The margin belied how close it really was, and another decent Cibilic wave could easily have swung things the other way.

The crowd went nuts three minutes into the heat when Cibilic took off for his first wave after Medina had put down a 5.0 to open his account. He got two big turns before the section shut down on him but he looked to be in the same masterful form that got him to this semi final.

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Cibilic took the lead with that wave, posting a 7.0.

Medina scored a quick 1.5 after that, and as the commentators said, the crowd was very much behind the home town hero.

Medina then replied with a 6.7 to take the lead 11.07 to 9.00 - Cibilic's opening wave was the low scoring 2.0 - when the heat was at the 10-minute mark.

Medina then landed an enormous aerial on a rare left, signalling to the judges holding his fingers up and counting to 10.

Medina had looked reserved through much of this contest, doing just enough to win his heats, but with Cibilic on fire so far, the Brazilian master seemed to realise he needed to pull out all the stops.

At the halfway mark Medina had the heat in control with an enormous 9.7 for the aerial left for a two-wave total of 15.77, but Cibilic had shown extreme confidence in earlier heats to wait for the waves he knew he could use his local knowledge to its best advantage.

Then with 11 minutes to go Cibilic caught a mid-sized right and slotted into a two-second barrel, emerged and then worked it to the whitewater as the crowd on the beach erupted.

He scored a 7.07 for that wave but still needed an 8.71 to get past Medina, with the crowd - and some parochial Aussie commentators - urging him on, as the heat stood poised at 15.77 to 14.07, Medina's way.

With 30 seconds to go, Medina and Cibilic sat side by side, anxiously scanning the horizon for a final wave but it was not to be and Medina went through, ending an enormous run by the Merewether club man and original Angourie product.

Earlier in the day a few people - the Herald included - questioned the decision to start at 7.45am, with the waves still lumpy from the overnight southerly.

But as the morning progressed and the offshore westerly wind groomed the swells to near perfection, the WSL forecasters had indeed earned their money.

The WSL webcast gives a great detailed look at the action but the atmosphere on the beach, with the swelling crowd, the bright autumn sunshine and fantastic surf exploding up and down the Bar Beach to Merewether stretch, those who came down to see it all first hand were rewarded for their effort.

Earlier, Carissa Moore disposed easily enough of Caroline Marks, and Isabella Nichols slid past fellow Aussie Keely Andrew.

Everyone was still talking about her monster aerial yesterday afternoon and she pulled out her Hawaiian power moves in the big, rangy Merewether faces on offer today.

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