A few frames of rebel surfer Mickey Dora

He was one of California’s most reclusive surfers, but for one day in 1962, he was right where photographer Hank Cillian wanted him ? in his camera lens.

His name was Mickey Dora, one of California’s most famous rebel surfers who left behind the burgeoning industry for a life of bar fights and international debauchery.

But on an April day in 1962, he was still just a popular California surfer who hadn’t drawn a lot of attention outside of his hometown of Malibu.

Cillian was a budding photographer who heard the young star was making his way down the coast to catch a big west swell that was hitting Huntington Beach. He began preparing his photo gear to try to capture Dora when a friend said a small crowd was gathering near the tip of Balboa Peninsula to watch a group of hot shot surfers bully their way through head-high surf.

“I knew it must have been Dora,” Cillian said during a phone interview from his home in Oregon. “Those days, there was only a handful of locals surfing the peninsula, so when a stranger came around, people knew.”

Cillian said he didn’t get much of a chance to interact with Dora that day, although he was a bit turned off by his aggressive style in the water.

“One of the neighbors came out to complain because Mickey and a couple of friends were hanging out in front of his house and causing a commotion,” he said. “Mickey just laughed at the guy then poured a bottle of beer all over his sidewalk. That pretty much ended that conversation.”

Cillian said he was so turned off by Dora’s behavior that he almost didn’t develop the film. But he eventually processed the images to add to his portfolio. When Dora later became an international star, Cillian said he was grateful to have an image of the reclusive surfer.

Dora’s fame came as Hollywood began to take notice of Malibu surfing in the 1950s. The popularity of movies like “Ride the Wild Surf” and “Gidget” ? which Dora worked on as a double for James Darren ? captured the imagination of the rest of the country and spawned an exodus to the West.

The new celebrity was hard to handle for Dora, who enjoyed his revered status as a top Malibu surfer, but hated the growing crowds of newcomers ? Dora was known to surf up next to inlanders and push them off their boards.

In the 1970s, Dora seemingly fell off the face of the earth, fleeing the U.S. after being paroled for writing a bad check to purchase ski equipment. There would be sightings throughout Europe and Asia, but the exact whereabouts of Dora remained a mystery until 1981 when he was caught trying to reenter America from France. He spent another six months in federal prison, and upon his release, left the country and continued to travel.

Dora died in 2002 at the age of 67 from pancreatic cancer. Since then several authors have released biographies of the surfing legend, but Cillian said he has found little commercial interests in his rare photographs of Dora.

“That’s fine with me because I don’t think he would have wanted me to do anything with them,” Cillian said. “I think he’d been just as happy if I’d thrown them away.”dpt.10-god-CPhotoInfoFV1QPO0420060510iz0tavncHANK CILLIAN(LA)Surfing legend Mickey Dora rides a swell near 54th Street in Newport Beach in 1962.