The La Jolla Country Day (LJCD) School surf and bodyboarding team has been rising to the top this season, turning in some great performances in the waves. A recent competition not only produced a strong team effort but a great individual effort from La Jolla resident and LJCD freshman Stefan Raghavan, who won first place in the bodyboard competition on his birthday. LJCD competed against undefeated Clairemont at La Jolla Shores recently in its third meet of the year, when Raghavan turned in his stellar performance. Raghavan had been honing his El Rollo (a flip trick) and 360s for several months and finished second in the opening-day heat to advance to the next day’s final round of individual competition. He finished third in his first heat Sunday behind a boarder who was doing drop-knee 360s (involving partially standing on the bodyboard), a trick Raghavan had barely practiced and never attempted in competition. In the next heat, in addition to his usual maneuvers, Raghavan threw in a drop-knee and finished second, placing him in the finals for the second time in three competitions. This accomplishment was made sweeter since it also was his birthday. The finals heat was held at the south break, a break that trended left — not Raghavan’s favorite. Not being denied, Raghavan executed a drop-knee 360 and amazed all onlookers by landing three El Rollos on a single left-breaking wave to capture first place. Raghavan’s teammates also played key roles in leading LJCD to great showings over the two days of competition, as Christoph von Reuxleben and Nick Augustine, surfing long lefts, earned second and third in their heats, followed by 360 maneuvers from Hunter Hartman, to earn first in his heat. (Heats feature six surfers for boys, four for girls.) Alternate Sam Brink showed up knowing he’d probably not surf and stepped up to earn third in the same heat, with Chris Fry and Warren Wood holding up fifth place in the heats to give LJCD a slim lead. While LJCD’s young longboard, women’s and bodyboard contingents kept things close, Clairemont won the day. Six LJCD surfers advanced to individual competition the next day in Augustine, Hartman, von Reuxleben, Brink, Tara Roudi and Raghavan. According to Raghavan, the second day of competition (his birthday) offered waves that were a complete mess. “I was focusing on the 360 and El Rollo combos,” Raghavan said. “In the finals I had a perfect wave and went left, and I got pretty motivated and saw that the wave didn’t break and went for a second El Rollo, and then it still didn’t break so I went for it again. I thought it was pretty cool that I did three El Rollos, but I didn’t think I would win first place because I had been beaten, so I thought, based on the ranking in the heats, that the other guys might be better. And as for the drop knee, I saw that the judges gave the drop-knee specialist high marks, so I figured I would try it. I had never done a drop-knee 360 before until I tried it and landed it in the finals. I was happy and sort of amazed that I did it, even more than doing the three El Rollos.” Surfing is not exactly something that Raghavan has grown up on, having started bodyboarding, going to the beach and practicing just this past summer. “I got into it because I have a friend who is older than me, a junior from Cathedral Catholic, Chris Langford, who has bodyboarded his whole life, and I started with him and got excited about it,” Raghavan remarked. “I got obsessed with it. My friend showed me a lot. But he is really a drop-knee specialist and he doesn’t do other tricks. Then I started watching videos on Youtube of professionals, and that really inspired me to do more tricks. If there is swell, I bodyboard almost every weekend and go to surf practice with Country Day Tuesday and Thursday.” Raghavan noted that in practice he keeps trying to learn new tricks and attempts them out in the water. “That is my goal, and I’d like to keep doing well in the competitions,” Raghavan added. “I would like to get a sponsor at some point.” Raghavan is just one of a talented number of surfers on the LJDC team that is coached by Chris Sexton. According to Sexton, the team has evolved a lot in recent years and until this year was really carried by the leadership of one remarkable shortboarder, Justin Pierson, who graduated last year and now attends Chapman University. He finished last year’s season as the number one shortboarder in ISF Division 3 and 4. “It is amazing to me that this year we have a ninth-grader, Stefan Raghavan, ranked number one in bodyboarding, continuing a legacy of sorts. Of course, we still have two competitions yet to go,” Sexton said. Sexton noted that in past years, the surf team was really quite recreational in nature. Even last year, although Pierson was very competitive, as a team the Torreys never saw themselves as particularly competitive, and in fact the team hadn’t won any meets in some years. “This year we saw leadership and excitement from returning students, enthusiasm among freshmen and courage from some female surfers just starting out in the sport but willing to put themselves into competition,” Sexton said. “We’ve got 17 students on the team, including four girls, one of whom, Cristina Planas, is an international student from Spain; another, Tara Roudi, who just started surfing this year and finished first in her first competitive shortboard heat. “One of our male shortboarders, Hunter Hartman, is starting to throw 360-degree maneuvers in competition and is ranked seventh in Division 3 and 4. We’ve got some great team leaders in seniors Chistoph von Reuxleben and Ben Cohn, and we also have impressive parent involvement and support, which has led to a planned surf trip over spring break.” Sexton added that all the students made a serious commitment to practices and competitions this year, and as a result the team has done well, winning at the Army-Navy Beach meet in November and posting a respectable score at the January La Jolla Shores meet against a truly competitive team, Clairemont, which has the top shortboarder in Division 3 and 4. Sexton said that as a coach, it is great to see students pursuing an athletic, artistic and playful activity that they really love doing. “I have no doubt that these students will carry this passion for surfing with them for the rest of their lives,” Sexton commented. “I am so proud of the team this year. I hope we can win at least one more meet, and while I don’t know that we are there yet, it would be an honor to compete in the championships this year or next year. More importantly, I want to see the energy and cohesion of this team continue.” Sexton has also been impressed with Raghavan’s development as only a freshman, noting, “Stefan is a great student — he gets As in my Honors Geometry class — but it is nice to see him accomplishing things in bodyboarding, which he is so obviously passionate about.” At the awards ceremony following the recent competition, Sexton and the team were there awaiting the results and couldn’t have been happier. “Stefan was there as they were announcing the medalists, and when they counted down to second and still hadn’t said his name, I saw this surprise on his face, and we all cheered and screamed ‘happy birthday,’” Sexton said. “It was incredible, an unforgettable 15th birthday for sure.”