Petruso Graduates to a National Title

Anthony Petruso gave himself quite a graduation present from Malibu High Saturday--the National Scholastic Surfing Assn. men’s open national championship at Lower Trestles.

Petruso, a six-time NSSA conference champion and 2000 Western Explorers champion, won the title by catching high-scoring waves early and late in the 20-minute final. But he wasn’t sure he did enough to beat Joel Centeio of Kapolei, Hawaii.

“I thought I was a little short on my third wave, but I guess the judges thought I did enough to win it,” Petruso said.

Petruso and the other five finalists had to wait out a nearly 10-minute lull in the surf.

“I was kind of stressing out there,” he said. “There weren’t a lot of good sets out there.”

But Petruso took advantage of a big early set to score a 9.0. His last wave, another left, was scored 9.5 and it came with only two minutes left in the competition.

“There weren’t many waves out there,” he said. “Everyone had the same chance. I just kind of had the luck today.”

He hopes to take that luck with him around the world. Petruso has decided to put off college for a while.

“I want to see what’s out there for me surfing,” he said. “I’m planning to surf all over the world in the next year.”

Centeio, a two-time national champion, finished second. Micah Byrne of Huntington Beach, seeded No. 2 in California, finished fifth and John Robertson of San Clemente was sixth.

Travis Mellem, another San Clemente surfer, ran away with the open juniors division, scoring 26 on three tremendous waves. Mellem, the 2000 Southwest Explorers boys’ champion, scored a 10 on his first wave and a 9.87 on his third wave.

“I was just slicing through the water out there,” said Mellem, who will be a sophomore at San Clemente High this fall. “My first wave was pretty good. Everything just started clicking from there. That’s the best I’ve ever surfed in my life.”

Top-seeded Kristen Quizon of Waianae, Hawaii, won the women’s open. Melanie Bartels of Waianae was second and Holly Beck of San Diego was third.