16-year-old Canyon Laker named to national team

Kendra Nathan

Kendra Nathan, 16, was named to the elite 2021 American Water Ski Association’s National Junior Water Ski Team on Tuesday. The Canyon Lake youth is fresh off a nation-leading competition in 2020 where she won the Girls 4 national overall title at the 2020 GOODE Water Ski National Championships in Zachary, La.

Kendra is going to have an incredibly busy summer this year.

“Many of the prestige events were cancelled last year due to COVID-19, and some of them are only held every two years,” her father Tom Nathan said. “Most have rescheduled them for 2021, and that means we have both regularly-scheduled 2021 events plus the postponed events from 2020.”

After a couple of major events in May and June, Kendra will be skiing in championship competitions almost every week from July 22 through all of August. She wraps up the year with the IWWF Pan American Championships in Chapala, Mexico in November.

Kendra Nathan competes in the slalom, one of the three events at championship competition.

Kendra’s complete summer schedule is: May 28-30 – Junior Masters, Callaway Gardens, GA; June 26-27 – Junior U.S. Open, Martindale, TX; July 22-25 – Western Regional Championships, Windsor, CO; August 8-14 – USA Water Ski National Championships, Wilmington, IL; August 22-25 – IWWF Junior World Championships, Santa Rosa Beach, FL; August 28-29 – Can-Am Challenge, Harmony, NC and November 4-6 – IWWF Pan American Championships, Chapala, Mexico.

The 27-member 2021 American Water Ski Association’s National Junior Water Ski Team is made up of the best youth skiers in the nation. It is made up of boys and girls ranging in age from under 11 to age 17. Selection to the team was based on performances during the 2020 tournament season.

Trick, slalom and jump events are part of junior ski competition. Here, Kendra Nathan dons a helmet and competes in the jump event.

Kendra was earlier awarded the Linda Giddens Girls 4 Scholarship sponsored by Jody Johnson in the amount of $1,000. She is currently an honor student at Vista Murrieta High School where she is in her junior year. She also won a scholarship in 2018 for being the National Overall Champion in the Girls 2 division.