Bruce 'Hoppo' Hopkins ‘I WILL NEVER RETIRE'

EVEN AFTER 30 YEARS, ALL HOPPO WANTS TO DO IS KEEP SAVING LIVES

- Phillip Koch

Bruce ‘Hoppo’ Hopkins breaks out into a huge grin as he recalls his initial reaction to a workmate’s idea of turning a bunch of knockabout Bondi Beach lifeguards into TV stars.

“I just laughed at him,” says the Bondi Rescue favourite, who has patrolled Australia’s most iconic stretch of sand for more than 30 years.

Still, Hoppo knew his buddy, part-time lifeguard and TV producer Ben Davies, was onto something with his fly-on-the-wall docuseries concept and agreed to make a “little five-minute pilot”.

Their reel excited executives at Network 10 so much that an hour-long special was commissioned. That then turned into an eight-part series when they watched the extraordinary footage of real-life rescues – and one particularly amazing resuscitation.

“The guy was dead and we shocked him with the defibrillator three times. I remember hitting the button for the third shock and I thought we weren’t going to get him back,” Hoppo tells us.