Callinan missed the Pipeline event in Hawaii last year after breaking his wrist free surfing before the season. He then fell off tour in the mid-season cut before dominating on the second-tier Challenger Series to regain his spot for this year.

After three lay days at Pipeline, the 30-year-old goofy-footer faced tricky conditions for his comeback as surfers waited for predicted swell increases to arrive.

Up against countryman Callum Robson and Brazilian Yago Dora, Callinan started with a throwaway score but then muscled his way through a small forehand barrel 10 minutes into his heat to get a 2.83 for a best two-wave tally of 3.6 and the lead.

At the halfway point, Callinan ducked into a quick backdoor tube for a 4.5 to build to 7.33, ahead of Robson (4.57) and Dora (1.3). He then improved again with a frontside barrel, earning a heat-high 5.07 (9.57 total).

Robson went to turns to get a 4.4 and move to 7.9 but that's the closest the challengers came. Dora (2.13) was relegated to the elimination round, where he won.

Callinan, who faces Brazil's Samuel Pupo in the next round, said wave selection was the key on Thursday.

"It's just exciting to be back here, especially after missing last year when the waves were so good," Callinan said.

"Obviously it's not quite as good today but just to be able to paddle out with three people in a heat and get the waves that I've seen every day since I came here and actually have the opportunity to catch them. You could get the wave of your life, so it's a really insane experience just paddling out there.

"For me, it's just looking for the right waves. Backsides on the right, obviously the crumble makes it extra hard, so just looking for the ones that were going to stay open and the ones that were big enough and had a shoulder that I thought I could make.

"There were a few I went that I definitely couldn't, but you've got to try. Wave selection was really high on my priority list today."

Baker was second in an earlier heat, just falling short of defending world champion Filipe Toledo, and next faces Robson.

The regular-footer led with a 3.0 from a big hack 10 minutes in after conditions forced a slow start to the heat. He led with a back-up score of 1.13 before Toledo took over with a heat-high 5.0 for a 6.0 total with six minutes to go.

Baker had a chance late to take top spot, but his third and final wave came back as a 2.93. Trials winner Josh Moniz was third (1.50) then eliminated in the next round.

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