Former pro-surfer Cooper Chapman helps young people turn their worries about the environment into positive action
Cooper Chapman was touring the world as a professional surfer in 2018, when news of a tragedy hit home. His younger sister, then in Year 12, had lost a classmate to suicide. With a family history of mental illness, Cooper, who grew up in North Narrabeen, could empathise. “That was the catalyst for me to say: ‘I’m travelling the world, living this incredible life as a surfer, but there are local kids in my area struggling so much with their mental health,’” Cooper, 30, says.
It gave him the idea call into his former school, Narrabeen Sports High, and have a chat to the students about mental health and wellbeing – passing on techniques he’d learned about mindfulness, visualisation, living a values-based life and ‘practising gratitude as a way to enjoy life and look for the positives.’
Cooper at the Youth Ocean Carnival
He continued to surf internationally, and learned more through attending workshops with psychologists and mindfulness coaches – until COVID-19 hit. It was then that he founded The Good Human Factory, learning by interviewing top athletes and professionals on his Good Humans podcast – and developed workshops for young people, giving them science-based tools to improve their mental health and wellbeing.
“Now it’s my full-time gig and I’ve spoken to over 50,000 students all around the country,” Cooper says of his workshops.
Last year he teamed up with environmental activist Kal Glanznig and Surfers for Climate to develop a new workshop around eco-anxiety called Blue Minds.
“A study came out in late 2023 with Orygen, the youth mental health research organisation and Mission Australia that showed that 67% of young people’s health is being negatively impacted because of the fear of the future when it comes to the environment,” Cooper says, adding that the Blue Minds workshop ‘turns eco-anxiety into hope.’
“We feel that hope lies in action,” Cooper says. “If we can mobilise young people together to stand up and try to come up with some community and innovative actions we can move towards a brighter future.”
Cooper and Kal started touring schools with their Blue Minds workshop last year, and recently visited North Narrabeen High and Barrenjoey High during Climate Action Week.
The workshops focus on appreciation, awareness and action, and take students on a journey of discovering why the ocean is so important for the climate, looking at how they can have an awareness around the challenges, and discovering small changes they can make to help the climate.
Cooper says his work with Blue Minds and the Good Human Factory has made him more empathetic towards what other people are going through. “I’ve gone from one dream life that most people would (envy), travelling the world as a professional surfer, to what I now think is far more my dream life, positively impacting people and having the privilege to do that.”
Visit: thegoodhumanfactory.com