PICTURE sustained a lifelong injury. The first people to come to his aid were a firefighter and nurse, both also on motorcycles. They lifted his motorcycle off his chest and stabilized his neck as his father JT arrived on the scene. A helicopter then flew him to Emanuel Medical Center in Portland, where he underwent a five-hour surgery to stabilize his spine. The accident broke his T4, T5 and T6 vertebrae. After two months of hospitalization and rehabilitation, he returned home. Tyler was a star athlete in high school and excelled at football, basketball and baseball, and had begun attending Mt. Hood Community College in Gresham just prior to his accident. During rehabilitation, his mind was occupied with the transition of going from being active and mobile to being bound to a chair. He often questioned whether life was worth living like this. During the following months, he was able to find answers and inspiration in his family’s history in the charter industry. In his childhood, the Tacklebuster had served as Tyler’s babysitter during the workweek in the summer. He would come down the dock early and take a nap in the bunk, then have a bowl of oatmeal at the galley table as JT prepared the boat for the trip that day. “When your dad has a charter boat, you can go out whenever you want, so we did,” Tyler recalls. He’d often put fish in the boat, only to donate them at the dock to passengers who’d been too seasick so they wouldn’t go home empty-handed.
IN SPITE OF the adversity Tyler faced entering the early years of adulthood being bound to a wheelchair, following in his father’s footsteps and becoming a captain was a natural progression for him that he became determined to fulfill. Carrying that legacy motivated him to meet the challenges of physical therapy to restore function in muscle groups that most individuals with his diagnosis would lose. With the help of Kandice Vinson at Adapt 24 Northwest Sportsman
MARCH 2018 | nwsportsmanmag.com
Tyler Turner’s father Captain Jeurgen Turner, known as “JT,” has been in the charter fishing industry for four decades, and took his son out with him at a young age during the summer season. (TACKLEBUSTERSPORTFISHING.COM)
With access to offshore reefs and little competition to the north, Depoe Bay is ideally suited for chasing a range of species, from albacore to coho to halibut and lingcod to black and other rockfish. It’s also a prime whalewatching destination. (RANDALL BONNER)
Training in Beaverton, they started doing two-hour sessions three to four days a week to regain some of his independence. The injuries to Tyler’s vertebrae are near the middle of his rib cage, which normally would disconnect the ability to use muscles below the ribs to move. However, Tyler has dedicated years of work to regain as much of that muscle function as possible. Having challenged himself through an extensive regimen of workouts and physical therapy to exceed the capabilities of his diagnosis, he felt ready to begin the Coast
Author Randall Bonner shows off a nice Dungeness hauled out of the depths while aboard the Tacklebuster. The ocean off Depoe teems with crabs. (RANDALL BONNER)