"Just different shades of asshole," says surf historian.
Two days ago, The New York Times ran a piece by the surf writer Daniel Duane called The Long Strange Tale of California’s Surf Nazis.
It takes seven hundred or so words to get into it, but it centres around that nineteen-sixties-era taste for Nazi memorabilia among Californian surfers, writes emotionally about entrenched racism in surfing (“A hundred and fifty years of white people like myself have helped make white-supremacist racism as Californian as panning for gold and hanging ten”), and holds Miki Dora as the poster-boy for white supremacism in surfing.
Duane writes,
Dora often used racial slurs and advised acquaintances to put all their money in gold before Mexicans and blacks poured over the borders and ruined the economy. While serving prison time, Dora (who had been convicted of both check and credit-card fraud) wrote to a friend that he loved American Nazis. Dora eventually relocated to apartheid-era South Africa.
The famed surfboard designer Dale Velzy told Mr. Rensin that he recalled Dora boasting, in that period: “I have a black man who wakes me up in the morning, gives me my orange juice, gives me my robe, carries my board to the beach. Everybody ought to live in Africa. I have a coolie for everything I do. Everyone should own a coolie.” In a later letter, as the anti-apartheid movement grew, Dora wrote that black South Africans were “flesh-eaters,” adding, “Give these guys the rights and you’ll get white-man jerky for export.”
Nat Young, world surfing champion in 1966 and 1970, knew Dora. As Young told an interviewer: “Dora’s take is push the black man under. He’s a supreme racist, always has been. When I was younger, I believed it was all just in mirth, that he was just jivin’ it all; but no, he believes absolutely in white supremacy.”
Dora, who was born in Budapest, Hungary, and died of pancreatic cancer, aged sixty-seven in 2002, didn’t appear to like Jews much either.
In a 1975 interview with Phil Jarratt, Dora, who acted as a surf double on a couple of Hollywood beach films said, “The Jews come down to the beach, they shoot their movie, sell it to the Kikes and they all make a pile of money.”
Was he or wasn’t he? Nazi bastard or button pusher?
Who else to ask but Matt Warshaw, the sole historian of surf history.
“I’m not even sure it’s worth trying to parse out the difference between saying things like that to push buttons, versus saying them more out of deep-held belief,” he told me a few moments ago. “Bad either way. Just different shades of asshole.”
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I grew up in Hawaii and lived in SoCal for years also. I knew people and knew people who knew people and if you were white, racism/Nazism was what all the cool kids were doing. Von Dutch, yes “the” Von Dutch, was a foaming-at-the-mouth racist with a huge collection of racist magazines and materials. He gave some to my friend who’d known him for years as “Crazy Kenny”, and that friend passed the stuff to me. It was somewhat entertaining because I’ve always liked things like underground comics, but I eventually got rid of it. Now, in the SF Bay area, I’ve met a skateboard shop owner, white of course, and told him about this strange chapter in my life and he was really bummed out I’d not saved the racist stuff because he wanted it. Like dude wtf? Most of your customers are Hispanic and Asian kids as well as white kids and they all skate together happily. It’s taken me years here on the mainland to fully internalize this, but I honestly think there’s something in white culture where you have to feel you’re superior and special or you’ve really got nothing.
Remember in the 60’s bikers used to ride with WW2 German helmets and Hogan’s Heroes was a hit Tv show about a Nazi war camp and it was a comedy. I think all this was from a time when political correctness was not even a thought. So I hope 60’ and 70’ surf culture doesn’t get put into too dark of a light. By hopefully a few souls. That were saying and doing before thinking.
Probably one of the best comments made here
Duane’s “My reading of that swastika as no more than a toothless warning — like my confidence that it would not apply to me for long — was an act of historical ignorance and naked racial privilege.” Pretty interesting thought to say the least..
What’s “Ops” mean? I’m acronym challenged
He’s now just a red flag; any person, that ever mentions that name in any sentence, in any context, is an absolute wanker.
The verbal equivalent of walking down the beach with a new Sci Phi.
hey we have all been guilty of racism in some form or another….but White suprmacist nazi…..FFS!!!
I’d been told years ago that he’d spent a lot of time on East Cape NZ in a small Maori community.
Pretty hard to pull that one off if you’re a genuine racist…
Yes, if there is one thing I’ve learned in writing about surf culture for nearly a decade, it’s that very little seems to bind us other than enjoying (or hating) riding waves. Politics, culture, taste, what have you, we bring to surfing with us from elsewhere.
I’m not super into the sentence, “Different shades of asshole.” Not the best imagery.
why can’t the vanilla and the chocolate starfishes live together in harmony ?
Everyone is so brainwashed it is ridiculous. Everyone is racist. Don’t kid yourself.
White people are plenty racist, plenty. But probably the least racist group in America at this moment in time. “Liberals” of the past few generations have been sensitivity training their kids not to be “racist”, putting this message out into the media in one form or another for the past 50 years. Shit, I can’t meet a black person without finding myself treating them with extra care and smiles and bullshit.
