The kind of thing we’re looking for, as demonstrated by Mr Slater and his little HD friend. Image © kellyslater / instagram

Since Zag launched in 1976, the cover shot has been our Holy Grail, a place reserved for the best of the best in action and image quality. And now we want to plaster you all over it.
Together with GoPro, we’re blowing the field wide open for the Zag GoPro Cover Me contest and inviting any surfer to take a crack at the coveted page one. All you have to do is nail the shot, and you’re in contention. It doesn’t matter if you’re a pro, working class hero or underground charger – anyone is eligible.

To ensure magazine quality images, set your GoPro on hi-res photo mode and fire away (frame grabs from a video are not going to cut it). You can shoot yourself or others – the only condition is your entry must be shot on a GoPro (verifiable through the original file) and you have to be an SA citizen (with one exception: Namibian surfers are also eligible). There is no limit on creativity or angles employed, but our photo editor can sniff a chooked pic a mile away. Any doctored images beyond basic colour correction will be immediately disqualified and the culprit sentenced to a lifetime of drop-ins by SUPs.

The contest is open between 1 June to 21 September 2012 and entries are unlimited. All entries must be uploaded onto www.shotbru.co.za or sent to avg@zigzag.co.za. Please don’t post entries on facebook or other websites / social networking sites, or they won’t be eligible (unless by prior arrangement with Zigzag).

Every month we will upload a gallery of the best and most popular submissions on the Zigzag site, along with some tips on nailing the ultimate GoPro shot.

Once the contests ends, a panel of judges will select the top five images and put them out to a public vote. The final public vote will count for 50%, and the judge’s vote 50% to determine the overall winner. That photo will then land the cover of issue 36.8 of Zigzag, score the surfer an interview inside the mag and a lifetime of fame, glory and good vibes.
Time to get shooting!

(*The fine-print: For any further queries contact Alan van Gysen on avg@zigzag.co.za. Zigzag and GoPro reserve the right not to run a winner on the cover in the unlikely event that no entered image is deemed good enough in terms of quality or action.)

Check out some of the entries we've received so far>>