The world No.15 beat Zack McMahon 14.46 to 8.37 to win Merewether Surfboard Club's man-on-man contest, which also featured Championship Tour rookie of the year Morgan Cibilic. Callinan lost last year's final to Cibilic, who went on to finish world No.5.

"I was kind of hoping for the grudge match with Morgs," Callinan said with a laugh.

"He got me last year so it would have been nice to verse him in the final, but it is what it is. Those guys were surfing good but it's just how it rolls on the day. There were some surprising results but I think that just shows the level of surfing that was happening."

Cibilic bowed out in the quarter-finals to two-time Surfest Pro Junior champion Jake Sylvester 13.83-13.43.

McMahon, in his first Ray Richards Memorial, then downed Sylvester 14-12.17 to make the final against Callinan, who beat Mikey Clayton-Brown 15.83-12.53 to qualify.

After a challenging year on tour with hotel quarantines and a changing schedule, Callinan enjoyed the victory.

"It's always a fun day and it's nice to win, but it's not as high-pressure as a tour event," he said. "It's a bit more relaxed, but it's a really good warm-up, even for me. The competition was tough and it was just nice to put the rashie back on. And there was some stuff I've been trying to work on for even CT heats, so just to have the opportunity to give it a whirl in something that was a bit less pressured situation was good and it was really fun."