Best of West

Things couldn’t have gone any better for Canyon Lake’s Kendra Nathan, 17, as she swept all three water skiing events this past weekend in the western regionals in Colorado.

Kendra, who competed in the juniors Girls 5 category, won the overall title by winning all three of the Trick, Slalom and Jump events. The USA Water Ski and Wake Sports 2021 Western Regional Championships at Laku Landing Lake in Windsor, Colorado brought together the best in the west during the competition Thursday through Sunday.

Kendra scored 96.50 in the Slalom, 95 in the Jump and 3,630 in the Trick.

Photos by John Waite

Kendra’s scores from earlier in the year were slightly better than what she skied in Colorado. Her 2021 best scores are 98.00 in the Slalom, which is the fourth best score in the nation so far this year in her Girls 5 Division, 97.0 in the Jump, which is the eighth best in the country and 3,955 in the Trick, which ranks her as the sixth best Trick skier in the country. Kendra’s overall best 2021 score of 2,890.3 is the fifth best in the country in her division.

It is now on to the Nationals in the Chicago area where she will compete against the best in the country. The 79th Goode Water Ski National Championships will be held Aug. 8 through Aug. 14 at Waters Edge Estates in Wilmington, Illinois.

Kendra said she will be spending the next five weeks either in competition or training with her coach, which means she will miss the first couple of weeks of school next month. To keep up on her studies during the competition season, she works in independent study and isn’t docked for the absences.

Kendra is an honor student and said she is very serious about her education and plans to attend college. She is looking at schools that will not only be best for her education, but also for her skiing competition.

She currently attends Vista Murrieta High School and is quite busy, not only academically, but in extracurricular activities as well. She is involved in ASB, which she said keeps her connected to her school and allows her to be included in different activities since she doesn’t participate in school sports. She was president of her freshman class.

Kendra currently has a Grade Point Average of 4.42 and is 14th in her class of 890 students. Keeping up with her classes means a lot of homework, especially since she is taking college-level AP classes. But, skiing is important to her and she skis for at least an hour and a half every day after school during the school year.

Kendra said she skis three to four hours everyday when she’s preparing for competitions. During those training times, she said she practices for each of the three events in which she competes, only taking a short break in between the disciplines.

Erin Waite, Kendra’s mother, said that even though Kendra and the other skiers live busy lives while competing and practicing, there is an effort by the parents and coaches to give them a normal teenage life outside the sport. They participate in a variety of activities, she said, other than skiing. They attend concerts, go river rafting and hang out with friends while they are away from their hometowns.

“Kendra is a social person, but keeps a close knit relationship with her friends at school,” Erin said. “She also has a great group of water ski friends from all over the country. Kendra is very driven and dedicated and loves the competition. She consistently works out in her home gym and eats healthy.”

Kendra plans to compete into adulthood, even when she has a family of her own, she said. Until then, she will continue to compete in junior events beginning with the Nationals in August and then onto the IWWF World U17 & U21 Waterski Championship at Santa Rosa Beach in Florida the end of August. From there, she will compete to be on the US National team and, if she makes it, will travel around the world for competitions.