Health Hero: Chris Hopton

It wasn’t until she was 41 that Chris Hopton first joined a surf club. “We had our three little kids, who had just started doing nippers, and my husband and I thought, well, it would be a good challenge; maybe we should do our Bronze Medallion. I’d never surfed in my life!” Hopton, who started as writer of the club newsletter and later volunteered in administrative roles, soon became the first female president of the 84-year-old Avalon Beach Surf Life Saving Club on Sydney’s Northern Beaches. “I can remember the first time I paddled out to North Avalon,” she says. “I was thinking, my God, my arms are going to drop off!”

Now, 10 years later, Hopton paddles a tidy 5 km before breakfast, trains six days a week, coaches nippers, wins gold in competitive Masters events, runs the club and works part-time for a Sydney branch of Surf Life Saving Australia. “I believe you’ve got to push yourself a bit,” she says, “and when you’re my age, you only want to do things you enjoy.” Emphasising the leadership, community and health ideals of the clubby lifestyle, Hopton’s message to Australian women is simple: join up. “People see the Ironman events, where everyone looks lean, mean and able, and they think that’s what lifesaving is all about—but it’s not! You don’t even need to be able to swim. Challenge yourself and give it a go—you might save someone’s life.”

More

• Karen Fisher, making the time to help future generations

• Margaret-Anne Hayes, putting one foot in front of the other

• Cheryl Arentz, an uplifting woman

• Carol Cooke, diving right in