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Speaker 1: Pushkin Hey, Lost Hills listeners, it's Dana. I wanted to

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Speaker 1: let you know that you can hear the entire new

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Speaker 1: season of Lost Hills ad free, along with other great

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Speaker 1: binge listens by becoming a Pushkin Plus subscriber. Find Pushkin

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Speaker 1: Plus on the Lost Hills Show page in Apple Podcasts,

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Speaker 1: or at pushkin dot fm slash Plus. Not too long ago,

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Speaker 1: I met a surfer named Denny Auburg. He lives in

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Speaker 1: Santa Barbara now, but he learned to surf in Malibu

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Speaker 1: when the sport was barely known on the mainland.

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Speaker 2: I still go surfing after about sixty two years of surfing,

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Speaker 2: go down to Rincon and live close by him. I

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Speaker 2: still have the stoke.

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Speaker 1: Denny told me a story about one of his early

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Speaker 1: surf experiences, a day that made an indelible impression on him.

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Speaker 1: It was nineteen fifty nine. He was twelve. The waves

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Speaker 1: at Malibu were huge, but he and his friend decided

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Speaker 1: to paddle out anyway. They were kooks. They didn't know

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Speaker 1: what they were doing.

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Speaker 2: So we were beginners. You know. We're down at Malibu

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Speaker 2: and it was a big day, you know, But we

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Speaker 2: went out by the pier when it gets real big.

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Speaker 2: You have to go way down by the piero to

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Speaker 2: paddle out, and so we jump in the water with

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Speaker 2: our boards, you know, a little skinny twelve year olds

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Speaker 2: and start turning out a little skinny arms, you know,

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Speaker 2: doing this kook paddle trying to get out, and a

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Speaker 2: big set of waves, I mean, the big waves came

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Speaker 2: like a row of five or six waves. Out to

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Speaker 2: see them, I never forget this, the beauty of this

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Speaker 2: wave coming.

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Speaker 1: As the wave approached, Denny saw there was a c

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Speaker 1: on it.

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Speaker 2: Just perfectly placed on this wave, just trimming at the

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Speaker 2: very top of the wave. And there's a precision. When

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Speaker 2: you're trim it means your board's flushed sideways to the wave,

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Speaker 2: it's inside it, and you're getting speed that way because

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Speaker 2: it's in the right position. The fins just hanging on

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Speaker 2: at the top of the wave, and it's hand position.

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Speaker 2: The way he's kind of arching in the little vales

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Speaker 2: of water coming off to those. It was the most

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Speaker 2: gorgeous thing, you know, the colors. He's riding this wind

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Speaker 2: blowing spin drifts back and we're just watching this thing.

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Speaker 2: Oh my god. But we realized he was coming right

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Speaker 2: at us, you know, We were the cooks in his way,

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Speaker 2: you know, coming right at us, so we had to

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Speaker 2: turn sideways. You know, it's hard to explain, but when

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Speaker 2: you turn broadside, you just get obliterated. It just took

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Speaker 2: our board, It just took us and lasted us, churning

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Speaker 2: into the white water down by the end of the

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Speaker 2: pilings of the pier, I really felt like I was

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Speaker 2: going to drown. My friend told me I almost drowed.

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Speaker 2: I don't remember, but I remember spitting out sand, and

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Speaker 2: you know, just like, oh my god, who was that guy?

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Speaker 1: Who was that guy? His name was Mickey Dora, also

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Speaker 1: known as the Cat, also known as the Dark Prince

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Speaker 1: of Malibu. In the nineteen fifties, as surfing spread from

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Speaker 1: Hawaii to California, Mickey gained a reputation as the most

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Speaker 1: dynamic and watchable surfer on the mainland. He was Malibu's

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Speaker 1: first homegrown celebrity and the surf world's first personality. He

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Speaker 1: put Malibu on the map. Mickey Dora was beautiful and charismatic,

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Speaker 1: but he was all shade. You don't earn that name

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Speaker 1: the Dark Prince for nothing. He represented Malibu's dark side.

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Speaker 1: What I think of as Malae's true nature. He violently

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Speaker 1: opposed the happy, sun drenched Malibu that would come to

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Speaker 1: dominate pop culture, starting with the Gidget movies in the

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Speaker 1: late fifties, Malibu Barbie in the seventies, and everything that

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Speaker 1: came after that. He hated Gidget and everything she stood

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Speaker 1: for new surfers, girl surfers, surfers he thought didn't belong.

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Speaker 1: He went to war for the soul of Malibu, the

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Speaker 1: soul of surfing. Some days I think he won. Mickey

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Speaker 1: Dora was a surfing Jesse James, an unrepentant outlaw, idolized

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Speaker 1: by the so called wild kids of Malibu Beach. A

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Speaker 1: scoundrel who people say would screw them over for fun,

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Speaker 1: scam them, steal from them, and break their hearts. A

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Speaker 1: rebel who made his own rules. The legends were endless,

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Speaker 1: mostly not fact check, and Mickey was their primary author.

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Speaker 1: He stole Ringo Stars snuffbox or was it John Lennon's lighter?

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Speaker 1: He dated Cher before Sonny. He knew who kidnapped Frank

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Speaker 1: Sinatra Junior. He was a diamond smuggler, a drug lord,

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Speaker 1: a double agent, a European aristocrat, a prophet of the

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Speaker 1: coming apocalypse, he was an emotionally unstable man, armed and dangerous.

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Speaker 1: That one was courtesy of the FBI, who tried to

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Speaker 1: catch him for seven years. Because in the early seventies,

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Speaker 1: at the height of his fame, when some of his

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Speaker 1: bad deeds were catching up with him, Mickey just disappeared.

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Speaker 1: He went on the lamb, leading law enforcement on a

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Speaker 1: goose chase that spanned the globe. But while the law

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Speaker 1: was hunting him, he was hunting something else. The Perfect Wave,

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Speaker 1: a once in a century event sometimes called the rogue

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Speaker 1: Wave or the episodic Wave or the Ninth Wave. Does

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Speaker 1: that sound familiar. If it does, that's because it's a

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Speaker 1: lot like the plot of Point Break, the cult classic

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Speaker 1: from nineteen ninety one. In Point Break, Patrick Swayzee plays

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Speaker 1: a groovy surfer named Body who robbed banks so he

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Speaker 1: could travel the world and find the Perfect Wave. Well,

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Speaker 1: Mickey was a real life Body, minus the Kumbaya.

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Speaker 3: He said, criminals break the laws. I live outside the law.

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Speaker 4: Mickey's alias is Richard Austin, Roach Junior, micklos Dora, Mickey Dora.

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Speaker 2: It was a Swiss bank, and yeah, they found four

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Speaker 2: hundred thousand dollars in the bank.

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Speaker 4: Alexander Dora.

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Speaker 5: Nobody knows exactly where it came from.

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Speaker 2: There were all sorts of theories.

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Speaker 4: Miklos Dora, Cornell, Michael s Chapin.

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Speaker 3: Australia, New Zealand, Bali, Thailand, Malaysia, India, and I'm probably

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Speaker 3: missing a few, all of Europe.

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Speaker 4: Michael spring Chapin.

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Speaker 6: He went to amazing places before anybody was doing that

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Speaker 6: stuff by himself.

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Speaker 4: Nicol spring Chapin, Michael Stanley Chapin.

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Speaker 1: You don't have to be a conspiracy theorist to connect

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Speaker 1: the dots around this.