Consider, for example, what it is like to be a black child in America. From the moment you can understand language you are being told that your ancestors were tortured chattel, that you have few opportunities, and that white people generally think of you as less valuable. Perhaps true, but it would be hard to imagine a more powerful motivation to be a racist. Way more motivation than a white kid enjoying his “white privilege”, perhaps feeling a little guilty about it, needlessly I might add.
Yeah, I know I know, white people did all this horrible shit…blah blah blah. Every group in history has done as much awful shit as their power would allow. One group of native Americans raiding another, stealing the women and children, enslaving them. Africans selling different tribes to white traders. Irishmen killing each other for the sake of some fine shave of a distinction in theology (same with Sunni/Shia).
Miki was fine. Great trim.
You could try reading the whole article, if it’s not too long for your attention span. It deserves a bit more than your tavern opinions.
Oh, I read it, though, I admit, it was tough. Not a new idea or perspective anywhere in sight, just pouring the ol NPR syrup over the surf world. Would make a good college essay; prob get you into Vassar.
Dora was a great big prick that could surf very well. But the myth of Dora is the glory of what we all wish we could do with and in surfing. So screw Dora! Long live the King, Da Cat!
Dora wasn’t a king– he was just–Da Cat–and will probably still be around long after Kamahina is gone………
Dear Jen, are there African Americans in Ventura? Many Latinos workers…
What the hell does that mean?
I think it is great.. showing a bit of a negative spin on surfing is a fantastic “beach gritty” sort of thing to do.. in the mainstream.
Maybe, Greg Nolls muses, it was even more.
“There’s something about surfing, I don’t know what it is,” he says. “People always ask, ‘What is it that makes people want to give up their friends, their family, their jobs and just go surfing?’ Those people always categorize surfing as a sport. But it’s not. It’s a lifestyle. And Miki took it about as far and high as you can.”
The same Greg Noll who burned swastikas into all of his crafts years after Auschwitz was closed down?
I recall him(old film interview) mentioning they did the Nazi thing specifically to piss people off, mostly La Jolla guys (kids at the time)
Thank you for putting this in a better ‘historical perspective’.
All wrong.
Miki loved dark women
When it comes to fucking, many a racist becomes just a Man.
you have no idea what you are talking about, i knew him
How about you tell us something then? As the one sentence shut downs you serve up are about as helpful as a locked book in a library.
And I wasn’t referring just to Dora… just horny racists in general.
ok
You must be one of the suckers he tolerated in order to take advantage of. Are you still watering the beans he sold you?
ignoramus. he had the same friends his whole life. dont believe the hype
You’re late to your introductory timeshare meeting. Better hurry or you’ll miss out on your free cruise!
you have been brainwashed
Miki Dora has always struck me, from the outside looking in, as an unadulterated and uninterrupted epic cunt.
But please, share your pillow talk. I’d love to hear it.
you are truly pathetic, you dont surf and have nothing to offer of worth to anybody who does. all you know about miki is what you have heard and you the repeat it like a parrot. try thinking for yourself once
I’m asking you, since you seem on a crusade to convince people you knew him and defend his honour, to tell me?
Please, convince me otherwise.
you mean nothing to me. beat it kook
I wasn’t proposing marriage.
have you ever been to port glasgow? Thats where my dad was born
Yes actually. It’s just across the water from where I went to school. My brother lives along the road in Gourock. Rough old part of the world at one time was the Port.
My grandfather grew up in the shipyards, he said it was rough. Gourock is where my family was from for many generations. The road that runs along the old docks in Gourock is named after my family (A771). I might be going in November for a visit. You from Dumbarton or furthur west?
Further west. On the coast. A wee village called Tighnabruaich. But I live in the Highlands now.
that truly is a wee villiage, and in its in an amazingly beautiful location! you are fortunate. Enjoy the highlands
I’ll give it a shot. Your a mean old man with self esteem issues who lashes out at people who have a different opinion than you. You’re desperate for attention and positive affirmation, but don’t know how to get it through actions so you use hurtful words to convince yourself of your worth. If your a lady, you’ve most likely worn a white dress to friends wedding. You feel superior to people but there is nothing to base it off in reality so anger is your natural response.
Europeans have been racist ever since they came into contact with other types of people. It’s only now starting to slowly fade (beginning with the civil rights movements).
colonialism…..ouch!
no, racism was invented in the 18th century to justify oppressing people.
Fear of the other or outsider is part of being Human
You can slice and dice it however you want but the fact remains that Europeans have felt superior ever since they started conquering everyone else.
when was that?
I’m not an expert in European superiority but I think it’s safe to say that once they encountered technically inferior peoples (Africa, Americas, Asia, etc), Europeans immediately considered themselves superior. Obviously there’s exceptions (Cooke’s expedition encountering incredible navigators, or the Russians being defeated by Japan, etc). But, for the most part, Europeans have thought themselves superior at least since the 1500s.
