Ryan Callinan carves out much-needed heat win at Sydney Surf Pro

The Merewether goofy-footer and clubmate Morgan Cibilic opened with victories at the second stop on the Challenger Series (CS), where they are pushing for a return to the Championship Tour (CT) next year after missing the mid-season cut.

While Cibilic made a strong CS start at the Gold Coast Pro, making the round of 16, Callinan's disrupted 2022 continued with a opening-round loss. The 29-year-old missed the first event on the CT because of a broken wrist and he has been playing catch-up ever since.

On Thursday, in small but consistent waves, Callinan stayed busy in his four-man, 30-minute heat, riding nine waves and showing his forehand power.

He opened with scores of 6.0 and 5.6 from a series of front-side slashes to lead Cam Richards, Mihimana Braye and Eli Hanneman. He dropped to third then improved his position with a 6.0 as the lead changed between himself, Braye and Richards inside the last 10 minutes.

Callinan stamped his authority on the contest with a heat-high 7.67 to lead inside the final six minutes. His 13.67 total edged out Braye (12.53), while Richards (11.7) and Hanneman (8.13) exited.

He hoped the win was a sign of better things to come.

"There hasn't been many heat wins," Callinan said.

"I've just been trying to find a rhythm through it all and everything, and just get some heats under the belt to be honest, so it's really nice to put a heat on the board, even though it was kind of back and forth, scores came in, and flip flops, but just to get some waves.

"I feel like I've been surfing really well all year but just a couple haven't gone my way and I've made some stupid mistakes, but I feel like I'm surfing good and just once it clicks it should be all good so hopefully this is the start."

Natural-footer Cibilic opened with a 5.5 and a 4.17 to sit second near halfway in his heat before a 7.67 put him in first. His 13.17 was enough to hold out Te Kehukehu Butler (13.03), Marco Fernandez (10.70) after Marco Giorgi (5.67) was hit with an early interference penalty.

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