Having surfed obsessively while growing up in Mahia, an hour south of Gisborne, Christie walked away from the sport in 2011, struggling for funding and motivation.
"I've pretty much been doing it since I was 15 so it gets a little bit tiresome, especially when things aren't quite going the way you want them to go," he told Newstalk ZB.
"Sometimes you just need a little break from something and that's what I had."
But that break served as a wake-up call and, with the help of friends, family and crowd-sourced funding, Christie made his way back to the qualification tour.
"I got a few months under my belt working with a hammer and it kind of woke me up," he said.
"I realised that [surfing] was my passion and why would I walk away from it when there's nothing else I'd rather do? So I just buckled down and spent a couple of years on it to get in the position I'm in now."
Relying on the assistance of others has provided Christie with something of a responsibility to repay the faith shown in him, which he thought helped spur him on to four top-10 finishes this year.
"The support and stuff I got from crowd-funding, just all the messages I got from around New Zealand and around the world, they made me believe in myself that little bit more. I felt like I wasn't just doing it for me - I felt that push behind me."
But now Christie will be left treading water as he waits to see if he can be the first Kiwi man since Maz Quinn in 2002 to take his place among the sport's elite.
"It would just be a dream come true," he said. "Ever since I started surfing, I've dreamed about surfing with the best guys, Kelly Slater and Mick Fanning.
"It would also prove that anyone can do it. I'm from a pretty small town and a lot of people probably didn't really believe in me when I was young, when I was out there all day. So hopefully I can inspire some kids - that would be pretty cool."
