If there was an award for bromance fairytales it would be another Oscar for “Octopus Teacher” Craig Foster, this time shared with American rowing celebrity Arshay Cooper.
The two water heroes joined forces on Saturday to inspire a youthful audience at the False Bay Yacht Club.
Foster is a well-known local filmmaker who shot to international fame with the Oscar Award-winning documentary My Octopus Teacher. He is now actively involved with book projects and the work of his environmental foundation.
Cooper is also an author whose life story inspired a film documentary about how rowing helped him escape gangs and drugs in the US. He now works with underprivileged youth in several countries, including South Africa where he has provided rowing equipment and addressed youth audiences countrywide. To date he has sponsored three South African rowers to participate in rowing camps in the US.
The two men were recently introduced to each other via a mutual book publisher, and agreed to share a stage to discuss their shared passion — the transformative power of water — much to the delight of the yacht club audience.
They interviewed each other, swapping stories and insights related to their life journeys. Foster spoke of his now-famous diving adventures with an octopus in a kelp forest south of Simon’s Town, while Cooper shared life lessons related to overcoming a troubled childhood.
“It was unbelievably inspiring,” Foster said of A Most Beautiful Thing, the documentary about Cooper’s rowing success. “I felt such a connection to what he was doing.”
Cooper returned the compliment, praising Foster’s commitment to raising environmental awareness and respect for the natural world. Unlike Foster, who grew up privileged in Cape Town where he attended Bishops Diocesan College and started diving as a child, Cooper discovered rowing later in life, and said being on the water transformed his life. “It felt like rocking in a chair with my grandmother — it brought back memories of being cradled.”
He said his mission now is to assist as many children to experience the same transformation through access to rowing. “I knew this was a love I couldn’t let go. I knew it was a relationship that would last forever,” he said of his rowing career that saw him rise from captain of his high school rowing team to initiating youth rowing clubs and programmes.
His love affair with South Africa began when he was contacted by Debbie Owen, programme head at the Lawhill Maritime Centre attached to Simon’s Town High School, who insisted Cooper visit Lawhill to address her students. “I just knew his story would resonate with our kids,” she said earlier this month.
Cooper also threw in some rowing coaching sessions before teaming up with Foster to address students from both Lawhill and the University of the Western Cape. He then accompanied Foster to Cape Town to view a human origins exhibition he curated with archaeologist Petro Keene.
Foster said his relationship with the ocean had taught him about his place in the world, a lesson he wished to share with others. “The ocean is just part of me. I can't be separate from it.”
His diving adventures have shown him how all living beings and the habitats that support them are interconnected, and that we ignore any single piece of the puzzle at our peril.
Owen said Cooper’s story resonated with many underprivileged South Africans for whom a visit to the ocean was a rare occasion. “We need to make them more aware of water and to connect them with the ocean a lot more than on the odd public holiday,” Owen said, adding that Cooper and Foster both inspired youngsters to seek out that connection.
“Two people from very different worlds with a common love for water, they were able to share practical advice on how youngsters can change their lives. It’s the kind of advice that could help kids deal with their traumas and mental health challenges,” Owen said.
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