By Abbey Cannan
At just 19-years-of-age, local surfer Cooper Davies has been smashing goals in the world of surfing, once again achieving great success at this years Australian Surf Championships held on the Tweed Coast.
Cooper was defending his title after winning the prestigious event last year, and being the last remaining Queenslander in the event.
Cooper said he was stoked to get to the final and although he was happy finishing in third place, he would have loved to go those extra two positions into first place.
“The best surfer on the day won and I was really happy with where the event was located at Fingal Heads,” Cooper said.
“I’ve surfed there a few times so I’m quite familiar with the break and it was super lucky to have fun waves throughout the whole event.
“It was a more relaxed event because you don’t have to work as hard in small waves.
“I just recently got back from Japan and the waves were ridiculously small so coming back home just makes you realise how lucky we are here.”
Growing up in Noosa, Cooper first started surfing at the age of 12.
“Twelve is quite late for a surfer to start, but growing up the main sport I was focused on for a career in was tennis,” Cooper said.
“Then my heart just changed over to surfing and from there I did my first competition when I was 14 and have just been chipping away at it since.
“My coach is Dean Brady at Pro Movement and he’s helped me through the last six or so years and we’ve just been building step by step and we’re finally starting to see some results so it’s all starting to pay off.”
Cooper is now travelling the world competing in numerous events on the World Surf League Qualifying Series with strong results to date in his rookie year.
“The next event I’ll be competing in is over in the Philippines, Cloud Nine, and from there it will be probably off to Taiwan or over to Sri Lanka,” Cooper said.
“To prepare for the next competition I just train as much as I can, eat well, work hard to save money and do surf coaching.
“You just do the best you can to prepare but its all up to what the ocean brings on the day of the event.”
