Callinan was one of the stars of the opening day on Sunday, earning a 9.93 single wave score on the way to winning his heat. The goofy-footer was on point again on Monday with his powerful backhand hits on the imposing Main Break rights.

The world No.11 cruised past Queensland natural-footer Ethan Ewing 15 to 8.8 after a slow start in the overlapping 40-minute heat. Callinan found his rhythm in the second half of the contest, earning an 8.17 with two big vertical snaps before backing it up with a 6.83 with eight minutes remaining.

"It was pretty slow at the start," Callinan said. "I think there were probably some waves under [priority], but when I got my fire going and got my wave selection right .. I'm just enjoying surfing and I feel like if I can put a wave together, they are throwing big scores at me, so I'm stoked."

He said it was "really hard" to reset after his highlight performance on Sunday.

"I struggle a lot with that stuff," he said.

"There's just so much input and texts, it felt like I won the comp to be honest. You've got to take all that in but the job's not over. It's round one and I want to keep making heats and I want a really good result here, so you've got to bring yourself back to ground level and start again.

"It seems like I did it pretty well."

Rookie sensation Cibilic came through his first heat in a championship tour elimination round with victory over fellow Australians Connor O'Leary and Jack Freestone but then bowed out narrowly in a thrilling battle with Hawaiian Seth Moniz.

Cibilic, ranked sixth in the world after his opening three events on tour, was last in his seeding round heat on Sunday to put him in the second, elimination round on Monday on another day of pumping waves at the West Australian break.

He opened with a 6.67 score seven minutes into the heat from two wrapping carves and a finishing move. He then found a gem with under 12 minutes to go and pulled off two big turns to earn an 8.07 and take top spot on 14.74. O'Leary took second place with an 8.93 with five minutes left for a 14.43 total. Freestone exited with 11.16.

Cibilic was then on the back foot for most of his 15.03 to 14.84 loss to fellow natural-footer Moniz. A tube ride with 10 minutes to go helped him gain an 8.27 but Moniz immediately dropped an 8.33 to leave Cibilic still needing a 6.77.

He reeled off two turns on a short ride with three minutes remaining to earn a 6.57 and just miss the target.

"It was definitely nerve-racking," Cibilic said after the elimination round win.

"Yesterday stung a little. It was pretty tricky out there and I definitely had some shitty positioning but you've got to learn from your mistakes and get some new line-ups and that's what I did then, so I'm psyched."