Cooper Chapman, Fingal, Australia

Photog Matty O’Brien was recently hanging in Byron Bay with Dion Agius, Thom Pringle, Ford Archbold and filmmaker Riley Blakeway. Cooper Chapman’s manager had organised with Matty to do a photo shoot, so Cooper and Kai Hing cruised into Byron to hang out for a day or two and wait for waves.

Matty was impressed with 17-year-old Cooper’s humble and laid-back demeanour, but was even more impressed once the kid got in the water. Matty shot Cooper, Kai, Creed McTaggert and newly-crowned Junior World Champion Jack Freestone, during a session at T.O.S, Fingal (T.O.S. stands for The Other Side… of the Tweed River).

Matty says that though this was his first time shooting with Cooper, he enjoyed it as much as he enjoys shooting Chris ‘Chippa’ Wilson. Matty says Cooper’s a freak above the lip and has “The sickest style too. I don’t know how he’s not getting heaps of shit run, when he should be”. Cooper had only learned stalefishes the day before this session, but already had a smooth handle on the awkward grab.

A good source of entertainment over the couple of days was an an ongoing text message exchange between Cooper and a kid from back home on the Northern Beaches. According to Matty:

“This kid has been hitting on Cooper’s younger sister. Cooper stole the number from his little sis, ’cause she’s only 13, so the kid’s been texting Cooper instead. The kid’s been saying the weirdest shit. Cooper writes back, pretending to be his sister, and he gets the kid so bad. Cooper’s a bit of a joker.”