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Speaker 4: Alexander Micholas and I fell in love the minute he

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Speaker 4: walked out of the water, until I realized he was

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Speaker 4: a scoundrel.

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Speaker 3: In a road and was training me to be an accomplice.

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Speaker 7: I'm going to get in big trouble for saying all this.

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Speaker 7: He was narcissistic, but also incredibly intelligent and also i'd

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Speaker 7: say a little bit sociopathic.

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Speaker 6: It just all gets darker and darker and darker until

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Speaker 6: I just want to sort of turn away from it.

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Speaker 8: I don't want to know about it anymore.

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Speaker 1: At its core, surfing as a counterculture, so Mickey being

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Speaker 1: an anti hero that just makes some Surfings Hero, I'm

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Speaker 1: Dana Goodyear and this is Lost Hills Season three, The

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Speaker 1: Dark Prince, Episode one. The legend of Mickey Dora.

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Speaker 6: Who is the best in the world, Who's the worst

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Speaker 6: in the world.

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Speaker 8: I don't give a fuck. I don't give a damn.

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Speaker 6: Do you want to think I'm any good?

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Speaker 8: Fine?

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Speaker 2: If they don't think I'm any good, I don't give

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Speaker 2: a shit. I have there no right ways and enjoy myself.

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Speaker 1: Mickey Dora died from pancreatic cancer in two thousand and two.

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Speaker 1: For reasons I'll get into later, there are very few

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Speaker 1: publicly available recordings of him. What you're about to hear

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Speaker 1: is probably the longest and most revealing clip that's out there.

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Speaker 1: It's from a nineteen ninety documentary called Surfers the movie.

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Speaker 1: In it, Mickey lays out his surfing philosophy.

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Speaker 6: My whole life is this escape.

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Speaker 2: My whole life is this way. If I drop into

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Speaker 2: set the whole thing up, pull up a bottom troom

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Speaker 2: and pull up into it and shoot for my life

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Speaker 2: going in for prom and behind me all of the

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Speaker 2: shit goes over my back.

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Speaker 5: He had been such a big part of surf history,

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Speaker 5: and as a kid, I soaked all that up. I

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Speaker 5: started surfing in the mid seventies, late seventies.

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Speaker 1: This is Kelly Slater, the eleven time World Surf League champion.

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Speaker 1: He's regarded as the greatest surfer of all time. When

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Speaker 1: he was in his twenties, Kelly had the chance to

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Speaker 1: spend time with Mickey Dora.

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Speaker 5: It was part of the experience, you know, it was

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Speaker 5: a part of a essentially like a grassroots experience to

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Speaker 5: be around Mickey Dora in the surf world because he

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Speaker 5: was a legend. He was a living character to us,

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Speaker 5: to people in my era and just before me. Mickey

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Speaker 5: was He's one of the biggest names in surfing, and

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Speaker 5: he did represent the lifestyle and the freedom that surfers

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Speaker 5: have and you know, a means to an end to

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Speaker 5: go travel around the world and surf.

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Speaker 1: Mickey was one of the original California surfers, an innovator

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Speaker 1: who was among the few standout masters, certainly the most

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Speaker 1: notorious and memorable. At the moment that surfing exploded into

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Speaker 1: the mainstream. Mickey had an ideology about surfing. Casual surfers

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Speaker 1: they should get out of his way, or better yet,

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Speaker 1: stay out of Malibu altogether. Professionals like Slater, they were

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Speaker 1: defiling something sacred. Mickey's way was total commitment and total freedom,

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Speaker 1: no rules.

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Speaker 5: The cool thing about Mickey's story is there's always been

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Speaker 5: this sort of tinge of like a little bit of

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Speaker 5: an outlaw lifestyle or something. An expat, a traveling person,

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Speaker 5: somebody there's a little bit of mystery in their life

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Speaker 5: or whatever. That was really prominent back in the fifties

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Speaker 5: and sixties and seventies and surfing, and it really built

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Speaker 5: up the lore of mysterious characters.

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Speaker 8: Around the world.

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Speaker 5: I don't know if all the stories I heard were

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Speaker 5: true or not, but that was the early days of

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Speaker 5: like seven. Maybe he pictured himself as like this kind

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Speaker 5: of like almost like a spy in this surf world

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Speaker 5: or something, and that was sort of celebrated to have

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Speaker 5: this sort of life at all costs and make it

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Speaker 5: fun while you're doing it.

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Speaker 1: I started surfing ten years ago, and there's not another

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Speaker 1: way to say it. I felt totally in love with it.

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Speaker 1: The smell of the wax, the taste of salt, the

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Speaker 1: squinting into the sun, the scar I'll have forever from

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Speaker 1: the rock at low Tide Malibu that cut through my

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Speaker 1: wetsuit and gashed my shin. I love the salty, shaggy

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Speaker 1: people who seem to congregate around the southern California breaks

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Speaker 1: people with stories from the not that distant past, when

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Speaker 1: mainland surfing was born. I got into surfing when I

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Speaker 1: had a newborn and a two year old, was writing

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Speaker 1: a book and teaching at a university and writing full

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Speaker 1: time for The New Yorker. I was living in a

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Speaker 1: world of obligations, deadlines, bedtimes, clocks, a life measured out

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Speaker 1: in teaspoons. Very unfree surfing released me temporarily from that identity.

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Speaker 1: It let me drop out, It let me live life

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Speaker 1: by the tides. This one day, early in my time surfing,

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Speaker 1: I was in the water at Sunset, a beginner's spot

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Speaker 1: between Santa Monica and Malibu where you park along Pacific

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Speaker 1: Coast Highway and scramble down the rocks with your board.

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Speaker 1: I was sitting there in the long lag between sets

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Speaker 1: of waves, bobbing, looking up to the highway, watching all

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Speaker 1: the cars streaming by. So many times I'd been in

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Speaker 1: my car on that stretch of road. I glanced over

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Speaker 1: at the surfers in the water below. They had seemed

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Speaker 1: scenic a picturesque feature of Los Angeles. But now I

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Speaker 1: was in the waves, and it was the opposite the cars,

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Speaker 1: the city clustered at the ocean's edge. That was the backdrop.

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Speaker 1: That world looked temporary, illusory. This here was real. To

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Speaker 1: this day, Mickey Dora is held up as an idol

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Speaker 1: many people's idea of a pure surfer. That was the

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Speaker 1: case for Denny Auburg, for sure. He idolized Mickey as

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Speaker 1: a kid on the beach in Malibu, and you can

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Speaker 1: hear it in his voice. He still does.

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Speaker 2: Mickey is twelve years older than me. He was a

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Speaker 2: man when we were kids, you know, twenty five serious.

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Speaker 1: Denny's house is a simple wooden structure on his buddy's

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Speaker 1: avocado farm. The window ledges are lined with surf memorabilia,

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Speaker 1: trophies and plaques and photos of Denny as a tow

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Speaker 1: headed teenager.

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Speaker 2: Yes, a picture of him.

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Speaker 1: This is you surfing.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that's Mickey Dora next to me.

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Speaker 1: Your style is not totally different from Mickey's.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, we probably all copied Mickey. You know, he was

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Speaker 2: a big influence. That's another thing, you know that people

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Speaker 2: copied his style and learned from him. You know, he

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Speaker 2: was a teacher just by doing it, you know, taught

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Speaker 2: us what to do, you know, how to ride a wave.

