North Florida's top pro-am surf contest returns to the Jacksonville Beach Pier on Saturday, Oct. 3, with competition starting at 8 a.m.

The 43rd Annual WaveMasters Pro/Am Surf Contest will bring together professional and amateur surfers on the beach just south of the pier. The event also includes the 13th Annual King of the Hill Pro/Am, running the same day at the same location.

Surfers will compete across four divisions: Men's Pro, Women's Pro, Pro Longboard, and Boys & Girls 16 & Under. Cash prizes and trophies go to top finishers in each division.

The Jacksonville Beach city calendar calls WaveMasters the region's premier pro-am event, one that raises money for local youth and environmental charities. Organizers have not publicly identified which charities will benefit from the 2026 edition.

The event is free to watch. Surfers interested in competing can contact organizer Mitch Kaufmann, whose information appears on the event flyer shared by the Jacksonville Beach Pier's official Instagram account.

That Instagram post, published Saturday, Sept. 12, promoted the contest and the King of the Hill Pro/Am together.

@jaxbeachpier: "The 43rd Annual WaveMasters Pro/Am Surf Contest is hitting the Jacksonville Beach Pier on Saturday, October 3, 2026 at 8 AM, along with the 13th Annual King of the Hill Pro/Am!"

WaveMasters has been held at the Jacksonville Beach Pier annually, typically on the first weekend of October. The contest has grown from a local gathering into a fixture on the First Coast surf calendar, now in its fifth decade.

In prior years, the King of the Hill Pro/Am carried sanctioning from the World Waveski Surfing Association (WWSA), allowing competitors to earn ranking points toward world titles seeding. Whether that sanctioning applies to the 2026 contest has not been confirmed.

Past editions have offered cash prizes, though 2026 amounts have not been announced. The field, including any defending division champions, has not been publicly released.