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."
I nodded and listened to the three talk about various modeling tips for the next few minutes. Eva did a lot of work for the modeling side of Ripcurl, and it turned out that she was experienced enough to have quite the career even if she couldn't surf a single wave. Just when she was telling a story about how a sunburned had delayed one of her shoots for multiple days, the lead coordinator chose to join our group.
"River, we're ready for you to do some more photos now," He tossed me a pair of flowy shorts and a plain crop top, "you'll be joining that group over there."
The crowd that he gestured to had just arrived, and I had to look back at him in surprise when I saw who had joined us. "I'm posing with them?" I managed to choke out.
"Go get your boys," Sarah called with a wink as the coordinator nodded briskly.
After changing my clothes with shaking hands, I worked my way over to the group of male surfers further up the beach. They were horsing around and shoving each other as assistants tried to hand them their clothes, causing much more chaos than necessary.
"Uh, I think that I'm supposed to be over here?" I spoke quietly.
A woman in a baseball cap looked up at me and broke into a smile. "River, great to see you, I'm Sam and I'll be directing you for the next few hours. Santos, get over here!"
Her shout got the attention of Enzo who was waving a pair of board shorts while attempting to fight off another surfer. He snapped to attention and walked over to join us, a sheepish smile on his face.
"Alright, great. We're going to have you guys take some photos together. Make them as candid as possible, act like you're having fun together, whatever. The goal is to sell the idea of two people having fun at the beach. You don't need to act romantic or anything, just sell the fact that you don't hate each other," She instructed.
"No Jaylin this time?" Enzo questioned, making it clear that this was nothing new for him.
Sam raised her eyebrows. "We thought that a change of pace might be good. There's fresh talent on tour, and depending on how this year plays out for River, it might be in everyone's best interest to have a few more photos than usual."
"You're beating Jaylin out on one front at a time," Enzo joked with me, white teeth flashing.
"I only care about the surfing. Spending a few more hours with you, well, I could take it or leave it," I teased with a shrug.
"Well, I'll take it," he sent me a wink, which resulted in a slight blush to appear on my cheeks. I attempted to laugh off the slight awkwardness regarding his flirting before forcing my eyes back to the director of photography.
Sam led us through the plan for the next few hours, and eventually we were ready to actually take the photos. They began with us posing around an old beat up surf van, trying to re-create the scene of a classic surf trip. After the interior of the van, which happened to have no air conditioning, began to get too hot to be productive, we moved back out to the beach.
I practically walked straight into Enzo's back as he stopped abruptly in front of me. "Bro, what the heck are you stopping for," I huffed while backing up.
"You ready for this," the dark haired surfer gestured to the cameramen, who nodded in return. "Great, hop on then," Enzo said, looking back at me.
I looked at him in confusion as he held his arms out behind him. "Uh, what?" I managed to fumble out.
He rolled his eyes and smirked at me. "Get onto my back, bro."
My first thought was to protest, but the look on everyone else's faces made it clear that was not an option. Slowly, I wiped any remaining sweat off of my hands before placing them gingerly on Enzo's muscular shoulders. "You better not drop me."
"You already insulted Jaylin, there's no need to get on my bad side too. I'm pretty sure that I can handle this, even if you are all muscle."
The moment the words left his mouth, we were suddenly flying forward. He tore down the sand dune, the wind rushing through my hair and tearing my laugh out of my mouth. I clutched his chest and wrapped my legs around his waist as tightly as possible, hoping that he wouldn't lose his balance on the way down.
We were rapidly approaching the ocean, but Santos didn't seem to mind one bit. The waves splashed around his ankles as he moved further in, spraying us both with cool water. I could barely see his face from behind him, but once in a while I got a glimpse of his white teeth shining in a wide grin. With one last turn, he spun around and fell backward, effectively dropping both of us in the ocean.
I was underwater for only a moment before I felt his hands grab my waist and pull me back up. He was looking down at me with a playful grin on his face, water glistening all over his bronze skin.
"You know, I can swim on my own," I muttered to him as we began to move back towards the shore.
"I just wanted to make sure that I didn't cause you any harm. Wouldn't want to start this season off on the wrong foot," he nudged me in my side. I rolled my eyes, but was unable to stop the smile from forming.
Sam met us at the shore, a wide grin on her face. "That was great! I'm confident that we got some great shots, you guys looked very natural together. I think that should be enough for today, especially seeing as you're both soaking wet. But with what we saw today, I think that I speak for more people than just myself when I say that we would love to see you two work together again in the future."
Enzo crossed his arms over his chest and smirked at me before looking back at Sam. "Great," he responded, "I've definitely had less fun at a photoshoot. It would be my pleasure to do it again sometime."
I nodded and felt my cheeks redden slightly before I rushed back up the beach to the safety of the girls. Enzo certainly wasn't as terrible as I thought that he might be, but I wasn't sure how to react to that fact yet.
Thanks for (just) over a hundred reads everyone! I remember publishing the first part of this a few weeks ago and just waiting for one person to read this. So thanks for doing that, because now I don't feel completely embarrassed hahah. Love you all, and thanks so much for reading. I promise that we're going to bigger places soon.