A Disabled Fisherman Finds Freedom on the Water

© Thad Foote / RumBum.com

Graham Hooper on board his boat.

Graham loves to catch fish... big ones. "A 300lb fish swimming 40mph away from you is a hell of a lot more exciting than catching a redfish on the flats" explains Miami native and fishing captain, Graham Hooper. "Everyone cussing, slipping on chum; it's f---ing great!"

In many ways, Hooper is your average fishing boat captain – loving every minute of his life on the seas. In another way he is not – everything Hooper does is from the low-slung perspective of a wheel chair.

An Early Love of the Water

From an early age, he found freedom in motoring Florida's waterways in boats. As a squirt, Hooper raced "Opti prams" around Biscayne Bay and quickly grew into bigger, quicker and more responsive vessels. "Boats always gave me independence and the freedom to leave everything back at the beach," Hooper remembers fondly. "My first boat was a Whaler 16' and I was free. We'd run around the Bay diving, skiing, Elliot Key, and the girls always liked it too. It was a slam dunk." He learned to snorkel, surf, kneeboard, spearfish and pretty much drive every boat on the Bay. All the while, Hooper developed a genuine passion for all things marine, especially fish.

Catching mangrove snappers off the docks in second grade, soon gave way to snook in the mangroves, tarpon near the beach and, eventually, all other apex predators off shore. Hooper was hooked. Hooper earned money catching fish and driving boats during the week and spent his money catching fish and driving boats during the weekend.

"Some people find boating boring, not me," he shares. "My boat is my own little planet in the middle of the universe. It puts me in the middle of the system where I can stay in tune with so many things. There's so much to learn and observe like where the fish are, the weather, mechanics of the boat and where I am navigation wise." Hooper continues, "that's the whole concept of what got me into it."

Adjusting to a New Reality

Hooper's passion for excitement and adrenaline awoke him each morning. The boyish freedom remained healthy in a man's body. That freedom, the independence, however, was taken from the, then, thirty year old in an unfair, fateful twist of broken glass and splinters. Hooper's truck hit a tree and broke his neck. He could no longer walk.

"You can either sit at home and look out the window or go out and let someone help you out" Hooper explains, seven years after his accident. "Sometimes you need to swallow your 'Mr. do it myself.'"

To this day, Graham spends more time on the water than most able-bodied boaters. Speaking to the Captain on the phone, one might never know that he spends his days in a wheel chair. Sailfish, Tuna, Swordfish, you name it, Graham catches it, still. That boyish excitement and thrill for adventure remains in the front of Hooper's brain. Today, on the other hand, he borrows hands and bodies to do what his will not. "I work your body through my mind" he says while explaining how he manages a fishing boat. "It gets old when I have to explain, fifteen times, to someone on the boat when I could do it in two seconds."

Hooper volunteers at Shake-A-Leg Miami which is a community watersports center for disabled children and adults in Coconut Grove. He helped design their 40' accessible "flagship" and captains it for many clients including the Wounded Warriors Project, Miami-Dade County Public Schools and Olympic class regattas. He also co-founded an annual fishing tournament, the Shake-A-Leg Shootout, which raises money for the Shake-A-Leg Miami fishing program.

Preparing for the Future

Hooper continues to navigate this life chapter as he does, and always did, a trip on the boat. His sense of awareness is always on, looking for opportunity to learn and make things in his life work better. He researches, builds and tries many concepts and ideas in search for the physical independence he once knew. "Everything I do, every year, gets me closer to my independence."

The five year plan for Captain Hooper is to "save money, buy a Maine Lobster boat hull and make it fully accessible so I can run charters for anyone and everyone. Fishing, diving, cruising doesn't matter, just to get on the water." This, of course, is the weekday plan, weekends are for catching fish... big ones.