How to: Stuff a Bikini!

Noah Beschen runs over buoyant bikini gal!

Noah Beschen is the dazzling, almost 16 year old, son of one-time tour superstar Shane.

A few years ago, while talking biz with his daddy, I watched the tiny blond-haired, brown-skinned boy (a mix of Californian and Central American genes) skate the pool at Bondi, then terrorise the waves out front. Don’t you wish you had the same kinda childhood, hunting waves and skate parks, instead of kicking cans around y’crummy neighbourhood miles from the beach?

Anyway, this sequence, by the Hawaiian photographer Tony Heff, has always fascinated me. I saw it on Matt Biolos’ Instagram a lil while ago and figured it was some kinda advertising shoot. It looks set-up, yeah? It ain’t.

Turns out Noah and Heff were kicking around Ehukai’s little sandbar when Noah got a dreamy lil runner, Heff set up for the shot, and “suddenly he saw the lady right in his path,” says Heff, “but she couldn’t get out of the way in time. It seems like he did everything he could to get out of her way but she looked too buoyant to go underneath the water and he ran the back of her feet over. Noah wiped out and she came up holding her leg, wincing in pain. She couldn’t talk. Her husband, he sounded Brazilian, was yelling at her from the beach, ‘Are you ok? Are you ok?’ I was bummed because I thought she’d ruined my photo. Later, my friend was looking at the photos on my camera and couldn’t stop laughing.”

Let’s examine!