BRAZILIAN Italo Ferreira has won the men's side of the Newcastle Cup while Hawaiian Carissa Moore downed Aussie Isabella Nichols to take out the women's events.
The finals of this second stop on the World Surf League championship tour were held in spectacular autumn sunshine, with a fresh southerly swell adding to the easterly pulse that had pushed some quality waves close to the Merewether rocks since the contest resumed earlier in the week.
The men's final was a see-sawing event, with Medina taking an early lead with an 8.6 before Ferreira responded with a 7.77 and a 7.17, meaning he was clear of Medina with under 10 minutes to go, with his rival's second best wave being a 4.67.
With six minutes to go, Medina paddled for a lump and induced Ferreira into taking off on a wave that did not work out, meaning he had surrendered priority to the tactical master, who needed just a 6.34 to take the lead, an easily achievable score in the conditions, especially given the 7s and 8s that Medina had regularly laid down in earlier heats.
With just over a minute to go, Medina went for a left but could not get the points he needed. Ferreira let him into a wave that had him on his feet just as the buzzer went but it was not enough and Italo hung on for a spectacular win.
Hawaiian world champ Carissa Moore ended up a substantial winner over young Aussie Isabella Nichols in the women's final, finding bigger longer walls to work with as the surf turned on for some spectacular exchanges.
Carissa had Isabella "comboed" - meaning both her waves were better than anything of Isabella's, but the rookie Nichols showed she belongs at the top echelon with spectacular and mature surfing.
Moore's final tally was 15.73 from a 9.5 and a 6.23, well ahead of the modest 8.34 scored by Nichols from a 3.67 and a 4.67.
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The nature of surfing means that with a typical wave lasting less than 30 seconds, a 40 minute final - or the 30 or 35 minute heats for the rest of the contest - might only have a few minutes of surfing the entire time.
This leads the crowd to periods of long and intense contemplation as they watch intently - or will on their favourites - with a murmur building as a surfer paddles for a wave.
Surfing appreciation is traditionally shown by hooting - hence the appropriation of "Yew" into "Yewcastle". But the noise that this crowd was making had a lot in common with a football match - or a bull-fight or a gladiatorial battle in an aquatic coliseum, with big moves met by full-throated roars.
Ditto for when the scores drop from the judges shortly after each wave, as the announcers call the outcome to the crowd, and to the surfers in the water who know they are in a battle of tactics as much as surfing ability, given that a struck match is all can separate the world's best on any given day.
But Moore and Ferreira were worthy and obvious winners, and although the surf in the early part of today was not ideal - and nowhere near as good as it was by the time the men's semi-finals hit the water - there was no doubt that this was amply contestable surf for a Championship Tour event.
A mob of grommet - and not so young - fans clustered around the stairs as the finalists returned to the beach after the last two contests, and it was obvious to everyone that the Newcastle experiment - as COVID driven as it was - had been an absolute success.
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