A tour of Noah Beschen’s YouTube channel should quickly tell you one thing: he doesn’t seem all that interested in pumping out run-of-the-mill surf edits. And that’s refreshing.
Beschen released a cinematic, red-tinted (literally) YRUYNN six months ago and the most he’s shared with the world since then has been the occasional quick clip of a wave or two. It’s a far step away from the typical daily vlog approach a lot of non-World Tour professionals have taken recently, especially in the past year.
But with his competitive life on hold now since the 2019 season, he’s taken all the pandemic-forced downtime to get his hands on a RED camera and explore filmmaking in a way that he’s always wanted to.
“There’s not much that’s interesting besides surfing,” he says, crediting John John Florence as the person whose films interest him the most right now. “Surfing is a real artistic thing, ya know. So I feel like with the music, it fits me as best as it can.”
The music he’s referring to is from ‘WAX,’ a 13-minute short made of chapters that, in their own way, show how he sees life on the North Shore. It’s personal.
“All the songs in there I’m super into, ” he says. “Surfing, they don’t really put music like that into edits. I try to make videos like a music video, I guess.”
There’s a pretty damn hilarious cold open with the daily awkward tourist run-in — the ones where visitors stop him, hoping for a John John photo op but giddy at the thought of settling for a Koa Smith sighting. The rest is an eclectic mix of tracks: Bubblin, by Anderson Paak, a remake of The Girl From Ipanema, by Elise Trouw, Led Zeppelin’s Immigrant Song, Call Out My Name, by The Weeknd, and Cast Your Fate To the Wind, by Allen Toussaint.
“The first part, it’s just kinda hectic,” he gives as an example. “Ke Iki beach. My friends breaking boards. Just that whole hectic part of life on the North Shore. It feels like a shit show.”
When I ask if this artistic side is something he’s putting at the forefront of the career now, he sees it as a creative spin on being ready for post-pandemic life and regularly being back in a jersey.
“I still fully wanna qualify for the tour. I feel like with the videos I’m doing now, I’m filming in order to push my surfing. This summer and next winter I’m really going to push myself to try and do bigger and better things. I’m capable of it, and if it makes me a better surfer for the QS then I’m ready to try and qualify.”
