Joe Surf: Cendro is NSSA surfer/scholar of the year
You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to surf, but if you did, Samantha Cendro could handle it.
The National Scholastic Surfing Assn. (NSSA) just named Cendro its surfer/scholar of the year, and I’d be shocked if anyone other than Cendro got a single vote.
Cendro, 18, just graduated from Huntington Beach High School with a 4.51 grade-point average, but that doesn’t even begin to tell her story.
Cendro was the girls’ MVP of the Huntington Beach High School surf team, and placed third in the shortboard division a couple of weeks ago in the NSSA National Interscholastic Championships at Salt Creek in Dana Point, helping HBHS win its first national surfing championship in 18 years.
Not bad for a girl who just decided one day while she was in fifth grade that she wanted to try surfing.
“Growing up I played a bunch of different sports but as soon as I found surfing I stopped everything else,” Cendro said. “In fifth grade I knew that Dwyer [Middle School] had a surf club. I’ve always wanted to surf, I loved going to the beach and Boogie-boarding but my parents didn’t surf and no one I knew surfed. So I figured if I joined the surf club and practiced twice a week in the mornings I’d eventually pick it up.”
With the help of Dwyer surf coach Stacy Wood and coach Bill Sharp at HB Surf School, Cendro did more than pick it up. And following the early years, HBHS coach Andy Verdone and assistant Brett Barnes took it from there.
“I’ve always loved being in the ocean,” Cendro said. “When I’m up on a wave, I just like gaining speed and going down the line, that’s my favorite part about it. But it’s also nice because I’m competitive and I loved sports growing up, and still do.
“Surfing allowed me to be competitive and at the same time be relaxed. After a long day at school, I could just be in the water and have fun with my friends and forget about all of it. It was a nice balance between the two.”
Long days at school are only beginning for Cendro, who will attend USC this fall with a double-major: Astronautical Engineering and Physics.
Yeah, I know.
“Growing up, school’s always been my No. 1 priority, and that comes from my parents [Wendy and Sam], they’ve always put it first,” Cendro said. “I’ve always loved being in school. In middle school and into high school I was able to find my areas of interest, which ended up being in science and math.”
Science and math, OK. But Astronautical Engineering and Physics?
“Starting out in high school I really like the biological sciences and was involved in some different marine projects at school,” Cendro said. “But as soon as I took my first physics class my junior year, I fell in love with it, it was so much fun. I really like how there’s an equation for everything. How everything works in the world, there’s a reason why. I liked figuring out the math behind it. It was applied math, so it made math make more sense, and more tangible.
“And my senior year I was able to take an engineering class and apply it to the physics that I learned and actually make stuff. I researched the different majors at USC and different colleges and the different types of engineering. Space has always interested me so it just seemed like a perfect fit.”
And in her spare time, would you believe quantum mechanics?
“I’ve always liked the theoretical side of physics, proving things, and quantum mechanics,” she said. “I would teach myself quantum mechanics outside my physics class just because I found it really interesting.”
Cendro plans to compete with USC’s surf team when she can find the time. And if there is no time, maybe she can invent a time machine or something.
But for now, it’s school and surf, surf and school. This summer she’ll spend time with her mom and dad and sisters Stephanie and Sophia, she’ll help coach at HB Surf School with Sharp and serve an internship at Trace, a surf and snow technology company that measures a rider’s statistics.
Cendro has a lot going on, but she hasn’t ignored life beyond college. Her goal is to work as an engineer at SpaceX, a private company that is exploring the future of space travel.
“What they’re doing now is so revolutionary,” Cendro said. “I’d love to be a part of a company that’s trying to make space travel more affordable and more common. They’re doing some amazing things there.
“SpaceX is a private version of NASA, and they’re actually partnered with NASA to send gear up to the international space station, so they work closely with them. But they’re also trying to send humans to Mars by 2018 and work on colonizing that planet.”
My money is on Cendro to be the first to surf on Mars.
NSSA NATIONALS, CON’T…
As mentioned in this column last week, HBHS won the national championship June 12 at the NSSA Interscholastic Championships in the varsity division. But the JV team did well also, finishing second in the nation, trailing only San Clemente High.
In the individual JV competition, Huntington had several national place-winners, including Ethan Hurst (third) and Sage Guinaldo (sixth) in boys’ shortboard, Kristina Hehl (first) and Kayla Little (fifth) in girls’ shortboard, and Max Seiersen (second) in longboard. Nash Mader of Newport Harbor placed fifth in longboard.
In the middle school division, Dwyer placed fifth in the nation and Sowers took sixth.
On the individual side, Sowers’ Summer Balentine (fifth) and Lani Morales (sixth) placed in the girls’ shortboard division.
KEEPING UP WITH KANOA
Huntington’s Kanoa Igarashi lost his Round 3 matchup with Tahiti’s Michael Bourez last week in the World Surf League’s Fiji Pro, the fifth contest of the season on the World Championship Tour.
Igarashi’s equal-13th place finish put him in a tie for 20th place in the world rankings.
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JOE HAAKENSON is a Huntington Beach-based sports writer and editor. He may be reached at joe@juvecreative.com.