
Most teenagers head down to Victoria’s surf coast over summer to relax, party and catch a few waves.
Williamstown 15-year-old Noah Chapple clearly isn’t your average teenager.
On Saturday, January 11, Chapple was down on the surf coast and was certainly in the water, but there was nothing relaxing about it.
There was plenty of success though.
Chapple won the junior race at the famed Pier to Pub event in Lorne, completing the 1.2 kilometre course in 13.45.
Winning that race in the morning earned him a start in the Super Fish race in the afternoon.
“That’s invite only,” Chapple said.
“If you win an age group you get invited to do that with Olympians and stuff.”
Despite it being his second race for the day and facing far tougher competition, Chapple more than held his own, coming 16th in a time of 11.12, two and a half minutes faster than his winning time in the morning.
“The tide was going back in when we did the Super Fish and when we swam the junior race in the morning that I won, the tide was going out,” he explained of why his second race of the day was so much faster than his first.
Chapple started swimming at just 6 months old before joining the nippers program at the Williamstown Surf Life Saving Club.
It was until Covid hit when he was 12, that Chapple put the two sports together.
“I started doing open water swimming during Covid because we couldn’t go to any pools,” he said.
Along with open water swims, Chapple still races in the pool in events from 100 to 1500m, while also competing in surf life saving with the Anglesea SLSC.
No wonder he has no time to relax over summer.
Cade Lucas