Hawaii is a lost paradise. Ted Deerhurst was drawn there as a dreamer. It was his Mecca, the ultimate challenge. There are big and fabulous waves all around the world but Hawaii was always the focus.
Ted needed to live there. And he ended up dying there.
He was Edward George William Omar Coventry, Britain’s first ever pro surfer and he was in many ways the surfing ideal. An outsider amongst outsiders, he never broke into the world top 100, but his passion for the sport, and this world, was unequal. His struggle wasn’t necessary, but it was one almost chosen. As the son of George Coventry, 11th Earl of Coventry, Ted had been styled Viscount Deerhurst since birth. As such, he acquired the nickname of “Lord Ted” in surfing circles. It was a background that was simultaneously privileged and a burden.
Ted tried to construct a life of his own, independent from his history, taking him away from the pomp and circumstance of the British aristocracy … More