Out in the water last Friday when the big swell began producing surf rarely seen at Merewether, he captured some of the world's top surfers, including locals Ryan Callinan and Jackson Backer and Italian Leonardo Fioravanti, in barreling waves.

Epic swell: Merewether Beach goes off in what could be Newcastle's best every surf session

"I was kind of lucky I got out on Friday," he said. "I suppose it's a perspective the everyday person wouldn't see; the big barrels out there."

Mr Delore uses a special casing to house his camera in the water. He said his wet suit keeps him "quite buoyant", but "without flippers you'd be pretty lost out there".

"You're taking a lot of expensive equipment out in the water but I haven't had any issues so far," he said.

A surfer, Mr Delore has been taking photos mainly as a hobby for four years and is most in the water at Redhead, where he was raised.

"I do surf but I probably take the camera out more now," he said. "I find that if I take the camera out I get to shoot every wave that comes through, but if I take the board out you've got to kind of hassle for a wave."

For photographers both amateur and professional, last weekend's big swell produced a rare opportunity.

There were huge waves at multiple beaches but Merewether was the place to be, particularly on Saturday when the conditions and surfing drew a crowd of hundreds along the foreshore.

Newcastle photographer Grant Sproule relished photographing elite surfers in the "near perfect" conditions and among a crowd that he likened to a Surfest final.

"Friday was a little bit small, but Saturday was as good as I've ever seen Merewether," he said.

"It was just super glassy, it was as close to perfect as you can nearly get. I watched probably 10 to 12 surfers, as in guys who are really strong paddlers, and they couldn't get out. They tried five or six times, jumping off the back of the baths and they just got washed down [the beach]. The sweep and the swell was that strong they just couldn't get past the breakers.

"So having the jet-ski there on the Saturday was a huge bonus. It allowed a lot of the big surfers to get out the back and showcase how good big-wave surfing can be here."

Merewether photographer Ben Holmes was drawn to the beach by the buzz of the big swell. He captured a photo of three surfers riding the same "monstrous" wave.

"There were so many people checking it out," he said.

"The size and the cleanliness of the waves is unheard in Merewether. All the footpaths were lined with people. There were people sitting on top of their cars to get a good look at the surf.

"Short of everybody coming to see the Pasha Bulker, it's probably the biggest crowd event I've seen on a beach in Newcastle."

Mr Holmes said the waves were "consistently big".

"Behind the waves, it was glassy. Then all of a sudden there were these just monstrous waves," he said.

"The fact you can stack three surfers on top of each other like that gives an indication of the size of the swell, I suppose."

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