The All New Shot Bru Challenge

This June, 2018, Zigzag & Hurley launched “The Shot Bru Challenge”. A brand new comp designed for all you photogs out there, whether you’re professional, novice or somewhere in-between. From now to the end of the year Zag will issue you with a different challenge, wherein the winner takes home a HURLEY hamper.

Now, let’s get down to the nitty-gritty. The first challenge was perspective. What is perspective? Well, perspective in photography is used to create depth and gives those looking at the image a more 3-dimensional feel. Make use of the world around you. So instead of shooting just the action, we wanted you to look for other objects like people, cars, and piers to pull in and add to the composition of your image.

Below are a few examples of perspective, sunrise/sunset, action and lineups to get you up to speed with the challenges so far:

Simon Smith (1st photo below), made history as the first ever winner of the Shot Bru Challenge. His entry for Perspective had great depth created by the foreground and a colourful background with the surfer adding to the action. As you can tell by the rest of the entries the first edition of the competition went down like a laka cold post surf frosty, scroll through the gallery to take a look who came a close second. 

Month two the challenge was sunrise and sunset. Its an old favourite of photographers yet timeless in the same sense. Douw Steyn gripped the challenge by the horns and whipped out the absolute cracker you see below. This mouth-watering entry made great use of that golden light baby, and to great effect. Just look at that shot it’s flippen glorious, I’m just waiting for some mythical god to break the surface tension of the water and ask for a portrait. Hot damn Douw, we love this photo, deserved winner!!

The third month the challenge was all about action,  we wanted to see some of that in your face flair. Think big moves, big sprays. Those moments that capture the action when it’s peaking. Selecting a winner was no easy feat. In the end, the editorial team settled on an image that struck us right from the word go. It was the perfectly timed frame below, from Jono Greenway which had all the elements including great colour and photographic skill to make it a deserving action winner.           

Septembers competition was ‘Empty Perfection’. It could have been anything from a beautifully lit pulled back lineup to an unridden barreling water shot. September saw the most entries for a single month so far in the competition making for one distracted photo editor her in the Zag cave. Coming out top dawg and with some serious street cred to through down in the shooters club was Darren Simes, with the beautifully crisp corker you see below. Just go on, and feast your eyes on these unridden gems. 

 

 

For this next month, we are mixing it up. We present the Lifestyle challenge. Time to get creative, think outside the fin box (see what we did there). We want those shots that epitomize surf travel, strike missions and late night beach sessions. Go behind the scenes of surfing culture and give us your best captured moments that show surfing for what it is, a journey.  

Easy playa, don’t grab your lens just yet, here are a couple things you need to know before submitting your entry: 

• You may only submit 3 x photos per person
• Photos must be surf related
• Photos must be sent to greg@zigzag.co.za with the subject of the email: Shot Bru Challenge – Lifestyle
• Images need to be resized to 1500 pixels wide
• The image can be no older than a year
• Photos must not have been published in Zigzag before
• Include your name in the file name
• Entries must be submitted by the 15th of each month
• Competition only open for South Africans