Ryan Callinan edged out late in opening round heat at Rio Pro

The Merewether goofy-footer, who sat 16^th on the Championship Tour live rankings, was due to face Japanese world No.15 Kanoa Igarashi in the elimination round after finishing second to Robinson.

The West Australian regular-footer won 12.87 to Callinan's 11.23 and Brazilian Samuel Pupo's 8.30 in the four to six-foot waves at the penultimate stop of the world tour before the top-five finalists are decided.

Callinan opened with a 5.83 from three smooth frontside turns before Robinson fired back with a heat-high 7.0 on his backhand.

The Novocastrian found a 5.4 soon after from a two-turn combination to lead on best two-wave totals. The Paris Olympics-bound Robinson struggled to find a back-up score, missing the mark five times. He needed a 4.24 to beat Callinan and progress straight to the last 16.

He finally found the score on a wave with less than four minutes remaining, pulling off a tail-slide turn then a snap finish for a 5.87. That score dropped with a minute and a half left, leaving Callinan chasing a 7.04 to regain the lead.

"It's super good energy here," said Robinson, whose wife and coach are from Brazil.

"Everyone's super excited, and it feels like another home when I come here, you know, I have everybody that I travel with all year. So yeah, I love it."

World No.4 Ethan Ewing, Robinson's Paris Olympics teammate, also progressed straight to the round of 16 with a 12.87 total and victory in round one.

In the women's event, Newcastle-based two-time world champion Tyler Wright was a withdrawal because of a foot injury.

Central Coast star Molly Picklum, the world No.4, bounced back from an opening round loss to beat Bettylou Sakura Johnson 12.23 to 6.9 and book a match-up with another Hawaiian, world No.6 Gabriela Bryan, in the quarter-finals.

Bryan downed Frenchwoman Johanne Defay 10.84 to 4.06 in the elimination round and will leapfrog her into fifth spot with a victory over Picklum.