Twelve-year-old Gisborne boy aiming for PB at North Island speedcubing championship

Speedcuber Santino Camero can solve the Rubik's Cube in 24 seconds and is looking to better that time at the North Island champs next month. Photo / Paul Rickard

Speedcubing is the activity of solving a Rubik’s Cube as quickly as possible and 12-year-old Gisborne boy Santino Camero has got it down to a fine art.

Last year he attended the speedcubing nationals in Wellington, where he averaged 24 seconds. Next month he will attend his second competition, the North Island Championship in Taupō, and is determined to beat that time.

Santino was introduced to speedcubing at age 10 by a school friend who showed him how to solve the cube through various algorithms and patterns.

He spent the next two years learning and memorising the algorithms and watching YouTube tutorials by speedcube sensation Max Park.

American Park - a Guinness World Records Hall of Famer - holds nearly all speedcube world records including the 3x3x3 record - an incredible 3.134 seconds, which was described as “the Holy Grail of records” in the sport.

There are various ways to solve the cube and it takes a lot of practice and excellent hand-eye coordination.

Watching Santino manipulate the cube with such speed and dexterity is a sight to behold.

Having memorised the patterns, he can even solve the cube without looking.

Santino says as he becomes more advanced he will start to cut out steps to go faster. But at the moment he is simply trying to break down each step and improve his time at each stage.

Santino has other interests and pursuits outside the cube.

He is passionate about football and plays in the Super League and for a Campion College team.

He also does taekwondo and hip-hop at Dancefit Studios.

His parents encourage him in all of his pursuits and have already booked tickets for the family to attend the Speedcubing New Zealand nationals in Christchurch in December.

The Rubik’s Cube was invented by Italian architect Erno Rubik, who originally devised it as a way of teaching spatial awareness to his students.

Speedcubing has been found to have many benefits such as improving spatial intelligence, memory, reducing stress and anxiety and improving problem-solving skills.

To find out more about speedcubing, contact Santino on santinogizzyspeedcuber01@gmail.com

Rubik’s Cube facts

The Rubik’s Cube was invented in 1974 by Hungarian professor and architect Erno Rubic and was originally called Buvos Kocka (Magic Cube).

Rubic originally created it to help his students at the Academy of Applied Arts and Crafts understand 3D objects and solve structural problems. He only realised he had created a puzzle when he scrambled the Cube and tried to fix it. It took Rubik himself a month to solve it.

The first Rubik’s Cube was made of wood. It became the colourful version of today in 1980 when Rubik made a deal with Ideal Toy Company.

Since its invention, over 450 million cubes have been sold. Monceyinc.com last year named in No. 6 on the best-selling toys of all time list topped by gaming.

The Rubik’s Cube has six sides made up of nine blocks. It has been calculated that a 3x3x3 cube has about 43 quintillion combinations. The cube can actually be solved in 20 moves or less.

The world record for solving a 3x3x3 rotating cube is 3.13 seconds set by 21-year-old American speedcuber Park in California last year. A 3-year-old from China once solved it in 114 seconds.

A Masterpiece Cube was created in 1995 for the 15th anniversary of the Cube. It consists of 18-karat gold and precious gems, including amethyst, emeralds and rubies, and is valued at US$1.5 million.