like,
Speaker 2: fuck you, Mickey, Like you made money surfing. I made
Speaker 2: money surfing and you made money and Chesthai Malibu, the
Speaker 2: wave that you got pissed off was like twenty foot pipeline.
Speaker 3: So what do you got?
Speaker 2: What shit are you talking?
Speaker 1: Mickey, Chris said was part of surfing's original sin.
Speaker 2: He was complicit in what occurred at Malibou hugely. I
Speaker 2: was able to take money from the man, no problem.
Speaker 2: I did the dance. I was a dancing bear. I
Speaker 2: was Otherwise I was going to be driving a bulldozer
Speaker 2: for my dad. So it's like if I can put
Speaker 2: on like a bright singlet and go, you know, do
Speaker 2: the deal, and I'll get paid for it. Like I
Speaker 2: I did what I did, I got work. And just
Speaker 2: like when I sort of critique modern surfing and what
Speaker 2: it's become, I have to accept my own complicity and it,
Speaker 2: you know, because we made surf films and all that stuff.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: There was a kind of an endearing moment where I
Speaker 2: was leaving to head to Antarctica and I said, all right, Mick,
Speaker 2: you know it meant a lot to me, you know.
Speaker 2: And I'm heading out and he goes, I'm going to
Speaker 2: go find that, right, all right, buy new swalks away.
Speaker 1: So that was it. No sentimental moment, no nothing.
Speaker 2: And then we're getting the track and I'm going to
Speaker 2: the bus station and all of a sudden, I hear
Speaker 2: this on the side of the truck. I would go
Speaker 2: where it's Mick.
Speaker 1: Mickey made up some excuse to join Chris on the drive,
Speaker 1: but Chris didn't believe it. He could tell that Mickey
Speaker 1: wasn't ready to say goodbye.
Speaker 5: Might have to take these in case we lose each other.
Speaker 5: Try it out. Just press the side, Yeah, press the
Speaker 5: side and talk.
Speaker 3: Oh why why it's not working?
Speaker 5: Turn your ears on. Oh you're not pushing there.
Speaker 2: You go.
Speaker 3: Over and out.
Speaker 9: Jerry's at three o'clock, I am like coming in loud
Speaker 9: and clear.
Speaker 5: Yes you are, sir.
Speaker 12: I think I'm gonna need backup. Sending back up at
Speaker 12: five o'clock, candle a thing for you. I haven't got
Speaker 12: my welfare trick yet.
Speaker 3: How do you turn him up?
Speaker 1: Chris and Mickey stayed in touch after the trip. They
Speaker 1: even had dinner in Santa Barbara, near Mickey's dad's house.
Speaker 1: This must have been pretty soon before Mickey died. Chris
Speaker 1: has a story about the dinner. I've heard a lot
Speaker 1: of Mickey Dora stories by now, but this one is
Speaker 1: my favorite.
Speaker 2: Mickey had told me I'm going to find her right
Speaker 2: in Chile when I left. But the way the Southern
Speaker 2: Hemisphere works, all the swell comes this, it's all lefts.
Speaker 2: There's a couple rights, but it's all lefts.
Speaker 1: Remember Mickey had spurned that beautiful wave he and Chris
Speaker 1: surfed in Chile because it was a left and Mickey
Speaker 1: preferred to go right.
Speaker 2: So we go to dinner and I took my brother
Speaker 2: Keith with me. And my brother we look like twins.
Speaker 2: So Keith has used the restaurant and he goes, who
Speaker 2: is that? Who's that guy? It's my fucking brother. And
Speaker 2: then he pulls out a slide and he goes, I
Speaker 2: found the right. I found the right, and he's making
Speaker 2: sure to do it before my brother gets back. And
Speaker 2: he holds up this slide and it's a left that
Speaker 2: he turned the slide backwards, like it's clearly backwards, and
Speaker 2: he's like, I found it, like kind of like I
Speaker 2: missed out on it, you know, and then my brother
Speaker 2: comes back and he's like this stuffs it in his fucking.
Speaker 1: For Chris, Mickey's surfing style is seductive, but it's his
Speaker 1: attitude towards surfing that he admires most. Mickey represented the
Speaker 1: rebel soul of surfing. Of course, he wanted to plug
Speaker 1: into that.
Speaker 2: My favorite surfers are the guys that are doing amazing
Speaker 2: things in a subtle way. But really the thing about
Speaker 2: Mick that is the most lasting it was fuck society.
Speaker 2: It was fuck everybody. I'm going to do it whatever
Speaker 2: I want, whenever I want, the way I want, and
Speaker 2: that like that really, you know, if we go into
Speaker 2: the sixties, seventies and even early eighties, you know, and
Speaker 2: that carried on into punk rock and skating and and
Speaker 2: roll and all that, you know, it was fuck everybody,
Speaker 2: like I'm not going to do it your way. I'm
Speaker 2: going to do it my way, you know, And it
Speaker 2: doesn't It's not just in the water, it's on land.
Speaker 2: That's the most lasting signature of Mickey Dora to me
Speaker 2: do it my way.
Speaker 1: Listening to Chris, I think he identifies with Mickey's disappointment too,
Speaker 1: that the California of old is disappearing.
