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Dirty Dan, the Jet Ski Man
December 16, 2022
While most students are trying to stay afloat in the fast-paced world of high school, Seth Pettit, 12, has been making waves. Pettit, who races in a competitive professional jet skiing circuit, has managed to juggle academics and international competition almost as effortlessly as he maneuvers his way to the finish line. His most recent competition saw him place sixth in the International Jet Sports Boating Association (IJSBA) world finals.
“I started last year around August, and then did the world finals last year in October,” Pettit said.
Pettit, though a life-long jet skier, was introduced to the sport relatively recently. While being brought along to run jet skiing-related errands with friend Robert Dunlap, Petit was shocked to discover that his friend raced jet skis competitively.
“I was like, ‘Wait, you race? Professionally?’” Pettit said. “‘Like, you can race these things?’”
Pettit signed up for his first event not too long after. His first race proved to be an eye-opener. Not only did he find himself captivated by the adrenaline rush racing brought him, he also saw the glory that came with winning, according to Pettit.
“I saw all the sponsors, like people from Red Bull, RockStar energy, Yamaha, Kawasaki, and I was like, ‘Dang, so this is big,” Pettit said, “and Robert’s like ‘Yeah, you should try it out.’ So we spent a lot of money on jet skis, or actually we already had jet skis, I’d raced them before.”
Pettit began training with Dunlap, a two time jet skiing world champion. After only a few months of training and racing, Petit’s status as a jet skiing prodigy was becoming more apparent by the day.
“I’ve already made a really great jump from my first year and I’m already on track to be a really great racer,” Pettit said. “I just gotta keep going at it and [keep] racing.”
In addition to jet skiing, Petit competes in international paintball competitions. According to Pettit, his competitions make for a rough schedule academically, but ultimately prove to be worth the late nights and early mornings.
“I haven’t been to a lot of races due to the fact that I’m at school, but for paintball I have to wake up most mornings around four or five to go practice before school with my team… after school I would go do my jet ski stuff or stay in my my workshop and build my jet ski there,” Pettit said. “It’s very time consuming and very rough, but at the end of the day it’s worth it. As long as I continue to keep my grades up I’ll be fine.”
Despite the wide variety of sports Braswell High School offers, some students like Pettit find their interests lay outside of UIL-sanctioned activities. According to Pettit, not being able to pursue an interest through the school should not prevent students from pursuing it on their own.
“If you want to do it and you haven’t seen what it’s about, try and see if you can go to an event and get yourself involved with it,” Pettit said. “Do whatever you have to do, and then push yourself into the scene and try to make a name for yourself.”