For 11 days last August, David and Kaleb Zuidema left the family’s Midland Park, N.J., septic service and pipe inspection and repair business behind and took the vacation of a lifetime to the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.
The father and son weren’t motivated to make the trip by popular events like gymnastics or athletes like multiple medal-winning swimmer Michael Phelps. It was the javelin-throwing competition that motivated the pair to travel almost 7,000 miles.
“We’d been following the javelin Olympic trials and knew who had been in the last Olympics,” says David Zuidema III. “But honestly, it’s an event I wouldn’t be too interested in if not for my son’s involvement.”
COMPETITIVE THROWER
Kaleb, 16, was the only freshman in New Jersey to compete in the javelin throw at the state high school championships last year, and in 2007 he placed first for his age group in the javelin throw at the national Amateur Athletic Union Junior Olympics held in Nashville. At that event he threw the javelin 49.27 meters, or about 54 yards. He has yet to beat the record older brother Andrew set for the javelin throw at Midland Park High School, but it’s on his “to-do” list for the upcoming season.
Zuidema says the trip was partially a reward for his son doing so well in his competitions, but mainly it was a father/son-bonding trip.
Zuidema’s wife, Mary, did not accompany them on the trip to China.
“We’ve done a lot of traveling together,” he says. “But this was the longest time I was ever going to be gone, so she needed to hold down the fort.”
The “fort” is David Zuidema Inc., a company that traces its roots back to around 1920, and provides services including cesspool and septic tank cleaning, septic tank pumping, real estate inspection of septic tanks, jetting, video evaluation of underground pipes, sewage ejector pump repairs, baffle and tank replacements and portable restroom rentals.
The David Zuidema Inc. fleet includes 11 vacuum service trucks for the septic business and five service trucks dedicated to the portable restroom business. Zuidema is the third David at the helm.
David Zuidema Sr. founded the company, which today serves all of New Jersey and the southern boroughs of New York City. Through the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s, David Zuidema Jr. operated the company and in the ’80s, David III took over. David III’s two older sons David Timothy and Andrew also work in the business today. Kaleb helps out in the portable restroom business during the summer, and a fourth son, Seth, is 12 and may be on the payroll in a few years as well.
Preparations for the trip to the Olympics began more than two months before the Zuidemas’ flight to Beijing took off from Newark International Airport. When they arrived, they attended the javelin, decathlon and women’s high jump events. They avoided high-profile opening and closing ceremonies at the famed Bird’s Nest venue, partly because they were cost-prohibitive, and instead spent more time sight-seeing.
STUDYING TECHNIQUE
Javelin throwing is all about technique Zuidema says; and what better place to study technique than the Olympics, where the best throwers in the world are gathered.
“Athleticism is part of it, but technique is the bigger part,” he says. “The average person in the stands wasn’t observing how the thrower moved his arms and probably couldn’t tell the difference between the guy who came in first and the guy who came in last, but my son picked up some techniques that he brought back with him.”
Back home, Kaleb works with a trainer to improve his technique, and he does weight training to improve arm and abdominal strength, which are also crucial to becoming a successful javelin thrower. Track is not his only sport. He also competes in soccer and basketball.
“It’s like I have a second full-time job keeping up with his sporting events,” Zuidema says.
BEING TOURISTS
In addition to attending track and field events at the Olympics, Kaleb met the Canadian and Australian javelin throwers. The entire trip was not devoted to sports, however. The Zuidemas also went to the Great Wall in three separate locations; visited Tiananmen Square and took a rickshaw ride. They hired a private guide one day to show them around, which Zuidema says is very affordable in China. They also contacted a Chinese family acquainted with friends in the U.S. and spent a couple of days with them.
“I’d been to Japan, South Africa and a lot of Europe before, so I’m not intimidated by foreign travel,” Zuidema says. “Before we went people kept asking me about issues like smog and terrorists, but we didn’t have any problems at all. The people treated us really, really well.”
Those who thought Kaleb was an Olympic athlete treated the father and son especially well.
“Me, I’m an older guy; graying,” says Zuidema, whose main sport as a youth was football. “I don’t look like an athlete, but people wanted their picture taken with my son. They thought he might be an Olympic athlete.”
