Dora Lives: The Authorized Story of Miki Dora

A comprehensive collection of stories and visuals on surfing’s most enigmatic figure.

Surfing’s original antihero, Miki Dora embodied the ideals of 1950s and 60s beach culture even as he railed against the establishment and commercialization that was rapidly springing up around it. Though he eventually turned his back altogether on his beloved Malibu and the surf world in general, wandering the globe and spending time in jail for forgery, his role in surfing and in our imaginations is canonized in a piece of Malibu Wall graffiti that first appeared just after he hit the road: “Dora Lives.”

Years in the making and compiled with the cooperation and permission of Da Cat before he passed away in 2002, Dora Lives is the definitive record of the controversial figure. Edited by Tom Adler, the hardbound features transcribed interviews with the subject, longform biographical texts penned by TSJ founder Steve Pezman, artist and Dora collaborator Craig Stecyk, and former Surfer mag editor Drew Kampion, and includes almost 100 surf images, film stills, and photographs from Dora’s personal albums. This offering is from a limited-edition run of 500 numbered and signed by Adler with the official stamp of the Dora estate, and includes a 5 x 7 inch Lambda film-still print of Dora in action taken shot by Grant Rohloff.