Merewether surfers Jackson Baker and Ryan Callinan into round of 16 at Bells Beach: 2023

After two lay days, the World Surf League Championship Tour contest was back in action.

Both Baker and Callinan had won their opening round heats on Thursday and backed up the performances with another strong showing as they look to make the top-22 before the mid-season cut after the next event in Margaret River.

Baker went into the iconic Victorian surfing contest ranked 27^th with Callinan 13^th.

The former posted a two-wave heat score of 13.67 points from a possible 20 to defeat Italy's Leonardo Fioravanti (11.16) and line up a round-of-16 showdown with Brazilian Yago Dora.

The 26-year-old natural-footer opened the heat with a 6.17-point ride then clinched the win with a 7.50-point effort on his second-last wave.

"It's tricky Bells out there, it's really hard," Baker said after the win.

"But Owen [Wright] gave me a good little bit of advice before the heat. He said you can tell what the good ones are. There's a lot of bad ones. So when the good ones come they are that little bit cleaner.

"I started with that 6.17 and felt like I built through that heat and feel like I'm building through the contest, so I'm feeling really confident."

Callinan (14.37) beat Hawaiian Ian Gentil (12.60) to reach the round of 16 for the third time this year. The 29-year-old goofy-footer next faces Frenchman Maxime Huscenot.

Fellow Merewether surfer Morgan Cibilic, who earned a wildcard into the Bells Beach event as an injury replacement, made a round-of-32 exit on Sunday.

Cibilic, who is preparing for next month's start to the second-tier Challenger Series, posted 8.43 points to Brazil's Felipe Toledo's winning 9.27.

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