SURFEST is off on Saturday until another call early Sunday morning, as the conditions were deemed uncontestable for paddle surfing.
At least one tow pair made it out the back at Merewether at about noon today and caught a wave as captured here, but Surfest organisers said another experienced and strong surfer attempted to paddle out and was washed down the beach to Dixon Park attempting to get out.
Westerly winds today have cleaned the surf from the storm driven maelstrom of the past few days, and with the swell predicted to drop reasonably quickly, the aim is still to get the men's and women's competitions finished on Sunday, rather than run through into Monday, if possible.
Northwesterly winds are predicted for Sunday, which would mean clean and potentially great conditions, and although the giant waves of the past few days have badly eroded beaches up and down the coast, the rock bottom at Merewether reef would remain undisturbed, and so the promise remains for really good surf for the final rounds of the City of Newcastle Pro and the AAP Consulting Women's Pro.
At Merewether as at other Hunter beaches, the giant swells have caused severe erosion, with water breaking onto the road and causing localised flooding at Stockton, while waves were washing through parts of the controversial skate park at Newcastle Beach this morning, as workers on the job filmed the damage on their phones as they walked among the sand and foam strewn detritus.
At Redhead, a rogue wave smashed into the surf club, which is normally a substantial distance from the water.
A constant stream of cars and knots of pedestrians dotted the coastline from Nobbys to Merewether, filming and watching as the six metre swell pounded the coast.
From Fort Sratchley, waves could be seen breaking across deep open water in Stockton Bight in front of the harbour entrance, as walls of whitewater broke along the harbour side of the Stockton breakwall, a rare occurrence.
As can be seen in some of the phone photos here, waves breaking off the northern end of Newcastle Beach were taller than the facade at the front of the Newcastle Ocean Baths, which were inundated.
Long-time beach watchers were calling it the biggest surf in decades.
Both Surfest events are down to their Rounds of 32.
At this stage the plan is to shorten each heat to 20 minutes, rather than 25 minutes for the round of 32 and 35 minutes from then on in, as originally planned, to enable the event to be finished on Sunday in a single 10-hour session.
