For 11 days last August, David Zuidema III and son Kaleb left the family’s septic service and pipe inspection and repair business in Midland, N.J., and took the vacation of a lifetime to the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.

They didn’t go to watch popular events like gymnastics or high-profile athletes like swimmer Michael Phelps. Instead, they traveled 7,000 miles to see Kaleb’s sport – javelin throwing. “We’d been following the javelin Olympic trials and knew who had been in the last Olympics,” says David. “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 in Nashville. At that event, he threw 49.27 meters (54 yards). He has yet to beat the record his older brother Andrew set at Midland Park High School, but it was on his to-do list for the spring 2009 track and field season.

David 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. His wife, Mary, did not go along. “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 founded around 1920, whose services include cesspool and septic tank cleaning, septic systems inspection, pipe cleaning and inspection, sewage ejector pump repairs and portable restroom rentals.

David Zuidema Sr. founded the company, which serves New Jersey and the southern boroughs of New York City. From the 1950s through the 1970s, David Zuidema Jr. operated the company, and in the 1980s, David III took over. His two older sons, David Timothy and Andrew, work in the business. Kaleb helps with the portable restrooms during summer, and Seth, 12, may be on the payroll in a few years.

Preparations for the trip to the Olympics began more than two months before the 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 the opening and closing ceremonies at the famed Bird’s Nest venue, partly because they cost too much, and instead, spent time sightseeing.

Studying technique

Javelin throwing is all about technique, David Zuidema says, and what better place to study technique than at the Olympics. “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 on his technique, and he does weight training to improve arm and abdominal strength – also crucial. He also competes in soccer and basketball. “It’s like I have a second full-time job keeping up with his sporting events,” David says.

Besides attending track and field events at the Olympics, Kaleb met the Canadian and Australian javelin throwers. The Zuidemas also went to the Great Wall in three locations, visited Tiananmen Square and took a rickshaw ride. They hired a private guide one day to show them around, and they also contacted a Chinese family acquainted with friends in the United States 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,” David 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 David, 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.”