Jacksonville Beach waves come through for top surfers at the Super Girl Surf Pro contest

Jacksonville Beach's usually fickle surf came through for this weekend's big Super Girl Surf Pro contest, which attracted the biggest stars in women's surfing — and a fair number of young local hotshots — to the sandbar south of the pier.

A long-lasting Atlantic Ocean swell, though fading, could still dish up glassy chest-high waves Friday and Saturday, leading to Sunday's final. Nothing spectacular, but certainly pretty and certainly quite surfable, giving hundreds of young surfers and families on the beach the chance to see the sport's top superstars in decent waves — and sometimes to even to surf with them.

Consider the excitement of surfer River Proctor, 10, who surfed and did a workshop with Carissa Moore of Hawaii, five-time world champion and recent Olympic gold-medal winner in Japan.

"She taught me that it's more important to not be so hard on yourself," River said on Saturday. "It's more important to have fun than to win."

Previously:The Super Girl Surf Pro is coming to Jacksonville Beach this weekend. Here's what you need to know

A Red Bull surf contest at night? Not with these big waves pounding Jacksonville Beach

Then there was Kristy Ferguson, 68, who lived and surfed in Hawaii for 25 years. Though a bad knee has slowed her down, she still makes forays to the beach to surf. She drove up from her house north of Palatka to watch the action.

"I'm impressed. Aren't you?" she said, as competitors thwacked away at the Jacksonville Beach waves.

"I am envious of their knees," Ferguson said. "But at least we're still doing it. It's in my soul. I can't get it out of my blood, 'cause you feel so great when you come in, for a week, and you sleep like a baby."

Super Girl Surf Pro contest is new this year to Jacksonville Beach

The Super Girl contest, a qualifying event for the women's world surf tour, has been held in San Diego for 15 years. It expanded to Jacksonville Beach this year, the contest's first time on the East Coast. It's a big event, live-streamed and later to be televised, that had beach volleyball, beach soccer and musical performances (Hoobastank and Plain White T's play Sunday), along with surfing.

Competition in the water was tough. Even Moore, the Olympic gold medalist, was eliminated Friday, the first of three days of surfing.

Molly Kirk, an Atlantic Beach surfer eliminated in the first round, said each heat lasts 25 minutes, and you're scored on your best two waves. "They score you on speed, power and flow, the main criteria. There's probably more that I'm missing," she said.

A World Record? Not exactly:After 638 waves, 60-year-old Jacksonville Beach surfer calls it a day, and a night, and another day

'My soul just felt connected':Jacksonville Beach woman finds freedom in surfing, encourages Black women and girls to do the same

On Friday, the top two finishers in four-women heats moved to the next round. By Saturday it was down to two-women heats, with only one going through.

Lanea Mons, 12, from Atlantic Beach, was also eliminated Friday in a heat that included Caroline Marks of Florida, who was on the U.S. Olympic surf team. But she came so close to making it to the next round.

"I went into that heat with no expectations," said Mons, with great composure. "I was really proud of myself because I usually get nerves pretty easily, but that whole heat I didn't let any nerves get to me."

She needed a 5.94 score on her last wave, with 30 seconds left, but managed just a 5.77. "So I didn't get the score, but it was a good wave to end the heat," she said. "It was really fun."

Annie Adams, 14, of Jacksonville Beach, surfed in the contest as well, and was impressed by the personality of Moore, the world champion, after she was eliminated.

"She came out of the water with a smile, and I thought that's definitely what a pro surfer should look like, in and out of the water," she said. "She just showed such happiness, even though she didn't advance. That sets such a good example for younger surfers."

That shows the level of competition, said local surf coach Jason Motes: "These young girls are surfing so good that even the world champ needs to be on her A-game."

Motes coaches the Eastern Surfing Association's all-star team. Eight girls on that team, from New York to Central Florida — including Lanea Mons — competed in this event. He also coaches local boys and girls in what he calls the Motes Militia. Seeing the world's top surfers is a big deal to them.

"These are their heroes, the girls they see on social media," he said. "These are the kids they look up to. To be able to see them in person, surf with them, talk with them, it means the world. It also shows what this next level of performance looks like. And to see this level at their home break, it's amazing."

Motes, 49, said the growth of women's surfing is nothing short of astonishing.

"The biggest progression in surfing in the last five years is the women, where they have come and what they're doing now," he said. "Back in our day there was a big gap between the men and the women, and now there's no gap. It's so good for the sport, so good for these young girls seeing this."