Eurpeans are not a homogenous group. Its a lomg way from Madrid to Stockholm in a genetic and cultural sense.
Around 1500 bankers started financing voyages of “discovery” that led to horrible things.
I think every group of people I have ever met thought that they were superior.
Obviously Europeans are not homogenous in culture, language, dna, history, etc. I’m talking about about various European countries encountering and conquering other peoples, i.e., Dutch in Africa, the British in India, Spanish/French/British/Dutch/etc. in the Americas, etc. They saw the conquered as barbarians, an inferior people. And they still do: just go spend some time in Brazil or Colombia. Only three countries escaped western imperialism: Japan, Thailand, and Ethiopia. The reverberations from all that carnage are still being felt today.
true, but history is full of empires doing that. it was just europes turn. the bankers control the show
I think India would actually be better off today under british rule. with todays morals and values
Scary India fact.
Population of California: <40,000,000
GDP of California = @$3.3 trillion.
Population of India = 1,400,000,000
GDP of India = $2.5 trillion
India has 35 times the population of California but less GDP?
How can that possibly work?
its not working
duane does not claim and simple one to one causation. and fuck excuse making. fucking racist then and racist now. dore and current industry continue to be complicit in but also fuel racism. no ifs, no buts. and surfing has been influential in propagating racist ideology
yeah Miki was a racist , hated people of color ,so many people telling stories after his death….that’s why him and I surfed , shaped ,wined and dined because I am obviously of the Aryan race , and a white supremacist!
Some of the comments I have read above are from people he didn’t like , but he tolerated them as they paid his way…or as Miki put it taxing those who wanted to use his name and hang out and use his image….like Jarrat and the French Q/s crew , and too many others to mention ….except Nat who Miki thought was a better conman than Miki himself….but also Nat’s a bully who slapped people 1/2 his size , fuck Nat and all his bullshit , maybe we should start telling stories of his dubious money making , his treatment of women…etc and a big fucken etc that is….
Miki was one of the most passionate surfers I have ever met….a fucken gentleman to those who treated him just like a surfer……..so as for people still trying to rake up a story about him being a white supremacist , so fucken what….he surfed , he pioneered , great story teller , and I ain’t know fucken white man, we respected each other for who we were and what we did everyday , which was ride waves pushing the boundaries….he surfed till he died!
But you’re not black, are you? I mean African, not brown.
No , but a real white supremacist see’s me as not one of them …I have enough racist stories from living in Australia , to make a 100 + comments and stories …..FFS we keep judging people on todays values from stories and incidents that happened in another era…
Obviously times they are a changing. But there is nothing wrong in shedding light into the man. A lot of offended virgins shouting sacrilege out here!
I don’t see anything wrong with judging past wrongs. Just because something was wide spread in the past doesn’t mean it was ever ok or acceptable. Miki may have been nice to you but his alleged racist comments can’t be excused just because “others were doing it too.”
It was OK and acceptable then…but the big question is were the comments made by Miki , real or just him shit stirring people with outrageous comments…we are all guilty of saying shit in the past , such as our disposition towards women , and racism…..the question is that can never be answered …racist or white surpremacist/Nazi…..that’s what riles me , as I know it’s not true!
The human psychology is as complex as the cosmos. An FBI trainer recently said that: everyone has three personalities. Their public persona, their private persona (family, close friends), and their “secret” self that they may not even acknowledge themselves. There’s a billion gray areas there too. I understand what you’re saying: that the Miki you knew wasn’t a racist. And that maybe Miki was saying offensive shit on purpose, which arguably could be the case. Who knows. But what I do know is that people often act one way when they’re with one group or person, and then another way with others. Anyway, the most important people in our greater lives are the leaders, bc they set the boundaries. The boundaries are constantly improving, and that’s a good thing. I mean for fucks sake, WWII only ended like 70 years ago, and now women can vote, and police aren’t able to run rough shod like they used to. No more lynchings, etc., etc. Things are getting better.
I remember reading Nat’s book and he had a story in it about how a woman was treated. Was an odd choice for a story for a grown man to write about.
Brutus, as someone who knew him, could you please enlighten me: he obviously connected with you, but why did he treat so many people like shit? Or have we been spoon fed lies? Serious question.
He comes across to me as a hugely selfish man, and you don’t. And I think you have a keen bullshit radar.
Mads , I literally spent years with him away from all the hype , I was blessed to experience the real Miki…..shaped him boards , he was the first guy to surf with me on the outer banks in Hossegor , 8-10’+ , when no-one else would even consider paddling out , my wife thought he was one of the nicest gentleman she ever met, as he came around for dinner every Sunday nite to watch and English movie with me , talk story , boards , life……..you have been spoon fed lies , as the real Miki treated wannabes and especially journalists like shit as you put it…..
Nat talking about Miki In his new book promo
https://podcasts.apple.com/…
Nats a rat and that’s that!
Every racist has a black friend!
Every black has a racist white friend…
Never meet your heroes they usually turn out to be aholes.