Fly Fishing and It's Role in Recovery After TBI w/ Joey Maxim
One day when I was watching YouTube videos I randomly came across the video below, which featured the story of Joey Maxim. Joey was a three-sport athlete (basketball, soccer and lacrosse) and had aspirations to attend the United States Military Academy at West Point after high school. All of this changed in an instant when Joey was involved in a car accident that left him with life threatening injuries, which included a TBI. Like myself and many frequenters of the podcast, Joey received the news from his doctors that he would never be able to play sports, ride quads, or do anything that required a helmet again. At the time it seemed like everything he loved to do was stripped away from him, until he tied his first fly while recovering from his TBI.
Please watch Joey’s video below before going any further or listening to our conversation. It is impossible to not be inspired or to resist the urge to wet a line.
“The charm of fishing is that it is the pursuit of what is elusive, but attainable. A perpetual series of occasions for hope.”
-John Buchan
Below, you will find a list of other topics Joey and I touch on throughout the interview:
Details from the accident.
The extent of Joey’s injuries.
Why setbacks provide opportunities to learn about yourself.
The countless ways fly fishing aided Joey in his recovery.
Thoughts after being told he couldn’t play sports or do activities requiring a helmet.
“I thought it was a joke.”
How fly-fishing came into his life at just the right time (at his low point when going back to school).
The importance of finding success in your recovery from TBI, even if they are seemingly small successes.
How tying flies translated into other aspects of his recovery.
How to maintain hope when the past always seems like it is in the present.
“Hope is the blueprint and faith is the contractor.”
Joey’s aspirations to establish a mend foundation to help TBI survivors through fly fishing.
