Bondi Rescue star and surfer Clint Kimmins jail nightmare for glassing a man, Gold Coast

A former Bondi Rescue star who was just 22 when he was jailed for conning a drug dealer in self-defense has opened up about his nightmare behind bars.

Clint Kimmins, 38, thought the world was at his feet as a teenager on the Gold Coast when he was selected to compete in junior surfing titles in Hawaii and Bali, despite growing up in an abusive home with alcoholic parents.

He dropped out of school in year 10 and gained sponsorship from major Australian surf brand Rip Curl. He then won junior titles and vowed to compete until he was good enough to join the World Surfing League.

But his dream came crashing down during a fight at a 21st birthday party at a local surf club in 2004 when he grabbed a glass bottle to defend himself and ended up stabbing a man in the neck.

The man survived, but two years later, the budding surf star was found guilty of unlawful wounding and was sentenced to a maximum security prison for 18 months, with six months without parole.

On Friday, Kimmins told the good humans podcast spent his first week behind bars sitting in the cold and staring at the blood on the walls, having no idea what day it was.

“I remember sitting [in the holding cell under the court] in my suit and it was dark and cold,’ he said.

“Then it was time to strip down and put my clothes in a bag and put on my brown prison pants… but the clothes stank and had holes in them: the shirt was small, the pants were big.”

Kimmins said officers in the cell warned him not to give anyone his real name, not to tell anyone what he was getting into and to make it clear he was drug free, which he did until his face was everywhere. the news that night. .

He told the podcast that the holding cell was the worst part of his jail sentence: He was there for about two months, but he had no idea what time it was because it was always dark and cold.

“There was blood on the walls and paint torn off with fingernails,” he said.

“People were scraping the paint off the wall, rolling it up with cardboard toilet paper rolls and smoking it, and the smell…”

He made a friend who had been in prison before and gave him advice on what to do: he was told not to show emotion and not to call the guards ‘comrades’.

She would wake up crying, but she wanted desperately to squash her feelings instead of expressing how much she hurt.

‘I wanted to get out of my body. I wanted to get on with it,’ she said.

When he was finally transported from the holding cell to a maximum-security prison, he was shackled and put in a small box in the back of a van with a small vent: his knees pressed against the legs of another prisoner.

“It was like in the movies,” he said.

Upon arrival, Kimmins was tested for HIV and hepatitis B, given a psychological evaluation to determine if he was suicidal, and was asked if he feared for his life behind bars and wanted protection.

His friend from the holding cell told him not to admit to any of his fears or ask for protection: the people in those cells are often pedophiles who are picked on and usually have a hard time in jail.

While he was being evaluated at the medical center, he was approached by a mental health patient with ‘bandages and scratches’.

“He was saying ‘you’re young, you’re cute.’ I teased him and played along, but he makes you grow up pretty fast,” he said.

‘Eventually they put me in a cell with this young man who was addicted to drugs, and he was laying around and smoking, but he gave me some Tim Tams and I spoke to him quietly. I remember how calm he was.

During his first morning in jail, he woke up to the friend he made while in the holding cell.

I went up to him and said “how are you?” and he brushed me off, and he was standing with some heavy looking dudes, and he came up to me afterwards and said, “never show that kind of emotion again.”

“He was mad at me, but he was also helping me.”

Despite being in jail and unable to surf, Kimmins wanted to use his time constructively. He read books, began to learn how to overcome his anxiety, and began to exercise.

The prison had no standard gym equipment, no free weights for safety reasons, but he ended up trading some canola oil for Puma joggers and started running around the oval.

He also started playing football and tennis, eventually becoming known as ‘the kid who coached’.

“I went in there at 84kg and all of a sudden I had a six pack and abs,” he said.

“I had never been so fit and I became addicted to training. I noticed a difference in my mental health, and that was the beginning of my journey as a triathlete competing all over the world.”

Kimmins said his final weeks in prison were the most difficult, as he had no idea exactly when he would be released and the anticipation was maddening.

Another inmate pulled him aside and told him to stop being so disrespectful to those who had life sentences, or who were there for a few more years.

When he was released, his then-girlfriend, Carly, picked him up in her new Commodore and he felt like he was on a spaceship.

“I hadn’t been in a car for six months and… I realized what I put on it,” he said.

“I wanted to pay her back and sleep with her and feel safe, and that’s when I realized how twisted and dangerous it is in there.”

After his first night out of jail, he woke up at 3 am and went for a run under the stars, thinking ‘I’m free.’

“I had breakfast and felt very grateful and motivated for the rest of my life,” he said.

Kimmins was afraid to go back to prison and was afraid to walk into a bar for years after his release. If there was a problem in a place he was in, he would often just get up and leave.

“I wanted to make it the best thing that had ever happened to me. What if I won a world title?” he thought he.

He was dropped by Rip Curl when his appeal failed, but landed a better endorsement deal with Oakley and eventually traveled the world while surfing for Red Bull.

Kimmins also began competing in triathons and ended up starring in the Channel 10 reality series Bondi Rescue before being sacked last year due to Covid vaccination mandates imposed by Waverly council.

He returned to the Gold Coast, where he competes in Iron Man and surfing competitions.