Cibilic, 20, said he was "freaking out" after results at the Pipe Masters ensured he will join fellow Merewether Surfboard Club member Ryan Callinan on the elite 34-man tour in 2020.

"I don't know, I don't know how I'm feeling. It hasn't really like sunk in," Cibilic said after his spot was secured.

"It's been a lot of anticipation over the past few weeks, so, yeah, I'm kind of freaking out right now, so I'm stoked."

Cibilic's amazing elevation to the tour from prime-event rookie on the qualifying series this year means he and Callinan will emulate the Merewether duo of Luke Egan and Matt Hoy next season. Egan and Hoy were last on the top tour together in 2000. Egan competed for another five years.

Callinan was the next from Newcastle to make the tour full-time when he qualified for 2016. He came back to qualify again for this year and was safely inside the top 22, ensuring his spot for 2020, heading into the season-ending Pipe Masters.

Cibilic, though, was not safe until the round of 16 played out at Pipeline on Friday after several lay days.

He finished one spot outside automatic qualification via the top 10 of the QS and was relying on Brazilians Yago Dora or Deivid Silva securing a spot in the CT top 22. If one did, that surfer would qualify through both tours, opening a position for Cibilic through the QS.

Both were on the edge of the top 22, and Brazilian Jesse Mendes and Australian Soli Bailey were a chance to bump them out with a big result on Friday.

Silva had already bowed out at Pipeline, but Dora could jump Silva into the top 22 with a round of 16 win over part-time Novocastrian Julian Wilson on Friday.

Dora won 7.5 to 6.27, lifting him above Silva into 22nd position on the CT.

Bailey and Mendes could knock Dora out of the top 22 but both lost in the round of 16, ending their re-qualification hopes.

Cibilic's spot was confirmed when Mendes lost to American Griffin Colapinto in heat seven.

Asked what event on the 11-stop tour he was looking forward to most, Cibilic said: "I don't know. Obviously everywhere.

"But I think G-land I'm really psyched for. Any event in Indo is a sick event, so I'm psyching for that one. Perfect waves, perfect lefts, and it's held in the best time of the year for an event there so it should be pumping the whole time, so I'm stoked."

Making Cibilic's effort even more remarkable, he overcame a medial collateral ligament tear in his knee just five weeks earlier to compete in Hawaii and jump from 16th to 11th in the rankings.

Wilson's loss opened the door for Jack Freestone, who progressed ahead of Kiwi Ricardo Christie, to take the second Australian men's spot at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Owen Wright, who finished ninth in the world, had already secured a spot inside the CT top 10 and one Olympic position.

Wilson was 11th on the standings and Freestone rose to equal 14th alongside Callinan with the win but then lost to another Olympic hopeful - American Kelly Slater - in the quarters to end his Games hopes.

The defeat secured the second Australian men's spot at the Olympics for 31-year-old Wilson, who splits his time between homes in Queensland and Merewether.

As well as Olympic positions, the Pipe Masters was the decider to an amazing world title race.

Brazilian Italo Ferreira, who arrived at Oahu as the world No.1, defeated countryman Gabriel Medina 15.56 to 12.94 to win his first world title.

Ferreira and Medina went head to head for the world title in a winner-takes-all final at Pipeline after American Kolohe Andino was eliminated by France's Michel Bourez in the last 16.

Defeat for two-time world champion Medina stopped him from becoming the first surfer to go back-to-back at Pipeline since the late Andy Irons in 2006.

"It was my dream," Ferreira said.

"I've trained all my life for this. I can't believe it. Thank you God."

Ferreira and Medina will represent Brazil at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics after finishing first and second respectively in the world rankings.

Stater, an 11-time world champion, lost to Medina in the semi-finals but he won his third Vans Triple Crown title, and his first since 1998. The Triple Crown consists of the year's final three events, which all take place in Hawaii.

The 47-year-old finished behind John John Florence in the race for the second American spot at the Olympics behind Andino. Seth Moniz was also named as the 2019 rookie of the year.

Stephanie Gilmore and Sally Fitzgibbons are representing Australia in the women's competition at Tokyo, where surfing will make its Olympic debut.