His parents met at the Christchurch rowing venue Kerr's Reach; that part of the Avon River / Ōtākaro where clubs and schools have their boathouses.

[13] At the July 2017 World Rowing U23 Championships in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, he won gold in the quad scull.

[2][14][15] Lopas moved to the United States for university study in 2017, choosing Yale as they have a heavyweight rowing team.

Lopas and fellow New Zealander Ollie Maclean, who studied at the University of California, Berkeley, were the first rowers where Rowing NZ made an exception.

[3][16] The New Zealand rowing squad for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics was announced in June 2021 and Lopas was teamed up with double-Olympian Chris Harris in the double scull.