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Speaker 7: You know.

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Speaker 2: Amazing.

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Speaker 1: The way Mickey served it was poetic. No one who

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Speaker 1: saw it could forget it, and no one could match him,

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Speaker 1: though everyone tried.

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Speaker 2: His nickname was the Cat because he had feline grace

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Speaker 2: on a wave, you know, the way pussy fliped to

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Speaker 2: the nose, you know, boom boom, real agile. You know.

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Speaker 2: They call him the cat. That's why they made him,

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Speaker 2: not because he was a cat burglar, but I guess

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Speaker 2: he was that.

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Speaker 1: Along with Mickey's unparalleled ability on a surfboard, his appearance

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Speaker 1: was unique on the beaches of southern California in a

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Speaker 1: sea of boy scout blondes. He was obsidian dark hair

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Speaker 1: and eyes, and the kind of complexion people often called

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Speaker 1: a swarthy.

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Speaker 6: The fact that the guy who caught our attention the

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Speaker 6: most is this hairy, dark haired guy who didn't look

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Speaker 6: at all like the archetype. I respond to that as well.

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Speaker 1: This is Matt Warshaw. He's a surf historian and the

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Speaker 1: curator of an incredible online resource called The Encyclopedia of Surfing.

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Speaker 6: In the surf world, You know, he looks so perfect

255
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Speaker 6: to be that person, the way Bowie looks so good

256
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Speaker 6: to be the person for that period of glam rock,

257
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Speaker 6: you know. And it's not even the handsomeess grinned by itself.

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Speaker 6: It's almost like this chesture cap thing like sometimes you

259
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Speaker 6: think of Dora. It's like the rest of him sort

260
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Speaker 6: of fades away and it's just this dark hair and

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Speaker 6: that really sort of devilish grin.

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Speaker 1: But what really set Mickey apart was the persona he invented.

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Speaker 1: Mickey Dora was a character, a complex self invention that

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Speaker 1: was meant to draw a maximum attention and to throw

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Speaker 1: people of his trail.

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Speaker 6: Mickey seemed to have I guess what we would call

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Speaker 6: a brand, and I got.

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Speaker 8: The feeling that he dressed sort of for us.

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Speaker 6: He you know, he would show up in things that

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Speaker 6: you wouldn't expect a surfer to wear, you know, he

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00:17:20,636 --> 00:17:23,516
Speaker 6: would just wear a tennis sweater to the beach. I

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Speaker 6: read someone said that NICKI would show up with a

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Speaker 6: starlet one day, and they'd show up with two really

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Speaker 6: pretty boys the next day. So I think that he

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Speaker 6: was never not having fun and sort of just enjoying himself,

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Speaker 6: especially in these early years, just sort of playing with

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Speaker 6: the image of being a surfer before anybody else was

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Speaker 6: doing it.

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Speaker 1: The ocean is infinite, but waves, waves shaped for surfing

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Speaker 1: with a face and room to play, are finite. The

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00:18:01,516 --> 00:18:05,676
Speaker 1: deepest joy in surfing comes from a long, uninterrupted ride.

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Speaker 1: That's the whole point, to be alone on a way

283
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Speaker 1: or so I hear. I've been surfing in Los Angeles

284
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Speaker 1: for a decade and I've rarely had a wave to

285
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Speaker 1: myself for more than a few seconds. There are too

286
00:18:20,356 --> 00:18:26,916
Speaker 1: many surfers and not enough waves. Denny Auberg remembers the

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Speaker 1: time before the early nineteen fifties when Malibu was an

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Speaker 1: undiscovered wave. Most days it was only Nicki, Dora and

289
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Speaker 1: one or two others in the water.

290
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Speaker 2: And you had this wonderful wave to yourself, which makes

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Speaker 2: a big difference, because when you have a wave to

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Speaker 2: yourself and a perfect wave, you get the right of

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Speaker 2: your life and nobody gets in your way, and it's

294
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Speaker 2: just the nature all around you, and it's yours, you know,

295
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Speaker 2: and it's a personal connection with nature that it's hard

296
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Speaker 2: to duplicate, you know, It's just nothing like it because

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Speaker 2: it's so gorgeous in the water and the wind blowing

298
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Speaker 2: the waves back, and you're free and there's no distractions

299
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Speaker 2: you in the ways.

300
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Speaker 1: Malibu is a perfect long, right breaking wave that peals

301
00:19:16,276 --> 00:19:19,556
Speaker 1: from way off the point to the Malibu Pier, and

302
00:19:19,596 --> 00:19:22,596
Speaker 1: Mickey Dora owned it for about two decades from the

303
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Speaker 1: early fifties to the early seventies. And because it was Malibu,

304
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Speaker 1: that meant that Mickey Doora stood for something, an attitude

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00:19:30,396 --> 00:19:34,196
Speaker 1: that would spread through the culture. Here's how one of

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Speaker 1: his admirers wrote about Mickey's influence in an authorized biography, quote,

307
00:19:40,196 --> 00:19:43,276
Speaker 1: he was our Elvis. There was no one else to

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Speaker 1: articulate the fundamental gestures of the sociopathic manifesto of a

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Speaker 1: coalescing youth consciousness unquote. The youth were sociopaths, and Mickey

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Speaker 1: was their leader up until nineteen seventy four, when he

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Speaker 1: vanished from Malibu. That's when he became their god.

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00:20:07,916 --> 00:20:10,996
Speaker 2: It was a mystery. It was kind of like, where's

313
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Speaker 2: Mickey Dora And they still had his name on the wall.

314
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Speaker 2: Some guy spray Can Dora lives you know, on the

315
00:20:18,596 --> 00:20:21,796
Speaker 2: wall and stayed there forever, you know, and it kind

316
00:20:21,796 --> 00:20:23,996
Speaker 2: of left us. He left his mark in that way,

317
00:20:24,076 --> 00:20:26,676
Speaker 2: you know, and people would wonder where's Mickey. Nobody knew.

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Speaker 2: It was very much of a mystery for years because

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Speaker 2: he was on the run, you know, and kind of

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Speaker 2: like Billy the Kid, you know, he was gone. He's

321
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Speaker 2: kind of had this reputation the bad boy on the run,

322
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Speaker 2: the fugitive, so it added to his reputation.

323
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Speaker 1: Mickey Dora was a born con man. He could talk

324
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Speaker 1: his way into anything and out of almost everything, because

325
00:21:07,556 --> 00:21:11,716
Speaker 1: alleged scams ranged petty and kind of ridiculous, like renting

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Speaker 1: out surfboards that didn't belong to him, to blatantly criminal

327
00:21:16,076 --> 00:21:21,876
Speaker 1: credit card fraud, fake plane tickets, stolen ski equipment, stolen antiques,

328
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Speaker 1: stolen passports. Eventually, his schemes would land him in federal prison.

329
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Speaker 1: You associated with him at your own risk. Denny Auberg

330
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Speaker 1: has a story about this, the kind of thing that

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Speaker 1: would happen on a typical day hanging out with Mickey

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Speaker 1: in the early seventies, Denny was invited to Kawhai by

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Speaker 1: a Hawaiian surfer named Joey Cabbell. At the time, Mickey

334
00:21:47,036 --> 00:21:49,956
Speaker 1: was also in Hawaii. Cabell told Denny he'd like to

335
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Speaker 1: see Mickey too, so.

