Russell Winter, once voted Britain’s greatest surfer, received a six month suspended prison sentence last week for brandishing an ornamental sword at three members of the public.

The argument kicked off back in July when three drunk men smashed a bottle while walking down the road in Newquay, Cornwall and started threatening local residents.

“Winter Says he regrets the incident but was just trying to protect his family”

Winter intervened and ended up grabbing the sword from his home to scare the men off.

As our friends over at Surf Europe spotted, this bladed article happened to be the one awarded to him at the O’Neill Highland Open in Brimms Ness, Scotland back in 2006.

UK surf magazine Carve spoke to Winter to get his side of the story. While regretting the incident, Winter says that he was just doing what he could to protect his family. You can read their report here. 

The 39-year-old from Newquay in Cornwall is the only British surfer to ever qualify for the World Championship Tour (WCT) and the first European to do so.

Winter has also been ordered to pay £85 costs and £80 victim surcharge.

Luckily, none of this will prevent him from competing in the Boardmasters surf comp this weekend!

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