The Tour

six / the photoshoot

A whole crew of people had already assembled on the Australian beach. Many of them held various pieces of camera equipment, some were raking through racks of clothing, and another smaller group was huddled together and talking excitedly. It was surprisingly chaotic for the time of day; the sun was only just beginning to rise over the open ocean.

The car that I was riding in jerked to a halt in the parking area above the beach, and I followed the other girls out of the car and into the crowd of people. The competition had ended yesterday, and I had managed to make it into the semifinals before getting knocked out. The Ripcurl team had decided to maximize our time in Hawaii by having a photoshoot for their new swimwear line, so here we were at the crack of dawn on our off day. I squinted in the light as I attempted to follow the other surfers, hoping not to get lost and look more like a rookie than I already was.

"Hey, River? We'll take you right over here for some hair and makeup real quick before you guys get started," a voice to my left shouted. A woman standing next to a table that was covered with various products gestured for me to come over, and I took a seat in the chair. She started talking the moment that I sat down, bubbling on about how the makeup would be natural enough that I could still pass for someone going swimming, but would adequately cover up my "atrocious" bags under my eyes. I laughed at that, noting that it had been a mildly stressful week, not to mention the special-sort of Australian jet lag.

A few minutes later I was being shoved off in the direction of the other girls to get dressed. Sarah was already being sent into a changing room clutching a floral patterned bikini, and it was clear that the other girls were waiting for their assignments as well.

"I really just think that I would look best in black," Jaylin could be heard protesting from a good distance away. The coordinator seemed to have no tolerance for her opinions, and she pouted her way towards the cameras in a white cover up.

As soon as she was gone, the dark-skinned coordinator turned towards me, pushing his sunglasses up on his nose. "Ah, River, there you are. We have this picked out for you, it should be your size so if you could just go ahead and change we'll get you started."

I obediently took the blue bikini and changed as quickly as possible, quickly admiring the way that it fit. Thankfully, it provided enough coverage that it would actually be wearable for surfing, not to mention providing enough security during the photoshoot.

When it was finally time for my own photos to be taken, I attempted to shed my stiff posture as much as possible. It was more difficult than I expected to act like I was having a fine time relaxing on the beach when there were three reflectors in my face and five other cameras, but no one seemed to give me too much flack. They probably had realized from looking at my Instagram that sexy photos weren't exactly my strong suit, so they didn't push too hard.

A few hours later we were given a break, and I worked my way over to where Sarah was sitting with Tatiana and Eva, another pair of twenty-something year old surfers on tour. Sarah grinned at me and tossed me a water bottle, gesturing for me to sit down in the shade of a tent that had been set up.

"How's your first major shoot going?" She asked me with a knowing smile.

"I'll just say that it's been a slightly awkward experience. I feel like I spend so much time worrying about how I'm posing and listening to all of the directions being shouted at me that I forget to actually smile or whatever. You guys have any tips?"

Eva nodded understandingly, "I'm sure that you'll get there eventually, but it helped me to just think about positioning myself in ways that I felt comfortable with. Then they adjust you from there, but it can still be a better starting place than a totally foreign pose."