Printable VersionLAKE HAVASU CITY – There is more to PWC racing than getting on a watercraft, pulling the throttle and being the first to cross the finish line for a World Championship. It’s about circumventing a series of left and right hand turns in a safe manner, with speed and technical skills to reach that status of champion.
 A member of the K38 water rescue team helps a downed athlete during the 2010 IJSBA Quakysense World Finals. Safety team members are strategically staged around the race course to assist athletes. Kay Sykes Photo/Special to News-Herald |
The name K38 Rescue and Shawn Alladio have been identified with the IJSBA World Finals for over two decades.
Every year during the IJSBA World Finals over 20 individuals from around the world and different backgrounds travel to Lake Havasu City to participate in Alladio’s safety summit. The rigorous training schedule prepares the participants for long hours on the water and to be ready at a moment’s notice when a downed athlete in need of their assistance.
Her team is strategically placed across the track and the shoreline. Not only does the team help athletes in need, they are continuously scanning the water watching for missed buoy, relaying information to the race director, they also help maintain the integrity of the race course.
Alladio founded K38 Water Safety in 1989 and began teaching public and federal agencies such as; lifeguards, military, fire rescue and law enforcement how to operate personal watercraft. K38 also teaches PWC rescue training in swift water, big wave surfing and tow-in surfing.
“K38 Water Safety’s training programs are for life saving purposes using personal watercraft as the best method of insertion to help life saver save not only their own life, but others in the aquatic environment” Alladio said.
Thousand of agencies from around the world have been trained by K38; there are currently 14 international affiliates, with the motto being: The Life you Save May Be Your Own.
Alladio is a gentle woman with a no hold barred attitude, holding nothing back, always quick on her feet and ready to go at a moment’s notice when help is needed. Her love for helping people does not stop on the water.
Heading home from a training mission at a nearby military base, in Southern California, she encountered a vehicle totally engulfed in flames with an individual trapped inside. Without thinking twice, she quickly stops her truck while pulling a trailer loaded with personal watercraft.
Jumping out of her vehicle she rushes to the aid of the individual inside. Breaking the window with her hands, not thinking of herself and her own injuries that she had suffered, she reaches in and pulls the suffering driver to safety.
It’s one of Alladio’s moments in time when she thinks in feet and seconds. She has spent countless hours and sleepless nights putting others first. One week after the devastating Hurricane Katrina, she was on her wave runner searching for survivors in New Orleans, Ninth Ward.
Besides being a teacher and of water safety and a course marshal, Shawn Alladio, herself, participates in the sport of PWC racing. Even though she has raced the closed course tracks, her niche in the racing scene is long distance, endurance racing.
In 2008 Alladio was invited to join the PWCoffshore.com race team to compete in the grueling long distance races. Since 1989 she has competed in events ranging from 1,600 miles to 60 miles.
2006 was the year she was inducted in the International Jet Sports Boating Association Hall of Fame. She was one of 25 included in the inaugural induction for her dedication to the sport.
Once again, Shawn Alladio and K38 Water Safety will be conducting their annual water safety summit to be held in conjunction with the 2011 IJSBA Quakysense World Finals to be held October 1-9.
For more information about the classes that K38 offers, you can visit the website www.K38watersafety.com.
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