Speaker 2: The ocean was a gift to him, as it is
Speaker 2: for all of us, you know. I mean, he talked
Speaker 2: to me about like riding horses up into the canyon
Speaker 2: and catching trout to beach blanket bingo. And he watched
Speaker 2: La turn into an absolute shit show and it pissed
Speaker 2: him off to no end, as it should have. He
Speaker 2: watched the La River turn into concrete and he said,
Speaker 2: fuck y'all, I'm not cool with this.
Speaker 1: There was one more story Chris wanted to tell me.
Speaker 1: This one had stayed with him because it was so
Speaker 1: mysterious and painful and unresolved, and it was about the
Speaker 1: person in Mickey's family circle. You almost never hear about Ramona,
Speaker 1: his mom, who Mickey seemed to worship as a little
Speaker 1: boy and who had basically abandoned him.
Speaker 2: One night, We're in this cabin where we were gifted
Speaker 2: a place to say. I was staying on the couch
Speaker 2: and he got the bedroom like there was a little bedroom.
Speaker 3: And.
Speaker 5: He was.
Speaker 2: Besmirching his mother pretty heavily and saying how I never
Speaker 2: got anything from her and that she didn't take care
Speaker 2: of him, and I just listened, and that next morning
Speaker 2: I wanted to go surfing and he wasn't up, and
Speaker 2: I was like, oh, that's kind of curious. So I
Speaker 2: went up and he was laying there awake, and there
Speaker 2: was a picture of his mother with two candles on
Speaker 2: each side.
Speaker 1: Did you know if she was already dead at that point?
Speaker 13: Oh?
Speaker 5: She was long dead, right, Yeah.
Speaker 2: But it was like that wasn't for show. He didn't
Speaker 2: know I was going to climb the ladder up to
Speaker 2: his little loft. It showed me that like he truly was,
Speaker 2: like when he speaks in these sort of code and
Speaker 2: is here nor there and then back again, like he
Speaker 2: really that really was him. It wasn't all show, is
Speaker 2: my point. I've been trying to figure that out since
Speaker 2: two thousand. I don't know what the hell that worked out.
Speaker 2: You know, he didn't say anything super mean spirited, but
Speaker 2: it was like, my mom didn't take care of me,
Speaker 2: you know, she basically you know, didn't didn't you know,
Speaker 2: just turned me out, really, you know, And yeah, I've
Speaker 2: never I really thought a lot about that, and I'm like, wow,
Speaker 2: like that psychologically, like what it meant is that he
Speaker 2: he was maybe venting because he was hurt by that,
Speaker 2: you know, and wishes things would have been different. Maybe.
Speaker 1: After the Chili trip, Mickey's health declined. He got a
Speaker 1: diagnosis of pancreatic cancer. In November two thousand and one,
Speaker 1: his patrons Quicksilver Bottom a round trip ticket back to California,
Speaker 1: first class. The return portion was just a kindness. Everyone
Speaker 1: knew Mickey was leaving France for good. Miklosch was still alive.
Speaker 1: He lived another twenty years to the age of one
Speaker 1: hundred and seven. So from France, Mickey went to Montecito
Speaker 1: and spent his last days at his father's house, lying
Speaker 1: naked in the sun. He died in early January two
Speaker 1: thousand and two. He never went back to the beach
Speaker 1: that made him famous. But on the day he died,
Speaker 1: someone painted the wall at Malibu Dora Lives. But Mickey
Speaker 1: still had a few tricks up his sleeve.
Speaker 13: We found out after he died that he had four
Speaker 13: hundred thousand dollars in US was bank acount out, but
Speaker 13: he didn't go afterwards. He was living like a poor man,
Speaker 13: and he, you know, went from hand to mouth and
Speaker 13: acted like a poor person.
Speaker 1: That's Bob Simpson, the lawyer who knew Mickey at the
Speaker 1: end of his life. Mickey for years had pretended to
Speaker 1: be destitute. That turned out to be another ruse in
Speaker 1: a long line of ruses.
Speaker 8: And the thing that's so strange about the whole Mickey thing,
Speaker 8: he didn't have to do any of it. It was
Speaker 8: all unnecessary.
Speaker 1: This is Denny Auburg, the surfer who knew Mickey way
Speaker 1: back in the fifties in Malibu.
Speaker 8: Any dark thing that he did, he could have done
Speaker 8: it in another way. His dad had money. He didn't
Speaker 8: have to do it, you know. But that's that thing,
Speaker 8: that little quirk where he just kind of like he
Speaker 8: just wanted to see if he could get away with it.
Speaker 8: I don't know. I don't I'm not a psychologist, but
Speaker 8: like a lot of people to struck, you know.
Speaker 1: Next time on Lost Hills, what Mickey left behind.
Speaker 14: There are sixty four letters from all over the world
Speaker 14: with addresses and stamps.
Speaker 3: Wow, this is a dance.
Speaker 14: Yeah. I had to let them sit for a couple
Speaker 14: of weeks before I actually would open them to get
Speaker 14: I'm head right, you know, to be sure I was
Speaker 14: ready to read some of this stuff.
Speaker 1: That's next In the final episode of the Dark Prince
Speaker 1: a nasty piece of work. Lost Tills is written and
Speaker 1: reported by me Dana Goodyear. It's created by me and
Speaker 1: Ben Adair and produced by Western Sound and Pushkin Industries.
Speaker 1: Subscribe to Pushkin Plus and you can binge the entire
Speaker 1: season right now ad free. Find Pushkin Plus on the
Speaker 1: Lost Tail show page in Apple Podcasts, or at pushkin
Speaker 1: dot fm slash plus