Recently I had the privilege of reading the much anticipated Miki Dora biography "All For a Few Perfect Waves" by David Rensin. For those of you that are not familiar, Dora was an enigmatic Malibu point surfer that left the area in the 1960s and traveled the world looking for another perfect right point until his death in 2002. The interesting thing about Dora was not just his life but the myth and misinformation surrounding his exploits. As I read the biography I realized that yes, Dora has a mythical place in surfing lore, but it is not the one of messiah or king, but that of the trickster. The trickster shows up in most mythologies as a character that breaks both the laws of man and nature. Another function of the trickster in literature is to serve as a rebellion against repressive systems and regimes; this is something that Dora was obsessed with to a fault. Miki Dora deserves to be listed with the likes of Loki, Anansi, Puck and the other great tricksters of the world.
2 comments:
Loki. Exactly. You got it.
Thanks for the read. /DR
here is finally a represntation of Dora that I can agree with! I cringe everytime someone puts Dora on some role model pedestal -or when I see footage of guys shooting their logs at other in the line-up a la Dora. In Spansih literature the trickster is called picaro. Dora is probably larger in fiction tahtn he ever was and I bet that he still loves the attention.
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