More About Vicky Durand
A graduate of Punahou School, Vicky Heldreich Durand spent her formative years as a young surfer in Hawaiʻi—back when the sport was still intimate, communal, and largely undocumented. In 1957, she won the Makaha International Surfing Championships, one of the earliest organized surfing contests, during an era when few women were visible in competitive surfing and the culture of the lineup was shared more by word-of-mouth than by cameras.
Alongside her mother—an accomplished surfer in her own right—Vicky was later invited to Club Waikiki in Lima, Peru, where they served as mother-daughter Hawaiian surfing ambassadors, sharing the cultural roots of surfing beyond the islands and representing Hawaiʻi with authenticity, grace, and aloha.
Vicky’s creative path led her into fashion and textile design, where she founded and directed a sportswear and textile company based in California and Hawaiʻi. Her products were distributed through boutiques, department stores, and museum shops nationwide, bridging function, aesthetics, and craft—an approach that continues to shape how she thinks about materials, place, and what it means to build something that lasts.
Vicky Durand is also an Author
She is also the author of Wave Woman, a charming and intimate biography—a love letter from a daughter to her progressive mother, Betty Pembroke Heldreich Winstedt, who broke glass ceilings with simple curiosity and desire. In the book, Vicky captures a life defined by bold reinvention: Betty trained for the 1936 Olympic Games, embraced entrepreneurship and self-sufficiency, and explored many callings—from sculptor and jeweler to potter and poet. In Hawaiʻi, the roar of waves at Makaha Beach inspired Betty, at 41, to pick up a surfboard, conquer her fears, and compete as a champion. Wave Woman speaks to women and men searching for self-confidence, fulfillment, and true happiness—and carries forward a guiding philosophy Vicky has long held close: you are today where your thoughts have brought you, and you will be tomorrow where your thoughts have taken you.
All of it—surfing’s cultural lineage, a maker’s respect for craft, and a family legacy rooted in Hawaiʻi—has led Vicky to a natural next chapter: a mission to protect what she loves. That passion has evolved into purpose through the Koali Niu Project, where Vicky is helping lead the effort to save the niu (Hawaiʻi’s coconut)—not just as a tree, but as a living symbol of heritage, nourishment, and island resilience.
Read more about Vicky’s book, and buy it here: Wave Woman
