Heart Of The Nation: Warriewood 2102

THRILL-seekers on Sydney’s northern beaches have long been drawn to the Warriewood Blowhole, a tunnel that runs under a narrow headland.

140621 TWAM NO REUSE FEE APPLIES surfer at Warriewood Pic : Matt Dunbar Picture: Captioned As

THRILL-seekers on Sydney’s northern beaches have long been drawn to the Warriewood Blowhole, a tunnel that runs under a narrow headland.

Jumping off a ledge above the tunnel mouth – a 15m drop into water – is a dare that has claimed or ruined plenty of lives. Teenage bravado has a tin ear for downers like that, though. Cooper Chapman first did it at 13, egged on by older boys. “It’s big and daunting – the scariest thing I’d ever done,” he says.

Cooper is now 20, and testing his mettle as a pro surfer on the ASP Qualification Series. It’s a career that has expanded his horizons far beyond the insular peninsular that moulded him; in the past year he’s been to Brazil, Tahiti, Hawaii, Portugal, the US, Mexico, El Salvador and South Africa. It’s a non-stop, hectic lifestyle, he says, and “not too bad for meeting girls”. He’s a modest guy but makes no bones about his ambitions: make the world top 50 this year (he’s currently ranked around 70), then get onto the World Championship Tour, surfing’s big league. And then? “Crack the top five, and one day make world champion.”

Cooper’s earliest memories are of sitting with his mum on Narrabeen beach, watching his father Dave surf. He was eight when his dad put him on a board and pushed him onto his first wave. “I got a taste of it, and I’ve never looked back,” he says.

Growing up in a largely female household – he has three sisters – meant that “me and dad have always had the beach to sort of escape”. They still surf together whenever Cooper is home, which isn’t often these days. Does he teach his former mentor any tricks, like the 360-degree aerials he busts in contests? “That would be cool, but he’s really not interested,” Cooper says. “These old guys,” he adds, referring to his 50-year-old dad, “just like doing turns and cruising.”