THERE aren't many people who can say they have worked the same job, at the same place, for 30 years.
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But Bondi Beach head lifeguard Bruce Hopkins has patrolled that same beach, saving lives and educating visitors about surf safety, every month of every year, since 1991.
You may know him better as Hoppo, the calm and caring straight-shooter on Bondi Rescue, the Channel 10 docu-series that has screened in 120 countries around the world and is now into its 16th series.
2020 was a big year for the world's most famous lifeguard. He married publicist Karen Griffin in September, started a new podcast and TV series and - biggest of all - crossed Sydney to move to North Avalon, after 52 years of living in and around Bondi.
He now commutes to work almost an hour each way. He sees his two daughters, Georgia, 18 and Lauren, 22, in Clovelly regularly and stays with his mother in Bronte "a couple nights here and there to break up the drive" but says he is relishing the change.
"I always carried on about the northern beaches, called them the dark side - now living there, I've realised that they have probably had it better than what I have," he chuckles.
"I thought at my age I better have a crack at something different. I was a bit nervous at the start with the drive and leaving all my mates but I love it. It's strange how it all works out."
Karen and Hoppo met through a mutual friend, had a "bit of banter" on social media and then their first date in Manly - a 90-minute undertaking for Hoppo by bus, train and ferry. For the second date, he paddled over from Rose Bay on his surf-ski, taking half the time. A few years later, in Cuba, he proposed. Their wedding was postponed from April, with 80 guests, to September, with 26, at The Pasadena at Church Point.
"I thought I was having good days off when I lived in the eastern suburbs but now in hindsight after living up in North Avalon, I wasn't having days off at all," he says, adding that as Karen tends to her horses nearby, he spends his days off ocean paddling and surfing the much quieter local beaches, and not getting hassled by so many tourists for photos and chats. "It's like growing up in Bronte 20 years ago. A couple of blokes were blowing up the other week because there were 20 people in the water! Try surfing at Bondi with 150."
Even lockdown was a breeze. Although he's an essential worker, he was asked to stay at home, so caught up on admin between playing golf, ocean paddling, surfing and meeting more locals. He had been working long 12-hour days before the outbreak, coming straight home to bed, so hadn't been out to any of the hotspots.
But don't expect to see him patrolling our local beaches anytime soon. After 30 years working one of the busiest in the world, he reckons anything else will be a "bit quiet".
So, has much changed in all that time?
"I think it has got a lot worse," he says. "Sixty-five per cent of our rescues are people that are Australian-born who come down from the western suburbs and other different areas. Because Australia has become so multicultural and a lot of people have moved here in the last 20-odd years, they haven't got that beach culture and are scared to put their kids in that environment and they hold them back a lot. The schools don't do as much either. It is a hard job."
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He spends a lot of time trying to educate. He recently helped produce a new animated swim safety series, Kangaroo Beach, with Craig Riddington at Surf Educators Australia (to be released on Australia Day on ABC Kids) and has a podcast, Life's a Beach, where water safety meets mental health, with a bit of lifeguard banter thrown in.
Besides suicides, which his team has to sadly handle, he estimates they average one accidental surf drowning every five years. "In that time, 50 million people have come through," he adds. "So it's a pretty good average but we still don't want someone to die on the beach. If we do have a drowning, it really affects everybody. Because that's the one thing we are here for; so that people can come down, enjoy the beach, have fun with their family - and then go home at the end of the day. And when a family member loses someone, it's quite traumatic for the lifeguards dealing with that. And you become a part of the grieving process for the family as well."
They have also had a lot of successful resuscitations - and anyone familiar with the show will be aware of how emotional it can be to watch Hoppo and his team bring someone back to life. He says it is definitely the best - and most unforgettable - part of his job.
"When you've got someone dead in front of you - no pulse, no breathing - and then in five minutes, you get that person back to life, it's hard to explain in words that feeling.
"You've done all the training and you've got the equipment but as you're doing the resus you don't know whether you're going to get them back or not. The family are standing above you, crying and willing you to save their loved one, and it's all up to you to bring them back. And when you do bring them back, it's just magnificent. They've got a pulse! You see the relief on the family's faces that they've been given another chance. The adrenaline's rushing for that next four or five hours. You're on such a high, it's phenomenal, the feeling you get."
He reckons the show has helped viewers become more aware of the dangers of the surf and the importance of CPR. One Darwin mum wrote to tell them of her two-year-old son who had snuck into the pool and was found at the bottom. She managed to bring him back to life with the techniques she had only ever seen on Bondi Rescue. She told the team that without having seen the show, she would have just stood back and panicked. The little fella is fine today.
But there's also a drawback to the TV rescue show for Hoppo. "Wherever I am - it doesn't have to be the beach, it could be somewhere else - people think if someone drops, that's OK because I can get them back to life," he says. "That's a lot of pressure on me because I'm not some freak that can pull off rescues all the time. There's always that time that you won't get them back."
At 52, he's handling the physical and emotional pressure pretty well. He sees a kinesiologist every week and trains every day before work. So, does he have another 30 years in him?
"Karen always says I walk like an 80-year-old," he laughs. "As you get older, you get a bit slower and you get a few injuries that can play a part in being able to keep your job. They're long days out there in the hot sun, your legs getting around in the sand, and when you're going out to do rescues, you're not warmed up. You can be standing and walking around for hours and then suddenly, bang, you've got to go and do a rescue so it can have a big impact on your shoulders as well."
As long as his body holds up, he's got another few years in him, he says, but probably not a decade.
"It has been a long career," he says. "We are playing it year by year at the moment. I'm hanging in there. It gets a bit harder with the young blokes pushing you but that's a good thing too - if they weren't there, I wouldn't push myself as hard. I'm around the mid-field. It might be time for retirement when I start running last."
He feels proud to be one of the world's most experienced and best-known lifeguards, having patrolled one of the busiest and most difficult beaches for 30 years. "It's a bit of an honour to be known for your job around the world and I've worked in US, India, Japan, China, all through Europe. It has been great to put that message out and help lifeguard services," he says.
"I still love it; I love being a lifeguard but my passion now is using that knowledge and experience and helping people around the world with water safety and trying to reduce drowning around the world and also here in Australia. It's been a great lifestyle; it's kept me fit and it's kept me younger than what I would be in another job. It's time for me to give back now."