336
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Speaker 2: I called up Mickey and told him, Joey invited you

337
00:21:54,196 --> 00:21:57,076
Speaker 2: to come, and he came right over. He shut up.

338
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Speaker 2: It was amazing.

339
00:21:58,596 --> 00:22:01,596
Speaker 1: Coabell, who was in peak physical shape, proposed the hike

340
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Speaker 1: to a beach to spend the night. It was an

341
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Speaker 1: eleven mile hike and not an easy one.

342
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Speaker 2: So I'm trudging along with Mickey on this really tough hike,

343
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Speaker 2: you know, for us, and we're like city slickers. Dora

344
00:22:14,796 --> 00:22:18,276
Speaker 2: had these leather boots on, really the wrong equipment, you know,

345
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Speaker 2: and I was kind of feeling a little sick myself,

346
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Speaker 2: and it got dark on us, and we're going through

347
00:22:23,476 --> 00:22:27,076
Speaker 2: these canyons and pushing branches away. Micky was tortured.

348
00:22:29,916 --> 00:22:33,716
Speaker 1: Finally they arrived at the beach. They were exhausted and

349
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Speaker 1: Denny was starting to feel really bad.

350
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Speaker 2: He passed out in some cave, you know. He woke

351
00:22:38,836 --> 00:22:42,356
Speaker 2: up in the morning and Micky could see that I

352
00:22:42,396 --> 00:22:45,796
Speaker 2: was a little sick, so he is mine started working like,

353
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Speaker 2: I can't hike back. I got to figure something out.

354
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Speaker 2: He saw this helicopter go by, you know, and it

355
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Speaker 2: was they had a tourist, So Micky had an idea.

356
00:22:57,156 --> 00:22:59,916
Speaker 1: Mickey slipped away and went down to the shoreline, where

357
00:22:59,916 --> 00:23:02,276
Speaker 1: he gathered up some rocks and used them to write

358
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Speaker 1: S O S in big letters.

359
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Speaker 2: The next day, I know, the helicopter lands on this

360
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Speaker 2: path down the beach and Mickey goes up. He talks

361
00:23:09,916 --> 00:23:12,356
Speaker 2: to the guy. I don't know what he was saying,

362
00:23:12,396 --> 00:23:14,076
Speaker 2: but apparently he was telling the guy that my friend's

363
00:23:14,116 --> 00:23:18,556
Speaker 2: dying on the beach. We need help. And the guy said,

364
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Speaker 2: I can't come back right now, but you know soon

365
00:23:21,116 --> 00:23:24,476
Speaker 2: did I take these people? And right before dark, this

366
00:23:24,556 --> 00:23:29,076
Speaker 2: guy came back and Micky says, come on, that's it,

367
00:23:29,356 --> 00:23:33,236
Speaker 2: let's go what oh okay, start start doing the fifty

368
00:23:33,316 --> 00:23:37,516
Speaker 2: yard dash toward this helicopter down the beach, and Mickey says,

369
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Speaker 2: slow down. You got to act a little sicker, you know.

370
00:23:41,956 --> 00:23:44,196
Speaker 2: We walk up to the helicopter pilot and he kind

371
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Speaker 2: of looks at me and I was trying to stick her,

372
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Speaker 2: and he opens the door. He let me in to

373
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Speaker 2: the helicopter and Mickey starts to get in behind him

374
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Speaker 2: and the guy goes, oh, no, it's not you. It's

375
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Speaker 2: just a sick guy, you know, you know, no make

376
00:23:56,636 --> 00:23:59,116
Speaker 2: Mickey pulls out this little bottle. He said, I'm having

377
00:23:59,156 --> 00:24:03,396
Speaker 2: an asthma attack. I can't breathe. You know, my feeter bleeding.

378
00:24:03,676 --> 00:24:06,316
Speaker 2: I can't walk, you know, you just started crying the guy.

379
00:24:06,916 --> 00:24:08,516
Speaker 2: You could tell the guy wasn't buying it, but he

380
00:24:08,596 --> 00:24:12,356
Speaker 2: let him in, so we got lifted off the pad.

381
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Speaker 2: It was the most beautiful majestic thing. I mean, the

382
00:24:14,916 --> 00:24:18,236
Speaker 2: serrated mountains is colors, you know, and running this little

383
00:24:18,316 --> 00:24:20,716
Speaker 2: bubble up in the sky. And Mickey turns, he says,

384
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Speaker 2: our magic carpet.

385
00:24:22,036 --> 00:24:30,076
Speaker 1: Right when the helicopter landed in town, there were news

386
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Speaker 1: reporters and cameras everywhere.

387
00:24:33,276 --> 00:24:35,156
Speaker 2: They thought somewhere they were bringing the dead guy. You know,

388
00:24:36,596 --> 00:24:39,076
Speaker 2: we land and all these people kind of crowded around me,

389
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Speaker 2: you know. And as soon as I get out and

390
00:24:41,716 --> 00:24:46,156
Speaker 2: they go, where's the sick guy? Oh that was me?

391
00:24:46,236 --> 00:24:49,956
Speaker 2: And they're all disappointed, you know, and they leave. Mickey

392
00:24:50,076 --> 00:24:53,476
Speaker 2: was disappeared. He's nowhere, tom around. He disappeared on me.

393
00:24:53,516 --> 00:24:55,756
Speaker 2: He left me holding the bag. So he pulled this

394
00:24:55,796 --> 00:24:59,676
Speaker 2: whole thing off, and I went through and got checked out.

395
00:24:59,716 --> 00:25:02,876
Speaker 2: I did have some little dysentery thing. The cops had

396
00:25:02,916 --> 00:25:05,436
Speaker 2: gone looking for Mickey and they found him trying to

397
00:25:05,476 --> 00:25:07,956
Speaker 2: rent a car at the airport and they dragged him back.

398
00:25:08,036 --> 00:25:10,516
Speaker 2: You know, they were trying to interview the guy, and

399
00:25:10,516 --> 00:25:13,356
Speaker 2: he's showing him all these fake ideas, and one said

400
00:25:13,516 --> 00:25:16,156
Speaker 2: Chapin and the other one said Dora, who are you?

401
00:25:16,196 --> 00:25:20,436
Speaker 2: Are you Chapin our Dora? And he's laughing, I'm chaping Dora,

402
00:25:20,596 --> 00:25:24,356
Speaker 2: you know. And I don't know how it happened, but

403
00:25:24,356 --> 00:25:26,156
Speaker 2: he got out of the whole thing, and I was

404
00:25:26,196 --> 00:25:26,836
Speaker 2: the fall guy.

405
00:25:30,316 --> 00:25:34,396
Speaker 1: To Mickey, Dora, the highest value was freedom, and that

406
00:25:34,716 --> 00:25:38,476
Speaker 1: to him meant doing whatever served him best in any situation.

407
00:25:39,956 --> 00:25:43,676
Speaker 1: For Mickey, freedom took priority over any other moral or

408
00:25:43,716 --> 00:25:48,396
Speaker 1: ethical consideration, and he would do or say almost anything

409
00:25:48,556 --> 00:25:52,996
Speaker 1: to get what he wanted. In nineteen seventy four, Mickey

410
00:25:53,076 --> 00:25:56,236
Speaker 1: left Malibu and set out on an adventure that took

411
00:25:56,316 --> 00:26:00,076
Speaker 1: him all over the world searching for the perfect empty wave.

