PORT ELIZABETH, SOUTH AFRICA - A broken foot at an Ironman Triathlon in faraway South Africa opened up a new set of eyes for Ridgeview High graduate Nick Maedel this past April.

“I was in the best shape of my short Ironman career and thought South Africa would be the race that I could break nine hours for the course,” said Maedel, a veteran of four Ironman including two at the Hawaii World Championship Ironman. “I got there with some foot problems that bothered me, but wasn’t enough to stop me. Well, halfway through the bike, I stopped.”

Further inspection and diagnosis and Maedel found out he broke one of the more critical bones across his left foot; the medullary bone.

“Ironman was over and the doctor told me to find another sport,” said Maedel. “I had a break all the way across the top of my foot.”

What Maedel did after watching his fellow triathletes finish and celebrate the Ironman, was take his Nikon camera to the Addo Elephant National Park and photograph wildlife.

“As an athlete, I was most impressed at, first, the size of the animals, and, second, I was respectful of their majesty,” said Maedel. “They are definitely the top of the food chain for a reason.”

At Addo, Maedel joined a photo safari group to capture photos of lions, rhinos and elephants and even pet an injured and recovering cheetah.

“The park is entirely a wild atmosphere except that the park provides water into some of the ponds and lakes for the animals,” said Maedel. “We were able to get within arms length of an elephant and probably 15 feet from a lion from our vehicle.”

From there, Maedel traveled to Mossel Bay near Capetown and photographed a flock of penguins on a beach. According to Mossel Bay folklore, penguin fossels were unearthed that dated the species back 10-12 millions years old.

“The penguins visited once a long time ago and, I guess, decided that the beach in South Africa was better than snow in the Arctic,” said Maedel. “It was odd to see them without ice peaks and glaciers.”

The grand finale for Maedel was a boat trip out into the South Africa waters near Capetown, incidentally, not too far from where the nearly 2,000 triathletes would be thrashing the waters for anywhere from 30 minutes to three hours, where Maedel endeavoured to cage-dive with the world famous Great White Shark.

“The Great White Shark is so big and so deserving of its reputation,” said Maedel, who while in a cage submerged behind the boat and just a few feet from a slab of tuna meant to bring the Great White within photo range (really!?), got a up close and personal look at the inside of the mammoth predators jaw. “He charged the tuna, missed and hit the cage. My luck I get the dumb shark, but it was intense.”

Maedel, racing for the KLR Racing team based in Clearwater, is presently training and recovering in Los Angeles and hoping for a return to the races.