Ryan Callinan would obviously love to be the first Novocastrian to take out the Surfest men's crown next week, but the Merewether goofy-footer has his sights set on far bigger targets this year.
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Callinan fell short of lofty goals, of a top-10 finish in the world championship and Olympic Games selection, last year in his return to the championship tour.
But only just.
The 27-year-old finished equal 14th in the world and joint third among Australians in the race for the nation's two male spots at the Tokyo Games.
His position in the top 22, and place on tour for 2020, though, was all but assured after an impressive start to the season.
A semi-final appearance at Bells Beach and quarter-finals at Margaret River took him as high as seventh in the rankings.
Another quarter-final in France had him in 11th and within reach of his targets heading into the last two events of 11 on tour.
However, at Portugal he had his only elimination-round exit of the year, before he bowed out in the round of 32 at the Pipe Masters.
Callinan, though, proved he belonged on tour after two years away, in which he dealt with the loss of his parents, Garry and Janice.
"Obviously at the time, you always want to do better than you do," Callinan said of last year on tour.
"But I think for me just to requalify, and it was such a big year after the few years I'd had, I just gave myself a pat on the back.
"It was just good to be back there and good to show everyone that I can compete and be up there with the best, and hopefully it keeps going up.
"Obviously there were always going to be challenges along the way and one of them for me was finding it hard to keep up the intensity maybe the whole year
"It's a long year, it's full-on and it's draining. It's definitely a beautiful job and I love doing it but it takes it out of you.
"I think by the end of the year I was definitely a bit exhausted, but I was happy to get some results and lock it in for the next year."
Refreshed and ready to go again, Callinan is eyeing a maiden win on the CT this year. The closest he has come was in 2018 when going down as an injury replacement wildcard in a thrilling final against friend and adopted Novocastrian Julian Wilson in France.
"I guess it's the same as last year," he said of his goals.
"I'd love to say top 10, but I'd really like to push for top five.
"But I think my main goal this year is to win an event.
"If I can do that, then I'll be pushing up towards that top echelon and hopefully it will just give me the confidence to keep going through the year and get a few more wins."
Callinan surfed for Merewether Surfboard Club two weekends ago at the Australian Boardriders Battle final at Newcastle but he begins his individual competitive year on his home beach at Surfest in the 5000-point qualifying series event.
The No.2 seed behind Wilson, Callinan is part of a strong local contingent trying to end Newcastle's 35-year hoodoo in the men's contest.
Morgan Cibilic, a CT rookie this year and the No.6 seed, and Jackson Baker are other contenders.
But I think for me just to requalify, and it was such a big year after the few years I'd had, I just gave myself a pat on the back.
Callinan has been the closest to ending the drought in recent years, making the quarter-finals in 2016 and the last 16 in 2017.
Last year, Surfest was the only QS event he did outside of the season-ending triple crown in Hawaii and he plans to again focus on the CT.
"I'd love to not do the Challenger Series if I can," he said of expanded list of 10,000-point QS events.
"There's some great locations but I think I found when I did the QS and the CT, my attention was divided and I just like to focus on the one and try to do the best I can in that one, and hopefully I don't need to do the other."