412
00:26:01,076 --> 00:26:03,676
Speaker 1: He didn't have the money to travel like this, but

413
00:26:03,876 --> 00:26:07,276
Speaker 1: he did it anyway, using blank airline tickets that he

414
00:26:07,396 --> 00:26:09,676
Speaker 1: filled out for whatever destination he wanted.

415
00:26:10,476 --> 00:26:13,076
Speaker 3: Mickey had a whole bunch from a woman who worked

416
00:26:13,116 --> 00:26:14,436
Speaker 3: at the Pan American office.

417
00:26:15,156 --> 00:26:19,356
Speaker 1: This is Linda Kai, Mickey's girlfriend, an accomplice for much

418
00:26:19,356 --> 00:26:20,476
Speaker 1: of the nineteen seventies.

419
00:26:21,436 --> 00:26:24,116
Speaker 3: You could actually write your own tickets back in those days,

420
00:26:24,556 --> 00:26:26,956
Speaker 3: they were paper tickets written on and all you needed

421
00:26:26,956 --> 00:26:30,956
Speaker 3: to know was the mile age, and he had all

422
00:26:30,996 --> 00:26:36,116
Speaker 3: the paraphernalia to work her out. Now, I don't know

423
00:26:36,156 --> 00:26:38,236
Speaker 3: who the girl was and gave him the stuff. He

424
00:26:38,316 --> 00:26:42,196
Speaker 3: must have made a sweet you know. But you're flying

425
00:26:42,236 --> 00:26:45,796
Speaker 3: on these sort of forged Everything was fake.

426
00:26:46,996 --> 00:26:50,796
Speaker 1: They shopped and dined and stayed in nice hotels, all

427
00:26:50,836 --> 00:26:55,116
Speaker 1: of it, according to Linda on forged credit cards, and

428
00:26:55,236 --> 00:26:58,196
Speaker 1: all while being tracked from surf spot to surf spot

429
00:26:58,476 --> 00:27:01,476
Speaker 1: by baffled agents of the FBI and Interpol.

430
00:27:02,876 --> 00:27:06,116
Speaker 3: Back in the day, credit cards were plastic, of course,

431
00:27:06,476 --> 00:27:09,476
Speaker 3: but they didn't have the strips on the back like

432
00:27:09,476 --> 00:27:12,196
Speaker 3: they do nail the manuscrip. They had numbers and dates.

433
00:27:12,836 --> 00:27:15,636
Speaker 3: I was assigned to take a little razor blade and

434
00:27:16,396 --> 00:27:21,116
Speaker 3: change some numbers, and we did and make it good

435
00:27:21,156 --> 00:27:21,916
Speaker 3: for another month.

436
00:27:23,436 --> 00:27:27,076
Speaker 1: Mickey had a way of justifying all this theft and deception.

437
00:27:28,236 --> 00:27:32,556
Speaker 3: Mickey described at once as he says, I'm not a criminal.

438
00:27:32,996 --> 00:27:36,196
Speaker 3: He says, I don't commit crimes. He says, I'm an outlaw.

439
00:27:36,876 --> 00:27:38,196
Speaker 3: He says, and there's a difference.

440
00:27:38,956 --> 00:27:39,636
Speaker 4: Did you buy it?

441
00:27:39,916 --> 00:27:43,156
Speaker 3: Yes, I still do.

442
00:27:46,236 --> 00:27:48,876
Speaker 7: One of the great accomplishments that Mickey set out and

443
00:27:49,036 --> 00:27:53,196
Speaker 7: probably was successful at was never working a day in

444
00:27:53,236 --> 00:27:56,956
Speaker 7: his life. That was his real goal, and he accomplished it.

445
00:27:57,396 --> 00:27:59,836
Speaker 7: I don't know if he ever actually had a job.

446
00:28:00,836 --> 00:28:03,756
Speaker 1: Jim Kempton used to be the editor of Surfer magazine,

447
00:28:03,996 --> 00:28:07,596
Speaker 1: and these days he runs the California Surf Museum. He

448
00:28:07,676 --> 00:28:10,036
Speaker 1: knew Mickey pretty well in the seven when they were

449
00:28:10,036 --> 00:28:12,476
Speaker 1: both living in a surf town in the south of France.

450
00:28:13,316 --> 00:28:16,556
Speaker 1: In fact, Mickey crashed at his place a lot, used

451
00:28:16,556 --> 00:28:20,076
Speaker 1: his shower and his kitchen. One day, Jim noticed his

452
00:28:20,156 --> 00:28:21,556
Speaker 1: passport was missing.

453
00:28:22,236 --> 00:28:24,516
Speaker 7: And then sitting on the beach, you know, maybe two

454
00:28:24,596 --> 00:28:28,476
Speaker 7: weeks later, I see this South African guy look sort

455
00:28:28,476 --> 00:28:31,396
Speaker 7: of like me, and there's my passport.

456
00:28:31,596 --> 00:28:32,596
Speaker 1: Micky sold it to him.

457
00:28:32,676 --> 00:28:34,796
Speaker 7: I'm sure he did. I don't have I mean, how

458
00:28:34,796 --> 00:28:37,716
Speaker 7: would you ever prove that right unless you arrested them both,

459
00:28:37,756 --> 00:28:40,516
Speaker 7: which I was not going to do in any event.

460
00:28:41,516 --> 00:28:44,916
Speaker 1: Did you ever say anything to Mickey about it? In

461
00:28:44,956 --> 00:28:48,476
Speaker 1: the surf world, it was almost currency to be scammed

462
00:28:48,516 --> 00:28:51,396
Speaker 1: by Mickey. You'd come away from the experience with a

463
00:28:51,476 --> 00:28:55,756
Speaker 1: story to dine out on for years. Mickey's appeal was

464
00:28:55,796 --> 00:28:57,596
Speaker 1: not in spite of his criminality.

465
00:28:58,036 --> 00:29:01,676
Speaker 4: But because of it, there's a.

466
00:29:01,596 --> 00:29:05,316
Speaker 7: Lot of people who love the outlaw, who loved getting

467
00:29:05,316 --> 00:29:07,676
Speaker 7: away with it is something that for many people is

468
00:29:07,716 --> 00:29:11,636
Speaker 7: a great satisfaction to them to see people be able

469
00:29:11,676 --> 00:29:15,276
Speaker 7: to accomplish that, and Mickey for a long time was

470
00:29:15,316 --> 00:29:20,036
Speaker 7: able to do that without payment. We tend to idolize

471
00:29:20,076 --> 00:29:24,036
Speaker 7: our outlaws. Jesse James, pretty Boy Floyd. You know, you

472
00:29:24,076 --> 00:29:26,916
Speaker 7: hear those stories about them, you'd think that those guys

473
00:29:26,996 --> 00:29:31,436
Speaker 7: were somehow like heroic. They are sociopathic killers, every one

474
00:29:31,516 --> 00:29:34,916
Speaker 7: of them, you know, that murdered people in cold blood

475
00:29:35,076 --> 00:29:38,276
Speaker 7: and yet did they give to the poor. Yeah, they did,

476
00:29:38,636 --> 00:29:41,036
Speaker 7: mostly though, to say, to make sure that they didn't

477
00:29:41,076 --> 00:29:48,156
Speaker 7: tell the cops where they were. We definitely idolize our outlaws.

478
00:29:48,316 --> 00:29:50,676
Speaker 7: That's just something that is I think baked into the

479
00:29:50,676 --> 00:29:52,156
Speaker 7: American psyche.

