ENCINITAS — Jett Maughan, a 17-year-old senior at San Dieguito Academy, won the boys under-18 title at the 2026 ISA World Junior Surfing Championship in El Salvador, helping the United States earn silver in the team competition.
Competing in his first world junior championship, Maughan held off two Australian surfers in the final to claim gold after delivering some of the event’s highest scores, according to USA Surfing.
His run included a 9.00-point semifinal ride for a backhand air reverse.
Maughan was one of nine surfers on the 12-member U.S. team making their world junior championship debuts and one of four surfers from Encinitas on Team USA. The victory gave him his first world junior title.
Fellow Encinitas surfer Dane Libby, 18, competed in the boys under-18 division, while Maddie Stanton, 18, and Victoria Duprat, 17, competed in the girls under-18 division. All four grew up honing their skills at Seaside Reef in Cardiff-by-the-Sea.
The nine-day competition at La Bocana and El Sunzal drew 420 surfers from 56 national teams. Australia won the team title, followed by the United States, Brazil and Peru. Six American surfers finished in the top 10 of their respective divisions.
Maughan arrived with experience competing in Hawaii, Mexico, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Australia. In an interview with The Coast News before the championship, he credited Encinitas’ competitive surfing community with pushing him to improve.
“There’s always someone in the water that is better than you,” he said. “So you always have someone to compare yourself with.”
Libby similarly pointed to the influence of local surfers Jake Marshall and Levi Slawson, the past two men’s U.S. Open champions.
“Watching them grow up and always looking up to them and seeing them do well and also getting to know them has been a huge part of it,” Libby said before the event. “Just having a pretty close surf community in Encinitas.”
Stanton and Duprat first met during family vacations in Nicaragua, where they discovered they both lived in Encinitas and shared a passion for surfing. Stanton said growing up alongside other local surfers and watching their careers progress meant a lot.
“All the girls we used to look up to like Alyssa Spencer and Ella McCaffray are now competing in the big leagues,” Stanton said.
Duprat said those hometown connections also helped prepare the surfers to compete as teammates.
“I think having a community based around surfing and having everyone who surfs around us really taught us how to work as a group,” she said.
Before competition began, team captains Stanton and Libby represented the United States in the ISA Sands of the World ceremony, bringing sand from Lower Trestles.
The four Encinitas athletes were among five North County surfers on the U.S. roster. Carlsbad’s Bryce Seshun competed in the boys under-16 division.
San Diego’s Zoë Panettiere, 15, added a silver medal in the girls under-16 division, also in her World Junior Surfing Championship debut. The 2024 USA Surfing champion reached the final at La Bocana.
U.S. head coach Ryan Simmons said preparation initially centered on selecting equipment suited to the waves at the two competition sites. Once the team arrived, the emphasis shifted to mutual support and helping athletes feel a sense of belonging.
Duprat described equipment preparation before the championship, saying she had called Simmons for advice on which boards to bring because of his familiarity with El Salvador’s waves. Libby credited Simmons with helping him understand how judges score, while Stanton pointed to competitive practice heats that helped the surfers refine their approaches.
“The team surfed free and loose and reveled in the epic conditions of El Salvador,” Simmons said in a release. “We brought air game, rail game and intense heat savvy. I couldn’t be more proud of the effort from start to finish.”
For Maughan, the championship could offer another opportunity: According to USA Surfing, he will be eligible to return next year to defend his boys under-18 title.
