50-Year-Old Russell Winter Brought His Sword To Barbados And Is Taking Scalps In The QS6000
The UK’s first-ever pro surfer just seasoned Soup Bowl with Old Spice to send young bucks packing.
Russell Winter, part man, part myth, is through to the Round of 64 at the Barbados QS6000 at Soup Bowl after stacking 14.67 points to breeze past some of America’s hottest young journeymen.
Slater may have stretched what’s possible at 50 with his Pipe Masters win. But Winter, also 50, just bent it over a reef in Barbados with Cornish-pastie-powered hacks, deep-squat bottom turns, and blinding wafts of spray that allegedly still linger in the Caribbean firmament.
For context: Russell was the first British surfer to qualify for the Championship Tour when it was still the WCT and Europe barely registered on the map. He won Boardmasters in 2002. He beat Slater at Sunset. He carried British surfing out of novelty status and paved the way for the Lukas Skinner’s of the world to colonize the upper echelons of junior pro surfing.
He also once stepped outside a pub with an ornamental sword.
The blade was a ceremonial prize from winning the O’Neill Highland Open. A bottle smashed. Words followed. Russell grabbed the nearest medieval accessory and confronted the situation with enthusiasm. He later pleaded guilty to possession of a bladed article and threatening behaviour, received a suspended sentence, and paid his fines.
A career with texture!
After the heat, he wrote:
“I can honestly say that is one of the best moments of my life! After the second wave I honestly started crying as I was paddling back out thinking I can’t believe I might get the chance to talk on the glass at 50… I’m so proud of where I’ve come from, to selling everything I owned to chase my love of surfing and find out who Russell Winter really is and leave no stone unturned as they say… I’m loving this ride and where it is taking me!”
The British comment section responded accordingly.
“I was there at Eurosurf ’93 in Thurso,” wrote one fan. “Seeing the same approach 33 years later made me proud to be British.”
Somewhere, a thousand Anglo-Saxon angels nod approvingly.
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