Russ Winter

Courier and Light Haulage Services in North Devon

Russell Winter

The undisputed heavyweight champion of Europe

(The best British surfer ever)

by Ester Spears, June 2004

If it wasn't for a downturn in the British economy when Thatcher got her icy grip on the reins of the country over twenty years ago we might have never heard of Russell Winter, Europe's greatest ever contest surfer. He was born in the Queen Charlotte Hospital, Hammersmith in the western suburbs of London on 8th December 1975 and would have possibly stayed there if redundancy hadn't compelled father Mick to make a fresh start in the West Country town of Newquay. Mick and Anita came with their three sons Dean, Steve and Russell and a lump sum to buy a small hotel but ended up buying a surf shop.

When his elder brothers got into surfing then Russ had no choice but to tag along and it soon became apparent that all three Winters, with their inherent physical fitness, were gifted surfers. Double-jointed Russell however, was a natural; he learnt quickly and never fell off. Hours and hours in the water soon paid off, as he became British Cadet (U-16) Champion at the tender age of 12. Russell was also a natural competitor, he enjoyed winning and the victories came thick and fast. English Cadet, Junior and Open titles were added over one hectic weekend during May 1991, then later on that summers Junior European Champion in the fledgling European Surfing Federation Championships, he was 15 years old.

Russell had qualified for the British Team who were going to compete in the then called World Amateur Surfing Championships, the junior division was as it is now a stepping stone for the worlds best amateurs before they turned professional, (in those days there were strict rules governing the difference between amateurs and professionals).

Unfortunately it all went tits up and Russell learnt the first hard lesson of international competition, it's not just about surfing ability in four man heats, but about tactics too. It all got a bit ugly on the beach as a disappointed Russell spat the dummy and a major international incident was narrowly averted.

Russell's long awaited British Open title finally came in 1993 when he narrowly outwhacked Neil Clifton at Fistral in an event sponsored by The Sun newspaper. The following year, aged 18, he also became king of Europe taking Grishka Roberts crown as EPSA Champion and the next step was the gruelling WQS tour. He assembled a largely British group of sponsors and set himself a three-year target of qualification.

From a launch pad of 186th in 94, he began the learning curve, airports, boards, hotels, rip-offs and strange breaks, all have to be dealt with and life on the contest road is more bumpy that on the carefree holiday road. Over the next three year steady progress was made until that epic day in 97 when Europe rejoiced its first WCT qualifier (well Britain did the French seemed sour faced). One of his sponsors (Animal) had a huge party in which everyone from the UK seemed to attend and the future looked auspicious.

Russell's first season on the WCT was unsuccessful, an injury to his knee suffered at Margaret River, in a WQS contest, dogged him all season and he never fulfilled his potential. Totally pissed off with his 45th place in the top 44, he set about re-qualifying with single-minded vehemence. Losing is not a word that appears in the Winter dictionary. Surfing with a new explosiveness he almost had the audacity to win a six-star in Rio against the Paderadz bros, an event that was guaranteed to spark a riot amongst the fanatically partisan beach crowd. However, his runner up spot was enough to earn him safe passage from the beach and into a 19th place berth and a second bite of the CT cherry. Tragically injury struck again at the start of the season, surfing small and gnarly Teahupoo, gung-ho Russell wiped out and brushed the reef. The tiny scratch was infected with poisonous coral and within days he had to be flown to Australia where he spent several days at the edge of extinction.

Missed events and an uncharacteristic lack of confidence meant that he could never catch up that year and he finished 44th. Few people outside the ASP had realised how ill Russell was, but his peers stuck by him and he was voted the Injury Wildcard for the 2001 season.

After his traditional slow start in Australia with a 33rd at Bells, Russell had his own reasons for opting not to surf in the Teahupoo event. There was no condemnation, just empathy for an issue that will have to be faced eventually. Russell's Brazilian talisman was spading out the set waves and he got a career saving 9th in Rio. He then backed it up with another 9th in South Africa claiming the scalp of mentor and J-Bay legend, Occy on the way. With two top 16 finishes things were looking good as the 'home' leg (three events in Europe) approached but alas Bin Laden squared up, the Americans lost their bottle and the Tour was cut short.

Russell's WQS form was good enough, however and his 16th overall was enough to claim the tenth spot in the top 15 qualifiers after the contest at Haleiwa. With the pressure off and with Sunset just how he likes it, big and no crowds, the boy from Blighty put on an impressive display under the media spotlight. He caught the biggest wave of the day to outpoint American darling and title favourite Taylor Knob and eventually bagged another 9th place. Russell's form at he end of the season suggested a top sixteen place but me really did miss some points from the cancelled European leg and finished 29th.

Rated 37^th in the 2002 season Russell racked up his first ever WQS victory when he took out the Four Star Rip Curl Boardmasters in front of an adoring home crowd. Despite a hard working season and a memorable photo stood casually upright in the throat of an awesome brown double overhead Mandaka mutha, Russ slipped out of the top flight with a 34^th in the CT and didn’t quite do enough to qualify with a 27^th on the QS. Specialising in the four, five and six star WQS events last year Russ lost focus slightly, perhaps it was the less hectic schedule or perhaps he needed to draw breath after ten years on the road. You still can’t help but wonder what would have happened if the European leg of the Tour would have gone ahead that fateful September which incidentally was the most epic season for years.