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At his desk on a Thursday, John Bromley’s mind wanders off to somewhere far nicer. ‘Another Day at the Office’ is his entry into ‘Write to Surf‘ – our surf journo competition with some epic prizes up for grabs (see below for details).

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ANOTHER DAY AT THE OFFICE – by: John Bromley

He bent over his desk, engrossed in a file.

His thoughts strayed, fleetingly and warmly to his wife and sons and how blessed he was to have a family and a home, good health, a job and financial stability.

Then he fell into a reverie. He was lounging in the cockpit of a catamaran, cold beer in hand, with a couple of mates trading tall surf stories. King Mackerel was searing on the braai, the light evening trades clinked the rigging and the boat swayed slightly on the swells dissipating in the lagoon.

Out in the moonlight he could see the silhouettes of the waves racing along the coral reef symmetrically, curling into the pass and throwing spray behind them all the way. His muscles ached pleasantly with the memory of paddling into wave after perfect wave and a few beatings.

He recalled sitting outside the reef with an eight wave set approaching, trembling in ecstatic anticipation. He let the first two wash over the reef but went for the third one, sleek and ruler edged. He put his head down and paddled for his life. As the swell lifted him he paddled deeper and harder, dimly aware of the coral heads just beneath the surface.

As the wave pitched and his board dropped away he stood up low, dropped the nose and set his rail. He braced himself as the water drew off the reef and threw over his head, the lip arcing and throwing out to the flats below. He felt the draw of the wave against his fins and inside rail, which gave him a surge of power and acceleration, as he dragged his hand lightly on the face while the tube spun ahead of him.

He was deep in the vortex, at the still heart of the roaring wave. Then the spit hit his back and blew ahead, temporarily blinding him as it shot him over the foamball and out onto the majestic wall, like a tilted emerald highway. He set the outside rail, carved to the bottom of the wave, engaged the other rail and leaned, feeling the G-force in the bottom turn, up high into another crystalline water cave. He gave one more pump before following the spit out into the lagoon, elated.

The telephone rang shattering the spell and he sighed…

Click here to check out all the entries so far >>

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THE FINEPRINT:
Send your stories to calvin@zigzag.co.za. One submission will be selected every six weeks to appear in Zigzag magazine. The selected submission will also receive a hamper from Billabong. Zigzag retains the right to use any work submitted for the Zag Surf Journo competition on zigzag.co.za as outlined in the rules and terms of the competition. Zigzag reserves the right not to award a published winner in the magazine every six weeks, depending on the quality of entries. Zigzag is not obligated to run any and all entries submitted, either online or in print. Zigzag retains the right to edit all work submitted for brevity and / or clarity.

For the next three issues the Billabong prize hamper includes: 1 x Billabong Wetsuit; 1 x Billabong Boardies; 1 x Billabong Cap; 1 x Von Zipper Sunnies; 1 x Set of Kinetic Racing (KR) fins. After which the hamper will get a shake-up with new product of equal value for the following three issues.