Drone helping tetraplegic 20-year-old keep beloved fishing hobby alive

An inventive tetraplegic 20-year-old is using a drone to keep his fishing hobby alive.

Papamoa student Sam Fitness has had to resort to modern technology after an accident left him paralysed from the neck down in 2015. He was climbing a tree at a local reserve when he fell, leaving him with a fractured neck.

But being in a wheelchair has not got in the way of his angling expeditions. He attaches an electric fishing reel to the drone, which he then takes to the beach and flies out over the water to drop the line. When a fish takes a bite, he uses the electric reel to wind it in. His fishing club gave him the idea. "It's a head-turner," he said, "a lot of people think it's from the future.

"I've already caught about five legal snapper; plenty of undersized fish too."

In the past, Fitness held many club and national fishing records. He caught his first marlin at the age of 16 - it was also the heaviest in his club that season.

President of the Mount Maunganui Sport Fishing Club, Brian Rhodes, said Fitness never missed a tournament.

"He's always very keen when it comes to competition, that's what makes him a bloody good fisherman," he said.

Fitness uses a four-wheel-drive motorised wheelchair to get on to the beach.

"It's got big wheels, so the sand isn't a problem," he said. "It's removed so many barriers and doesn't make me feel as disabled as I normally would."

Fitness is now studying at the University of Waikato.

The outgoing youth was known around the Papamoa community as a "good, honest and decent guy" and was looking forward to heading to the University of Auckland to study geophysics when the accident happened.

Fitness's father Karl Fitness told the Bay of Plenty Times after the accident that the group of friends regularly climbed the tree at Taylor Reserve which overlooked the ocean but, on December 28, 2014, Sam Fitness lost his footing and fell 6 to 8m directly on to his neck.

He was rushed to Tauranga Hospital where x-rays and MRIs showed he needed surgery. He was flown to the spinal unit of Middlemore Hospital the next day, where he was operated on to remove the damaged vertebra, which was impacting on his spinal cord.

A Givealittle page was set up to raise funds for Fitness and his family and raised $52,500.

- Te Waha Nui