Anthony Radietic Brings Wins Back From Peru

Rickey Stokes

Viewed: 1703

Posted by: RStokes
Date: Nov 25 2015 9:44 AM

HENRY COUNTY:   Recently Anthony Radietic was in Daytona Florida for his accomplishments. Well, now he just returned from Peru and was a winner again.

Anthony was fourth place winner in category IRONMAN, a do it yourself 1200km race in Peru. A race on his SeaDoo. Anthony's competition was against Yamaha and Kawasaki waverunner's.

Overall in the race Anthony came in 8 th place.

This race is one that tests a persons stamina and determination. Anthony described the waves as big as buildings coming at you. It was the rough weather and tough waves.

Anthony Radietic was the only official U.S. Team in the competition.

The race is eight days. You race, them camp for the night. Get up and race, then camp for the night. and so goes the routine for 8 days.

Anthony was a Paratrooper in the United States Military. His life changed one day when he was involved in a motorcycle accident. A accident that left him paralyzed from the waist down and in a wheelchair. While he is handicapped, he is the most non-handicapped person you will ever meet.

His determination and drive is unbelievable.

Anthony lives at Thomas Mill Creek on Lake Eufaula. He and his wife, Danielle, have two children.

Often Anthony can be seen on Lake Eufaula on the Sea-Doo. If you something flash by, well that is probably Anthony as he zooms across the water.

Congratulations on your win.

This race was JETRAID 2015. It is the International Jet Sports Boating Association.

Here is some information from their web site:

a Raid is kind of a complicated thing.  It is meant to be like a Dakar for Personal Watercraft Racing.  A Raid intentionally is designed to have unintentional pitfalls.  Would a Raid be meaningful if things went perfect over eight days of racing?  Probably not.  Would a Raid be a heavy challenge if all the stops were places with comfortable amenities and numerous resources?  Probably not.  Were some things on the edge of being questionable?  Probably.  Can competitors and organizers be proud of their accomplishments this week?  Absolutely.

 

You have to be mentally tough to do a Raid.  It is intended to be an adventure and, as mentioned above, the adventure is not meant to be comfortable.  As much as being athletic and having a well tuned machine, what is being tested is your resourcefulness while being on the road.  Being on the road for ten days is a lot for most people. Being on the road, away from all of your regular comforts of your home environment can really play tricks on your mind.  You will become closer to the people around you, whether you like them or not, your mind will wander when you have hours to think when you are not otherwise distracted.  Those things can be your finances, your direction in life, a relationship at home, or things cannot even believe have crossed your mind.  Things you see will trigger memories of people and things you have not thought about, sometimes in years, and the lack of distractions will keep you focused on them and you might realize you have swept thoughts under the rug that you are now having to deal with.  Take that state of mind then put yourself in the merciless ocean having to maintain speeds, navigate waypoints, and find a path through some seriously brutal waves and you just start to get the perspective of what going through a Raid will be like.  God help you if you have something unstable going, back home, with a person of the opposite sex (or same sex we don’t discriminate here, please don’t send hateful letters), that will really mess you up when you are on the road.

 

So, yes, that was an odd tangent, but it’s a real part of what this experience is about.  You need to be mentally strong to stay focused and ride like a winner.  The pressure of a competition is the real challenge of racing and most non-Raid events are just a day or two- and you are usually in a fixed beach and never venture out of eyesight from the shoreline.  In addition to having a different state of mind at a Raid, you get totally detached, at times, from civilization because you can’t see it while you are competing- sometimes you can’t even see land.  Even where you can make it to land, if you need to pull off to save the PWC, or just escape the race, or yourself, for a moment, you may not find solace as much of the coastline is desolate an uninhabited- even where you find structures they may be uninhabited and without electricity or other utilities.  When you embark on a heat, you are committed to it.  Keep reading, this has a point

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