Surfest: Second day lost to wild weather, next call 7.30am Saturday

CHAOS THEORY: Torrents of whitewater running into Merewether, shot from the Dixon Park Surf Lifesaving Club webcam. Picture: Courtesy Surfline

SURFEST organisers have called off competition for a second day running, with the next call on conditions at 7.30am on Saturday.

Cancellation of today's competition marks the second day running that the event has been put on hold until the following morning.

ABNORMALLY HIGH TIDES: High tide in Newcastle was at 9.10am today. This webcam shot from Newcastle SLSC shows water lapping the beachfront promenade, even though today's predicted high tide was only 1.6 metres. The abnormally high tide predicted by the weather bureau was evident up and down the coast today, seemingly well above the 2 metres experienced at full moon 'king tides'. Picture: Courtesy Surfline

As a World Surf League Qualifying Series (QS) event, the Surfest men's and women's competitions have some spare time built into their schedule to allow organisers to pick the best available conditions, but Surfest has had its event window extended by a day into Monday because of the inclement conditions.

Surfline forecaster Ben McCartney said a "large, windblown southerly swell is leaving the surf a big unruly mess, this morning, with large sets in the double overhead plus range lurking beneath torrential rain and gusty SW/SSW winds".

"A further increase in southerly swell sets in through the day, leaving conditions way out of control across anywhere south exposed as southerly winds freshen to 30 to 40 knots (55 to 75kmh)," McCartney said.

"You'll fare better at a north-facing break or southern corner out of the elements for a clean, manageable wave all day."

COMPLEX LOW: This BOM image from 7.30am today shows the main low pressure system sitting off the northern NSW coast, reinforced by two more tropical lows to its north, with a big high pressure system over the Bight. Picture: Courtesy BOM

The Bureau of Meteorology has a "storm force" wind warning in place for the Hunter, Sydney and Illawarra coasts, and a severe weather warning for much of the coast including the Hunter, with damaging surf and abnormally high tides predicted.

"A deepening low pressure system in the Tasman Sea is slowly moving south while a strong high pressure system remains dominant over the Great Australian Bight," the bureau said this morning.

"The combination of these two systems will strengthen southerly winds . . ."

The latest sea-level pressure map and satellite photo combination shows what the bureau describes as a "complex low off the coast of NSW, in the Tasman Sea, (which) is extending a moist southerly flow over Tasmania and over eastern Victoria, NSW coast and Queensland coast generating areas of low cloud".

STIILL HIGH: The Newcastle beach camera pointing towards the 'map of the world' pool at the northern end of the beach, all but submerged more than two hours after the nominal top of the tide. Picture: Courtesy Surfline

In this piece today, Herald reporter Damon Cronshaw explains why the rains won't seem to stop.

As reported yesterday, competition is down to the final 32 in both the City of Newcastle Pro Presented by Burton Automotive and the AAP Consulting Women's Pro.

The next stop on the professional surfing circuit is the famous CT event, the Rip Curl Pro at Bells Beach at Torquay in Victoria, scheduled to run between April 10 and April 20.

BEFORE THE STORM: Logan Dalton finds a face to work with in her heat on Wednesday. Picture: Gary Luke