{"id":247041,"date":"2026-04-01T18:07:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T18:07:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/247041\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T18:07:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T18:07:12","slug":"encinitas-surfer-titus-santucci-chases-his-dreams-on-college-surfing-scholarship-san-diego-union-tribune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/247041\/","title":{"rendered":"Encinitas surfer Titus Santucci chases his dreams on college surfing scholarship \u2013 San Diego Union-Tribune"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Encinitas surfer Titus Santucci is building something of a personal brand as he pursues his dream of reaching the highest levels of competitive surfing.<\/p>\n<p>Over the past year, the 20-year-old Filipino-American surfer was featured in an episode of the Netflix docuseries \u201c1 in 7,641\u201d, which explores Filipino culture and heritage\u2014the 7,641 in the doc\u2019s title refers to the number of islands in the Philippines archipelago. He was also selected to be a part of the iconic Got Milk? campaign\u2014Santucci was featured in California Milk Processor Board billboards across the state, including a huge digital screen in Hollywood where he towered over Sunset Boulevard with a surfboard, head tossed back laughing with a glass of milk and the signature milk mustache.<\/p>\n<p>Currently, Santucci attends Irvine\u2019s Westcliff University on a full-ride surf scholarship as he chips away in contests on the World Surf League Qualifying Series, working toward his goal of making it onto the Challenger Series and eventually the Championship Tour.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s hard, it\u2019s a big step up from the junior tour but it\u2019s a really good time,\u201d said Santucci. \u201cIt\u2019s kind of what we\u2019ve all been dreaming of doing since we were groms.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Santucci knows he is fortunate to have had some unbelievable experiences, all because of surfing.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" lazyautosizes lazyload\" alt=\"Titus Santucci surfs the wave at Siargo, Philippines. (Kyle Jennermann)\" width=\"6301\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/ENA-L-TITUSSURFER-03.jpg\" data-attachment-id=\"9657818\" \/>Titus Santucci surfs the wave at Siargo, Philippines. (Kyle Jennermann)<\/p>\n<p>In 2023, Santucci made history as the first Filipino American male to be named to the USA Junior National Surf Team\u2014he went on to win the silver medal in the International Surf Association World Junior Surfing Championships in Brazil. He took a gap year after graduating from San Dieguito Academy High School in 2024. As a senior, he helped the SDA surf team win the 2024 National Scholastic Surfing Association National Championship, ending a 17-year drought.<\/p>\n<p>After his junior surf career had ended, Westcliff reached out to him to offer a scholarship to surf for the college team\u2014Westcliff is the first school in the country to offer collegiate athletic scholarships for surfing. Santucci hadn\u2019t been sure that college would be a possibility for him, but he couldn\u2019t say no when he was scouted and offered the full ride, making his proud grandmother cry.<\/p>\n<p>He is now attending the online program to earn his degree in computer science, living in Encinitas and surfing Seaside and competing with the surf team in contests around the state throughout the college season. As the college is fully online, it gives him the freedom to travel and compete on the WSL Qualifying Series while still getting an education\u2014he was recently able to take a surf trip to El Salvador, chasing 15-foot waves.<\/p>\n<p>The opportunity to appear on Netflix seemed too good to be true at first: \u201cWe thought it was a scam\u201d. The executive producer found him via Instagram, looking for a Filipino-American surfer. His mother and manager (self-styled mom-a-ger) Irene Navarro is 100% Filipino and they were offering them an all-expense paid trip to the Philippines to shoot his episode, funded by the country\u2019s department of tourism.<\/p>\n<p>It was Santucci\u2019s first time traveling to the country and in the doc he describes feeling incredibly grateful and proud to be Filipino, trying out traditional foods like a banana leaf plate, experiencing the culture, meeting the local surf community, and learning the history from knowledgeable 62-year-old surfer Rodeo Novicio, the first ever Philippine surf champion.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" lazyautosizes lazyload\" alt=\"Encinitas surfer Titus Santucci is interviewed at the San Diego Filipino Film Festival. (Irene Navarro)\" width=\"5712\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/ENA-L-TITUSSURFER-02.jpg\" data-attachment-id=\"9657819\" \/>Encinitas surfer Titus Santucci is interviewed at the San Diego Filipino Film Festival. (Irene Navarro)<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe place was amazing,\u201d marveled Santucci of the country. \u201cMy favorite was Siargao, it reminded me of Bali and Indonesia.\u201d At the Cloud 9 surfing area, he said the waves were almost perfect, like they were being made by a machine.<\/p>\n<p>His episode was screened in a movie theater as part of the San Diego Filipino Film Festival.<\/p>\n<p>Last year, at the urging of his mom-a-ger, Santucci responded to a casting call for the Got Milk campaign, the 30th anniversary of the iconic ads, which sought to feature everyday Californians. For his video application, he talked about wanting to be a good role model for young surfers and kids in his hometown of Encinitas.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI had no idea it was going to be as big of a campaign as it was,\u201d said Santucci.<\/p>\n<p>After being selected and doing the photo shoot in Los Angeles, they revealed his poster outside of Dodger Stadium and he thought that was it. But then people started reaching out: \u201cDo you know you\u2019re on Sunset Boulevard?\u201d Friends and family spotted him all throughout California in 2025\u2014giant billboards in the Gaslamp, some in San Francisco, in Santa Monica: \u201cIt was a trip,\u201d laughed Santucci.<\/p>\n<p>His Got Milk poster reads: \u201cTitus, an Encinitas surfer of endless waves. Inspiring kids to surf higher and dream bigger. A spirit that shows how real freedom feels.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Competing on the\u00a0 WSL Qualifying Series can be expensive and it\u2019s essential for him to get sponsors to help pay for travel, food and surfboards. His main sponsor is Psycho Tuna, a clothing and lifestyle brand that praises his individuality and \u201crelentless drive\u201d. He\u2019s currently gearing up for the Vans Jack\u2019s Surfboards Pro event in Huntington Beach on April 22-26, the first event of the season.<\/p>\n<p>In the lead-up to the series, he\u2019s surfing twice a day, hitting up Seaside where he\u2019s been surfing since he was 14 years old and where he knows almost everyone in the lineup.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI mean it\u2019s definitely a dream, it\u2019s what I want to be doing,\u201d Santucci said. \u201cIt\u2019s so fun, I wouldn\u2019t want to do anything else.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Encinitas surfer Titus Santucci is building something of a personal brand as he pursues his dream of reaching&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":247042,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[4602,38338,74,76,75],"class_list":{"0":"post-247041","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-encinitas-advocate","9":"tag-encinitas-advocate-sports","10":"tag-san-diego","11":"tag-san-diego-headlines","12":"tag-san-diego-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247041","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=247041"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247041\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/247042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}