RafaelFajardo

After his mother divorced his father, she married a very different sort of man, surf pioneer Gard Chapin, a roughneck rebel who never fit into polite society. If Miki’s biological father connected him to Hollywood, stepfather Chapin’s obsession with the development of surfboards brought the young Miki into the high-tech world of California’s industrial design, including visits to Charles and Ray Eames’s studio. The legacy of Miki’s two patriarchs, the Hungarian hussar and the surfing redneck, determined the course of his life. Miki might have been born to ride waves, but he never shared the sunny obliviousness of postwar California teens. Instead, along with his boards and wax, he brought European nihilism to the beach.