Miki Dora

Miklos Sandor Miki Dora III was a noted surfer of the 1950s and 1960s at Malibu, California, born on August 11, 1934 and died on January 3, 2002. Born in Budapest, Hungary, he moved to California as a child and was introduced to surfing by his father in the late 1930s. He was nicknamed The Black Knight and Da Cat, among other names, and acted as stunt double for James Darren in the 1958 surf film Gidget. His signature surfboard, released in 1966, became the biggest selling surfboard in history. A critic of the crowding and commercialization of surfing, he left the United States in 1974, lived mostly in France and South Africa, and was later jailed over parole and credit card offences. He died at his father's home in Montecito from pancreatic cancer.