When he bowed out in round one at Surfest's Burton Automotive Pro, it barely rated a mention.

The two years before, the up-and-comer, while still focused on school, had exited in trials to make the 144-field at the qualifying series event.

Next week, the 20-year-old starts the Surfest Newcastle Pro in round two as the sixth seed and a championship tour surfer.

Two months on from his remarkable rise to the elite 34-man tour, Cibilic is still coming to grips with achieving his dream so quickly.

"It's kind of freaky," Cibilic said. "Three years ago I was just looking at the world tour thinking 'I'm so far away from that'.

"All your heroes are on the tour. I grew up watching Julian [Wilson], and Kelly [Slater] obviously, and now I'll be surfing against them, so it's a bit surreal still."

And while 12 months can be a long time in any sport, for Cibilic, it took just four and a half months to rocket from obscurity to the world stage.

Cibilic was the last man on to the CT for 2020 after finishing 11^th on the 2019 qualifying series.

He started last year as 111^th on the second tier and was nowhere near qualifying until an amazing run in the second half of the season.

What started as a year of building his ranking to make a charge at the CT in 2020 and beyond ended as surfing's fairy-tale rise of 2019.

"I'm pretty baffled, I guess," Cibilic said.

"This time last year if you had of asked me where would you see yourself, I would have said maybe top 70 or something.

"That was the goal, so I got it," he laughed. "And I'll take it."

Cibilic will compete at the 5000-point Surfest Newcastle Pro next week, then the 10,000-point Sydney Surf Pro at Manly in preparation for his debut on the CT at Snapper Rocks from March 26.

And the laid-back character is trying his best to take it all in his stride.

"Even though it happened a couple of months ago, it doesn't feel real at all," he said of qualifying in Hawaii.

"I never really expected myself to qualify, and then I'm here when I'm 20, so it's just mind blown.

"And so much has been going on in the past month and I've had to talk to so many people, so it's just like whatever now, this is cool.

"I'm just trying to stay focused and get it done."

And there's little wonder Cibilic is having trouble getting his head around his new-found fame.

His stunning streak to the CT began in early August with 2200 points from a 17^th place at the US Open, but his big break came a month later when a semi-finalist at the 10,000-point Galicia Classic Surf Pro in Spain, which gave him 6500 points. He quickly backed it up with 3700 points from a last 16 effort at the Ericeira Pro in Portugal.

Before 2019, Cibilic had never even ranked high enough to gain a start at a 10,000-point contest, which is the highest level on the QS.

He was suddenly right in the qualifying mix and headed for trials into the CT event in Portugal when he ruptured the medial collateral ligament in his left knee while free surfing.

Sitting 16^th on the QS in the hunt for a top 10 finish, Cibilic's fairy-tale run looked over with two 10,000-point events remaining in Hawaii.

Six weeks later, Cibilic wore a knee brace at the Hawaiian Pro and got through two heats to grab 2100 points and stay in the race.

It all came down to the World Cup of Surfing at Sunset Beach and Cibilic charged into the quarter-finals with fearless big-wave surfing.

But he needed more to guarantee qualification when he made a stunning error against Lennox Head's Stu Kennedy. He dropped in on Kennedy, who had priority, and Cibilic was given an interference penalty, which effectively ended his contest.

Kennedy then needed a third in the semi-finals to take Cibilic's preliminary spot on the CT but he finished fourth, leaving the Novocastrian just 125 points ahead on the standings.

After all that, he had to wait anxiously at the CT finale, the Pipe Masters, to see if Yago Dora or Deivid Silva qualified through both tours to ensure a spot remained open for Cibilic via the QS.

It wasn't until finals day that Cibilic's CT place was assured.

"I looked and it didn't look like he was going, and I didn't even realise he was on the wave until I pulled off it," he said of the interference. "I was just like, my life just crumbled on top of my head.

"If he came third in his next heat, he would have beaten me ... everything played out in my favour after my fumble so it was good. It was a huge relief."

Cibilic returned to competition at the Australian Boardriders Battle final with Merewether Surfboard Club two weeks ago but he will start his QS campaign at Surfest.

He's hoping a new focus in the off-season will bring early results in his bid to requalify.

"I've definitely knuckled down a lot more," he said.

"I'm staying off the beers and just surfing a lot more and training. I'm feeling super fit at the moment.

"I'm aiming pretty high for the tour next year, but the ultimate goal is just to requalify, get into the top 22 and ensure that I'm safe for 2021.

"I'm not going to do any QS events that are too close to the CTs. I'm just going to make sure I'm ready for the task at hand with all the CTs.

"I'm going to do the ones close to home, Newcastle and Manly, just before the CTs, then cruise and get ready for the rest of the year, then see how I'm going. If I'm doing really well, then I'll just stay on the tour."

Cibilic's parents moved back to Angourie on the NSW north coast last year and he plans to stay there while settling into life on the CT.

He hopes his early graduation to the 11-stop dream tour is just the start after delaying university studies last year to have a crack at a surfing career.

"I don't really know what I wanted to do, because it's a pretty big call to decide what to do for the rest of your life," he said of uni courses.

"I was thinking about something like biomedical science, but hopefully I don't have to think about that. I'd rather just stay on the tour."

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