On Tuesday, Oct. 6, our surf team earned a substantial win against their rival, San Clemente, at Thalia Beach. This was a feat they hadn’t accomplished in 20 years.

“It feels really good because I think they weren’t expecting to lose,” said Dante Madrigal, who took 2nd in boys longboard.

However, the Breaker win didn’t come without sacrifices from the athletes. Starting Aug. 2, students part of surf team have practiced Tuesday and Thursday mornings at 6:30 a.m. with at least one contest per week in the morning as well. Outside of the surf team, many of the athletes also compete in the WSA and NSSA on the weekends while surfing after school throughout the week.

“Several of them travel to surf different surf spots, which improves their ability at different surf spots and in different conditions,” said surf coach Scott Finn.

Having the meet versus San Clemente at their home break gave our team an edge over San Clemente.

“It definitely improved our performance because we know how the wave breaks better than anyone,” said Madrigal.

Laguna Beach ended up beating San Clemente 88-77. Girls shortboard was dominated by Laguna, with Kayla Coscino taking first, Kolohe Danbara taking second and Destiny Thompson taking third.

Coscino also dominated girls longboard, where she took first again, with Grace Wellsfry in second and Anika Pitz in fourth.

On the boys side, shortboard was won by Noah North and Kiko Nelson.  Sam Nelson and Jeremy Shutts took second, and Jake Levine and Liam McCue came in third. Trey Lockhart surfed well but unfortunately incurred an interference and took fourth.

“The conditions were really challenging, but luckily our team knew what to do,” said Lockhart.

In longboard, Jameson Roller took first, with Dante Madrigal in second and Wes Eagleton in third.

“It always feels good to see your team achieve something great like this,” said Roller.

In boys bodyboard, Todd Vought finished fourth, closely followed by Spencer Davis and Hunter Johnson.

“We beat San Clemente for the first time ever. They thought they were going to beat us, but we totally wrecked them,” said Liam McCue.