480
00:29:52,476 --> 00:29:55,076
Speaker 1: And it's very prominent in surf culture.

481
00:29:56,756 --> 00:30:00,676
Speaker 7: Very few nice guys are as idolized as the bad

482
00:30:00,716 --> 00:30:02,156
Speaker 7: boys are, and.

483
00:30:02,076 --> 00:30:05,516
Speaker 1: As Mickey Dora the most idolized of the bad boys.

484
00:30:05,476 --> 00:30:07,036
Speaker 7: He's not one of the most idolized the bad boys,

485
00:30:07,036 --> 00:30:09,236
Speaker 7: who's also the most bad guys of the bad guys.

486
00:30:12,236 --> 00:30:15,276
Speaker 1: The darkest parts of Mickey Dora, though, don't have anything

487
00:30:15,316 --> 00:30:18,236
Speaker 1: to do with his hustles and his cons or even

488
00:30:18,276 --> 00:30:21,476
Speaker 1: with the more serious fraud for which he eventually served time.

489
00:30:22,556 --> 00:30:24,756
Speaker 1: The darkest parts of Mickey have to do with his

490
00:30:24,876 --> 00:30:29,796
Speaker 1: soul and the attitudes he harbored there of exclusion, racism,

491
00:30:29,956 --> 00:30:33,996
Speaker 1: and xenophobia, a pattern of hate that maps onto the white,

492
00:30:34,036 --> 00:30:38,236
Speaker 1: white world of mainland surfing, where he was Malibu's superstar,

493
00:30:38,516 --> 00:30:42,956
Speaker 1: in his sunglasses, with his cheshire Cat smile, showing all

494
00:30:42,996 --> 00:30:55,196
Speaker 1: the little sociopaths how it was done.

495
00:30:56,516 --> 00:31:02,396
Speaker 9: Mickey Dora was a secret key to California culture, and

496
00:31:02,556 --> 00:31:05,276
Speaker 9: an invisible thread that wound up running through much of

497
00:31:05,316 --> 00:31:08,756
Speaker 9: what we know is modern California culture. You look at

498
00:31:08,796 --> 00:31:13,076
Speaker 9: how California culture has affected America's culture and how America's

499
00:31:13,116 --> 00:31:16,356
Speaker 9: culture has gone on to affect the world, and you

500
00:31:16,436 --> 00:31:18,476
Speaker 9: can kind of draw a line back to Dora on

501
00:31:18,596 --> 00:31:20,716
Speaker 9: a number of different things.

502
00:31:21,316 --> 00:31:21,556
Speaker 8: D V.

503
00:31:21,756 --> 00:31:24,876
Speaker 1: Divisentis is a film and television writer who, back in

504
00:31:24,876 --> 00:31:27,036
Speaker 1: two thousand and four, was hired to write a movie

505
00:31:27,036 --> 00:31:27,676
Speaker 1: about Mickey.

506
00:31:28,556 --> 00:31:33,596
Speaker 9: I was approached by Appian Way, which is Leonardo DiCaprio's company.

507
00:31:34,676 --> 00:31:37,316
Speaker 1: The movie never happened, but it was supposed to start.

508
00:31:37,316 --> 00:31:40,996
Speaker 1: DiCaprio as Decat just two years after he played the

509
00:31:40,996 --> 00:31:44,036
Speaker 1: con artist Frank Abagnail Junior and Catch Me if you can.

510
00:31:45,556 --> 00:31:48,436
Speaker 1: Dev ended up spending a lot of time thinking about

511
00:31:48,436 --> 00:31:48,996
Speaker 1: Mickey Dora.

512
00:31:50,276 --> 00:31:53,196
Speaker 9: He embodied, in both his thinking and his actions, the

513
00:31:53,236 --> 00:31:57,956
Speaker 9: contradiction between not being a native to somewhere and somehow

514
00:31:57,996 --> 00:32:01,076
Speaker 9: feeling proprietary about that place.

515
00:32:03,076 --> 00:32:08,356
Speaker 1: Surfing is supposed to be a feel good sport, right wrong.

516
00:32:09,396 --> 00:32:12,956
Speaker 1: Surfing is a club and the membership is capped.

517
00:32:13,916 --> 00:32:16,836
Speaker 9: Everybody's getting pissed off about being displaced, and everybody's getting

518
00:32:16,836 --> 00:32:19,316
Speaker 9: pissed off about being commodified, and everybody's being pissed off

519
00:32:19,316 --> 00:32:23,236
Speaker 9: about sharing resources and sharing territory, and it just never ends.

520
00:32:23,276 --> 00:32:25,796
Speaker 9: And it still it just goes on to today. So

521
00:32:26,476 --> 00:32:32,196
Speaker 9: you have people like Mickey who have picked a spot

522
00:32:32,596 --> 00:32:35,916
Speaker 9: where it's supposed to be and nobody else is supposed

523
00:32:35,916 --> 00:32:39,796
Speaker 9: to show up. I think that Mickey himself was very

524
00:32:39,836 --> 00:32:43,916
Speaker 9: aware of the fact that he was excusing himself from

525
00:32:44,036 --> 00:32:48,916
Speaker 9: any prosecution for being an invader, and it's just like, yeah, yeah,

526
00:32:48,916 --> 00:32:51,956
Speaker 9: I know, I am too, but we're done now. No

527
00:32:52,036 --> 00:32:52,716
Speaker 9: more after me.

528
00:32:55,276 --> 00:32:57,956
Speaker 1: The way Mickey Dora saw the world, I have no

529
00:32:58,036 --> 00:33:03,876
Speaker 1: business surfing, and neither do you not at Malibu? Not anywhere?

530
00:33:10,716 --> 00:33:13,316
Speaker 1: Knowing of my interest in the dark side of Malibu,

531
00:33:13,716 --> 00:33:16,996
Speaker 1: a friend of mine, a fifth generation Californian who grew

532
00:33:17,076 --> 00:33:20,196
Speaker 1: up surfing in Santa Monica and Venice, turned me on

533
00:33:20,316 --> 00:33:22,756
Speaker 1: to an essay that ran in the June July nineteen

534
00:33:22,756 --> 00:33:26,756
Speaker 1: seventy six issue of Surfer Magazine. It was called the

535
00:33:26,876 --> 00:33:31,636
Speaker 1: Curse of the Shumash subtitle Malibu is a land of

536
00:33:31,716 --> 00:33:37,076
Speaker 1: strange occurrences and contrast. This was right up my street.

