Table of contents for Issue 45.1 - Summer 20/21 in Zigzag

In a 1972 issue of International Surfing Magazine, a feature about the state of surfing in South Africa focussed much of its attention on two young cousins from Durban, Shaun and Michael Tomson. Shaun, the article asserted, was probably the better surfer of the pair, his performances technical, precise and calculated. Michael, on the other hand, was something special – especially in the realm of riding the tube, which in that particular era was still pretty much a ‘set your line and hope for the best’ affair. In florid terms, Michael is depicted riding a no-hope, sand-bottom barrel at Durban’s Bay of Plenty; not bulling through section after section, but feeling his way across the sandbar in an extrasensory display of reactive self-expression, an instrument of the wave’s will and…

AS IT TURNS OUT, THIS VIRUS WASN’T JUST DEADLY TO HUMAN BEINGS – IT WAS DEADLY TO PROFESSIONAL SURFING. Back in April, the world was a simpler place. We only had to deal with a pandemic and a few corona cops – not the breakdown of social order, the upending of world geopolitics, and the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. Since the lockdown’s been lifted, however, at least we’ve had surfing. With many liberated from employment or school and free to hit the beach, surfers around the world have been able to paddle out at their local break and wash it off. As the world went mad, the people went surfing. It was a splendid, simple spell, with the experience rendered down to its elemental parts – surf,…

This photo was taken at the wave that would later become known as The Snake. The area is home to a large fishing community, and for these fishermen, the daily struggle to feed their families is back-breaking. Crews of three to four men paddle hundreds of metres of fishing net out past the shorebreak in their wooden dugout canoes. They have to time their launch down to the second to avoid being capsized by the incoming waves. Once the nets have been paddled out and dropped in a giant circular loop, the real work begins – bringing the net in, all by hand. It’s a laborious process that takes hours, and is always accompanied by distinctive rhythmic chants and the sound of many hands and voices working in unison. With…

Andy ‘your column’s late’ Davis once again left it to the last minute to give me a fake deadline. The theme for this issue was the capturing of moments, of transformation and representation, the making of myths… I laid the phone down gently and slipped out for a quick wave. He was still talking when I got back. As is the case with a lot of brilliant people, nobody really understands what he’s saying half the time. I could be wrong, but I think the theme might have something to do with photography. When I started surfing, cameras hadn’t been invented yet. That’s what my father told me, anyway. It was only when I got older that I discovered what liars parents are. Instead, my mother offered to sit on…

3 QUESTIONS 1 DO YOU WANT TO SURF THE BEST WAVES OF YOUR LIFE? 2 CAN YOU KEEP A SECRET? 3 ARE YOU ABLE TO MEET ME AT THE AIRPORT AT 6AM TOMORROW? What would you do if the same questions were pinged to you by a famous surf photographer on a Monday morning at 5am, precipitating a sea change in your quiet life? The answers were all yes, of course, although the overspill into other lives was significant. Bailed on my girlfriend mid-house renovation; bailed on my job; bailed on the plethora of neatly packaged responsibilities that you only realise you have when you turn your back on them. Instead, I suddenly found myself stuffing possessions into a board-bag, while trotting out lies to the most important people in…

What has surf photography got to do with the evolution of surf culture? Everything. Absolutely everything. Before the rise of video and social media, the pre-digital currency on which the act of riding waves hung was the old-fashioned magazine pic. In those days there was the mainstream, who didn’t quite get it, and surfers, who did. And in-between, there was the Beach Boys. The cover shot of their 1962 debut album, Surfin’ Safari, features the band at Malibu in a palm-festooned yellow pick-up truck. The image screams with contrived energy – I mean, who goes to the beach in chinos? The ancient Polynesians, resting on their afterlife alaias, must have laughed at these haoles. So too would the Bronze Age Peruvians, who were the first to glide down peeling points…

It was 1977 – I’d just won the world title and MR had just unveiled his new twin-fin design in Hawaii. Mark and I were very competitive. We both wanted to be considered the best guy in the world, be it free surfing or in contests, and Off the Wall was the hottest spot for performance surfing at the time. Of course there was great surfing happening at Sunset and Pipeline, but in terms of sheer, raw performance, Off The Wall was where it all went down. Mark and I both loved that wave and we both pushed ourselves to the limit out there. This particular day was probably the best day of the year – six to eight feet, with a lot of intensity in the lineup. Somewhere along…

Kakuni means 'crab' in Maldivian. We named this wave after the infestation of crabs on the island off which it breaks. The whole island floor seemed to undulate with the critters, to the point that they’d climb up your legs if you stood still for too long. But I’m getting ahead of myself. First there’s the bizarre story of what happened when we found this wave. It was the early 2000s and John Callahan, my mentor, had organised a trip to the northernmost atolls of the Maldivian archipelago in search of new waves. John is the consummate professional and wrote the book on producing global surf trips in the pre-digital age, when print was everything. As was his formula, he invited surfers from almost every major surf nation at the…

I wiggled my toes, then moved my legs. Next, I swung my arms, checking for injuries that my adrenalin might have masked. Miraculously, I was okay. I was alive and I wasn't hurt. Thank you Lord, I thought, thank you! Moments earlier, I’d been cruising on the open road just outside of Upington, en route to the Kalahari. A distant lightning storm in the rear-view mirror provided the only light at around 5am on the narrow rural road. I was passing an oncoming car when out of nowhere, another car swung out from behind it, its headlights beaming straight at me. You think that when your time comes, you might have a few moments to process what’s about to happen but in this case, I would never have had the…

The overall plan for this issue was to theme it around photography but, rather than a stock-standard ‘photo issue’, the idea was to dig deeper and draw out compelling stories around the medium and the people who dedicate their lives to it. We’ll be the first to admit not all the pieces fit neatly into this theme – Sean Doherty’s excellent article on the future of professional surfing is a point in case – and we didn’t quite manage to extend the idea to cover all the regular features. Any shortcomings around our inability to stick to the topic, however, are more than made up for by the stellar work of our contributors. Ultimately, Zigzag is a magazine bound together by photos that celebrate the ocean, while paying homage to…