Conditions have deteriorated, weather-wise, overnight, with the expected southerly hitting and the ocean looking somewhat messy.

Surfline was showing swell of three metres at 140 degrees from the south-east this morning, and winds from the south with a touch of west at 50kmh.

MEREWETHER'S Jackson Baker and Ryan Callinan have put their local knowledge and Championship Tour (CT) skills to good use yesterday, winning their heats of the City of Newcastle Pro as a lumpy nor-east swell and howling south-east winds made wave choice a lottery.

Defending Surfest men's champion and part-time Novocastrian Julian Wilson found himself a victim of the inconsistent and difficult conditions, exiting with a third-placed finish despite scoring the second best wave of the heat, bowing out to Chris Zaffis in the red jersey on 9.84 points, and Nelson Bay's Mke Clayton Brown, who pipped him 8.97 to 8.37.

Wilson was in heat 15.

Callinan triumphed in the final and 16^th heat,

By the end of the day, conditions were looking so chaotic that commentators were calling them "about as bad as you can get".

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In the first heat of the day, Baker was a clear winner, with the commentators saying his surfing had "gone to a whole other level" since making the CT.

As was the case on Tuesday, the difficult conditions made high scores hard to come by, but 17-year-old Cronulla goofy-foot Jarvis Earle pulled off the manoeuvre of the competition - a huge aerial rotation with a clean landing on a wedging left that gave him a 9.1 and a heat victory.

Surfest: Jackson Baker through, while Nelson Bay's Mike Clayton-Brown pushes Julian Wilson out

The diminutive Earle has a number of titles under his belt, including an Australian junior's, and is ranked No 47 on the Australian leg of the World Surf League's Qualifying Series.

The second round of the men's brought the highest ranked competitors into the mix, with Portugese top seed Frederico Morais surviving in second place behind local Merewether wildcard Joshua Levy.

Italian Leonardo Fioravanti won his heat ahead of Narrabeen veteran Nathan Hedge, with Port Stephens surfer Joshua Stretton eliminated by less than half a point.

Fioravanti said after the heat that he and the other CT surfers might be competing as "a warm-up" before Bells Beach next month, but "we are here to win".

The women were first into the water yesterday for the final eight heats of the first round of the AAP Consulting Women's Pro, with second seed Macy Callaghan and the remaining red jersey favourites winning through. Merewether's Ellie Lambkin was in line to progress until the final seconds when Gia Lorentson took second place with a buzzer-beater.

By the time the men hit the water at about 11am the swell had risen noticeably but the onshore wind gusting above 30 kilometres an hour and occasional rain squalls made for less than ideal conditions, with no real order in the lineup and a patch of deep water between the inner and outer banks making some waves die off early.

Most of the favoured surfers made it through to the next round, with Jacob Willcox, Kyuss King, Joel Vaughan, Kalani Ball and New Zealander Te Kehukehu Butler winning their heats, and fellow Kiwi Bill Stairmand and Queenslander Sheldon Simkus going through in second.

Some big names fell at this stage, including Wilson, former CT surfer Stuart Kennedy, aerial whiz Reef Heazlewood and QS No 18 Cooper Chapman.

Further up the beach at Dixon Park, Surfest's High Schools Teams Challenge was run after being postponed from last week.

Compressed to a single day from its original two-day format, 20 teams fought it out in the less than ideal conditions.

The boys' competition was won by the Freshwater High School team of Kalan Orchard, Xavier Bryce and Winter Vincent.

The girls' winner was Tuggerah Lakes Secondary College Tumbi Umbi Campus: Amelie Lowrie, Milli Allport and Halle Hunt

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Competition is scheduled to resume at about 7.30am tommorow (Thursday).

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