537
00:33:37,716 --> 00:33:40,996
Speaker 1: I bought a copy of the magazine on eBay. It

538
00:33:41,036 --> 00:33:44,556
Speaker 1: turned out to be an odd piece of work, a

539
00:33:44,596 --> 00:33:48,516
Speaker 1: pseudohistory of Malibu told through the vibrant surf culture that

540
00:33:48,596 --> 00:33:52,436
Speaker 1: flourished there and apparently guyed circa nineteen seventy six with

541
00:33:52,516 --> 00:33:56,516
Speaker 1: the introduction of Malibu Barbie. The piece was peppered with

542
00:33:56,756 --> 00:34:01,076
Speaker 1: arcane references to Mickey Dora, his antics, and his self

543
00:34:01,076 --> 00:34:05,116
Speaker 1: imposed exile. He was obviously the star of the article,

544
00:34:05,596 --> 00:34:09,796
Speaker 1: of the place and of the time. Flipped through it,

545
00:34:10,116 --> 00:34:14,276
Speaker 1: studying the grainy photographs. On one page there were several

546
00:34:14,276 --> 00:34:17,996
Speaker 1: pictures of Mickey going down the line at Malibu, and

547
00:34:18,076 --> 00:34:20,396
Speaker 1: on the facing page there was a picture of Mickey

548
00:34:20,516 --> 00:34:24,356
Speaker 1: in a dinner jacket, sunglasses, and maybe a wig, holding

549
00:34:24,356 --> 00:34:27,276
Speaker 1: a surf contest trophy in one hand and a baby

550
00:34:27,316 --> 00:34:30,356
Speaker 1: doll in the other. He's standing in front of a

551
00:34:30,436 --> 00:34:34,476
Speaker 1: sign for Camario State Hospital, a mental institution that some

552
00:34:34,556 --> 00:34:38,516
Speaker 1: say was the Hotel California the Eagles sang about the

553
00:34:38,516 --> 00:34:42,356
Speaker 1: one you could check out from but never leave. In

554
00:34:42,396 --> 00:34:45,876
Speaker 1: the image, Mickey also has a surfboard with him angled

555
00:34:45,916 --> 00:34:48,596
Speaker 1: away from the camera so it dominates the lower half

556
00:34:48,596 --> 00:34:51,516
Speaker 1: of the frame, and on the bottom of the board

557
00:34:52,156 --> 00:35:00,316
Speaker 1: is an enormous swastika. Who wrote this thing? I flipped

558
00:35:00,356 --> 00:35:06,716
Speaker 1: back to the byline, Carlos Eizan Iszan is an unusual name.

559
00:35:07,676 --> 00:35:09,676
Speaker 1: It took me a second to realie that it was

560
00:35:09,716 --> 00:35:18,276
Speaker 1: a pseudonym. Aizan is Nazi spelled backwards. My friend who'd

561
00:35:18,316 --> 00:35:22,156
Speaker 1: recommended this essays Jewish and not in any way sympathetic

562
00:35:22,196 --> 00:35:25,436
Speaker 1: to this kind of stuff. He's just into the Malibu

563
00:35:25,516 --> 00:35:28,436
Speaker 1: lore like I am, and probably hadn't read the piece

564
00:35:28,476 --> 00:35:33,236
Speaker 1: since it came out in nineteen seventy six. But looking

565
00:35:33,276 --> 00:35:37,996
Speaker 1: at it now I felt a kind of uncomfortable recognition. Something,

566
00:35:38,476 --> 00:35:44,556
Speaker 1: unfortunately was starting to make sense. Much as I love surfing,

567
00:35:45,116 --> 00:35:47,316
Speaker 1: there are things about it I have to suppress in

568
00:35:47,396 --> 00:35:50,556
Speaker 1: order to keep enjoying it. Signals that there is something

569
00:35:50,636 --> 00:35:54,716
Speaker 1: rotten there. There's the sign at my local break that

570
00:35:54,836 --> 00:35:58,596
Speaker 1: warns koochs to stay off the main takeoff spot. There's

571
00:35:58,596 --> 00:36:01,756
Speaker 1: the scarcity of black surfers in the water. There are

572
00:36:01,796 --> 00:36:05,556
Speaker 1: the reports year after year of swastikas and Hyle Hitler's

573
00:36:05,556 --> 00:36:11,236
Speaker 1: and antisemitic flyers in beachtowns across southern California. In twenty

574
00:36:11,276 --> 00:36:14,716
Speaker 1: twenty one, in Manhattan Beach, a coastal city in La County,

575
00:36:15,116 --> 00:36:18,116
Speaker 1: an older white surfer was filmed yelling the N word

576
00:36:18,156 --> 00:36:21,116
Speaker 1: at two young black men in the water. A nearby

577
00:36:21,156 --> 00:36:23,836
Speaker 1: teenager told them, this is a locals beach.

578
00:36:25,756 --> 00:36:29,636
Speaker 7: Hateful, racist and anti Semitic messages spray painted all over

579
00:36:29,636 --> 00:36:31,756
Speaker 7: the playground of a South Bay elementary school.

580
00:36:31,836 --> 00:36:34,276
Speaker 4: Yeah, and this is not the first time or even

581
00:36:34,316 --> 00:36:34,956
Speaker 4: the second time.

582
00:36:35,316 --> 00:36:38,076
Speaker 1: And this was just in twenty twenty two, within a

583
00:36:38,076 --> 00:36:40,076
Speaker 1: couple miles of that same beach.

584
00:36:40,316 --> 00:36:43,876
Speaker 7: A photo of a giant swastika which we've blurred, spray

585
00:36:43,876 --> 00:36:46,436
Speaker 7: painted in the middle of the playground and you could

586
00:36:46,436 --> 00:36:47,956
Speaker 7: see some kids playing nearby.

587
00:36:48,396 --> 00:36:52,836
Speaker 1: Whatever's going on here? Call it surfing's Nazi problem. It

588
00:36:52,916 --> 00:36:58,476
Speaker 1: goes back decades. Mickey didn't invent this, but he played

589
00:36:58,516 --> 00:37:04,356
Speaker 1: the supremacist to the hilt. Malibu belonged to him. Some

590
00:37:04,436 --> 00:37:09,116
Speaker 1: called him the dark Prince. He called himself Malibu's quote

591
00:37:09,516 --> 00:37:14,516
Speaker 1: rightful king. He believed himself to be superior, and everyone

592
00:37:14,596 --> 00:37:18,316
Speaker 1: around him told him he was right. As surfing was

593
00:37:18,356 --> 00:37:21,116
Speaker 1: discovered and began to be widely popular in the sixties,

594
00:37:21,516 --> 00:37:25,876
Speaker 1: he railed that Malibu was being overrun with quote kooks

595
00:37:25,876 --> 00:37:29,116
Speaker 1: of all colors, fags and finks, and a thousand other

596
00:37:29,276 --> 00:37:34,436
Speaker 1: social deviations unquote. He railed against the gidget movies that

597
00:37:34,556 --> 00:37:37,796
Speaker 1: had exposed Malibu to the masses. He let it be

598
00:37:37,876 --> 00:37:41,276
Speaker 1: known that this was why he had to leave. Too

599
00:37:41,276 --> 00:37:47,276
Speaker 1: many people who didn't belong were ruining his wave and

600
00:37:47,476 --> 00:37:53,196
Speaker 1: everywhere he went. Mickey's stoked conflict, feeding surfing's rebellious young

601
00:37:53,636 --> 00:37:57,156
Speaker 1: with stories of his exile and all those who'd done

602
00:37:57,236 --> 00:37:57,796
Speaker 1: him wrong.

603
00:38:00,956 --> 00:38:03,356
Speaker 6: There's a lot of faults I can find with this

604
00:38:04,196 --> 00:38:07,276
Speaker 6: culture that I was in the middle of for forty

605
00:38:07,316 --> 00:38:09,916
Speaker 6: something years. Arguably still am, but I no longer sort

606
00:38:09,916 --> 00:38:15,356
Speaker 6: of here to defend it. So putting Dora into all that,

607
00:38:15,476 --> 00:38:18,716
Speaker 6: you know, there's just a lot about it that isn't great,

608
00:38:18,916 --> 00:38:21,556
Speaker 6: and Mickey on his bad days is right at the

609
00:38:21,556 --> 00:38:22,436
Speaker 6: center of all that.

610
00:38:23,076 --> 00:38:26,316
Speaker 1: Matt Warshaw, the surf historian, remembers being a kid and

611
00:38:26,356 --> 00:38:29,596
Speaker 1: seeing this famous photoshoot of Mickey Dora that was printed

612
00:38:29,636 --> 00:38:33,516
Speaker 1: in Surfer Magazine in nineteen sixty nine, and there was a.

613
00:38:33,476 --> 00:38:36,356
Speaker 6: Three shot sequence of him surfing where he comes down

614
00:38:36,396 --> 00:38:36,636
Speaker 6: the way.

615
00:38:36,676 --> 00:38:37,276
Speaker 8: It's Malibu.

616
00:38:37,556 --> 00:38:39,996
Speaker 6: He's dropping in you can see a surfer in front

617
00:38:39,996 --> 00:38:42,836
Speaker 6: of him, and the next picture Mickey's doing a turn

618
00:38:42,916 --> 00:38:45,356
Speaker 6: off the bottom and the surfer in front of him

619
00:38:45,396 --> 00:38:48,876
Speaker 6: is kind of looking back. And the third shot is

620
00:38:48,956 --> 00:38:51,716
Speaker 6: Mickey's just shot his board right at the guy and

621
00:38:51,796 --> 00:38:54,316
Speaker 6: it's gone right across his chest and knocked him off.

622
00:38:54,196 --> 00:38:57,276
Speaker 8: His feet right.

623
00:38:56,276 --> 00:38:59,196
Speaker 6: And at nine because I surfed Malibu where I was

624
00:38:59,196 --> 00:39:02,596
Speaker 6: going to surf Malibu, and I just it's so bought

625
00:39:02,596 --> 00:39:07,476
Speaker 6: into Kook's go home kind of thing. This was Dora regulating.

626
00:39:07,516 --> 00:39:08,996
Speaker 6: Look what he's doing. You know, he's doing what needs

627
00:39:08,996 --> 00:39:10,316
Speaker 6: to be done to get rid of the Koks. That

628
00:39:10,356 --> 00:39:12,076
Speaker 6: guy dropped in on front of Mickey Dora, you know,

629
00:39:12,116 --> 00:39:13,636
Speaker 6: get out of here, Kook and Da Da Da, and

630
00:39:13,676 --> 00:39:16,676
Speaker 6: so as a kid. I thought that was kind of cool,

631
00:39:16,716 --> 00:39:18,316
Speaker 6: and now I look at that now and I put

632
00:39:18,316 --> 00:39:20,396
Speaker 6: that point right through that guy's back.

633
00:39:20,236 --> 00:39:21,836
Speaker 8: And it was terrible to me.

634
00:39:23,156 --> 00:39:27,196
Speaker 1: Mickey Dora presents a conundrum for surfers and anyone brought

635
00:39:27,276 --> 00:39:30,756
Speaker 1: up on the California youth culture. He's so heavily influenced.

636
00:39:31,916 --> 00:39:34,276
Speaker 6: If I see a clip of Mickey surfing for a

637
00:39:34,316 --> 00:39:37,436
Speaker 6: few seconds at Malibu, my heart as a surfer just

638
00:39:38,276 --> 00:39:41,196
Speaker 6: it just melts, you know. If I just see a

639
00:39:41,196 --> 00:39:44,276
Speaker 6: picture of him with that grin, there's something about that

640
00:39:44,276 --> 00:39:49,116
Speaker 6: that speaks to my depths as a surfer. He's unresolved

641
00:39:49,156 --> 00:39:52,396
Speaker 6: for me almost on a weekly basis. Like it's some

642
00:39:52,556 --> 00:39:56,516
Speaker 6: days I'm very much on team Mickey, and some days

643
00:39:56,516 --> 00:39:59,596
Speaker 6: I go, this guy's a really terrible human being. We

644
00:39:59,756 --> 00:40:03,236
Speaker 6: need to put attention on and think about and talk

645
00:40:03,276 --> 00:40:06,836
Speaker 6: about somebody else. Anytime I sort of spend enough time

646
00:40:07,236 --> 00:40:10,516
Speaker 6: in his life looking at how he treated people and

647
00:40:10,636 --> 00:40:14,756
Speaker 6: things that he said, I just start pulling away. How

648
00:40:14,756 --> 00:40:17,236
Speaker 6: do I feel about Mickey Dora? You know, it depends

649
00:40:17,236 --> 00:40:18,196
Speaker 6: on what day you ask me.

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00:40:20,316 --> 00:40:23,676
Speaker 1: It seems like the surfing world is still not ready

651
00:40:23,756 --> 00:40:25,316
Speaker 1: to have the Mickey Dora conversation.

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00:40:26,076 --> 00:40:27,716
Speaker 8: Part of me is just saying, God, stay away from this.

653
00:40:29,356 --> 00:40:30,996
Speaker 1: But it seems to me that if I can make

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00:40:31,036 --> 00:40:34,076
Speaker 1: sense of Mickey Dora, who he was and what he did,

655
00:40:34,476 --> 00:40:37,796
Speaker 1: what he means to people still, I'll get closer to

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00:40:37,836 --> 00:40:42,316
Speaker 1: the heart of this strange place Malibu, where the central

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00:40:42,396 --> 00:40:48,516
Speaker 1: question is about belonging insiders versus outsiders. Mickey was both.

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00:40:49,276 --> 00:40:51,636
Speaker 1: He was a shape shifter and a con man with

659
00:40:51,716 --> 00:40:57,356
Speaker 1: a cruel and narcissistic streak entitled Charming and living entirely

660
00:40:57,396 --> 00:41:03,236
Speaker 1: for himself? Is Mickey the secret key to California? If

661
00:41:03,276 --> 00:41:07,236
Speaker 1: he is? It all begins in Malibu, on the beach

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00:41:07,476 --> 00:41:18,476
Speaker 1: where Mickey became famous. On the next episode of Lost Hills,

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00:41:18,836 --> 00:41:22,196
Speaker 1: a suspicious death sets Mickey on a strange new path.

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00:41:23,676 --> 00:41:25,636
Speaker 6: At some point he was down in Mexico, I think,

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00:41:25,676 --> 00:41:30,316
Speaker 6: fishing and trying to not drink. He was going to

666
00:41:30,436 --> 00:41:33,476
Speaker 6: row a dinghy out to a friend's boat, and the

667
00:41:33,516 --> 00:41:35,076
Speaker 6: body turned up five days later.

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00:41:36,436 --> 00:41:43,196
Speaker 1: That's next in episode two, Death in Mexico. Lost Hills

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00:41:43,236 --> 00:41:46,836
Speaker 1: is written and reported by Me Dana Goodyear. It's created

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00:41:46,876 --> 00:41:50,356
Speaker 1: by Me and Benadere and produced by Western Sound and

671
00:41:50,396 --> 00:41:54,596
Speaker 1: Pushkin Industries. Subscribe to Pushkin Plus and You can binge

672
00:41:54,636 --> 00:41:58,836
Speaker 1: the entire season right now ad free. Find Pushkin Plus

673
00:41:58,876 --> 00:42:01,436
Speaker 1: on the Lost Hills show page in Apple Podcasts, or

674
00:42:01,476 --> 00:42:09,876
Speaker 1: at pushkin dot fm, slash plus