There’s something about the water in 30A, Florida, that pulls people in, literally and figuratively. For Mark Hotze, it’s where he found his calling, trading a cubicle and a tie for a boat and a breeze. We recently spent a day with Mark, soaking up the sun, swapping stories, and hearing about his wild ride from mechanical engineer to fishing captain extraordinaire. Spoiler: it’s a story worth telling.
The Early Days: Ski Slopes and Big Dreams
Mark grew up with an itch for adventure, sparked by a dad who had a tale for every mile of the road. “Everywhere we’d go, he’d point out some mountain he’d skied or some crazy thing he’d done,” Mark told us, leaning against the helm of his boat, the Gulf stretching out behind him. “I wanted to grow up and have stories like that to tell him.”
That hunger for experience shaped him early on. Skiing, climbing, the outdoors, it was in his blood. But after college, armed with a mechanical engineering degree (and a side of quantum physics and astrophysics, because why not?), life took a sharp turn indoors. “I thought engineering would open doors to anything,” he said with a grin. “Turns out, it mostly opened doors to cubicles.”
The Cubicle Years: Rockets and Restlessness
Mark’s first gig out of school was no small potatoes, he designed chemical rockets for the military. “It was cool,” he admitted, “but I’m not a nerd, at least, I didn’t want to be.” Picture this: a 6’3”, 260-pound former pro hockey player and powerlifter (think World’s Strongest Man vibes, airplanes pulled, tires flipped) surrounded by quiet engineers in a windowless office. “I’d be in meetings with these brilliant guys, and they’d just sit there. I’d be like, ‘Somebody say something!’ So I’d take charge. But deep down, I knew it wasn’t me.”
After six years behind a desk, Mark hit the road with a government contractor, working on chemical weapons and Air Force projects. Eight years, 59 bases worldwide, full hotel life. “I loved parts of it,” he said. “But I’d sneak outside with my laptop just to feel the sun. That’s when I started realizing I couldn’t keep doing this forever.”
The Leap: From Hampton Inns to High Seas
The turning point came when the Air Force sent him to a small base near 30A. “They were dumb enough to send me here,” he laughed. That’s where he met Kayla, his “better half”, and everything clicked. “I quit, bought a boat, and said, ‘I’m staying.’ I had no clue what I was doing.” No boating experience, no fishing pedigree, just a guy with a degree in rocket science and a gut feeling.
Mark got his captain’s license, not because he dreamed of charters, but because he wanted to feel safer on the water. “It doesn’t make you a pro,” he said. “It just tells you what the bridge lights mean.” He started fishing weekends, blending tricks he’d picked up in Japan and on the East Coast. “I didn’t know tides, wind, waves, nothing. I went out on days I shouldn’t have.” But that engineering brain kicked in. He nerded out on meteorology, studying weather patterns like they were equations. “I figured out why east winds suck more than west winds,” he said, half-smirking. “It ramped up fast after that.”
The Boom: 30A’s Fishing Phenom
Fast-forward to 2019. Mark signed up for a tournament in Destin, won 11 divisions, and snagged Captain of the Year. “My career just exploded,” he said, still sounding a little shocked. Then COVID hit, and with Florida wide open, 30A became the place to be. “I was the coolest thing going,” he chuckled. “Ten years ago, I’m in a cubicle. Now I’m here. What the hell happened?”
These days, Mark’s living the dream he didn’t know he had. He’s got a boat tricked out with a trolling motor so smart it could navigate to a waypoint and lock in place on its own. “I can touch a spot on my chart plotter, and it’ll take us there, wind and waves be damned,” he said, clearly geeking out. He’s got a house on the north side of the bay, where he can hear the bridge hum when the wind’s out of the east. And he’s got stories, tons of them.
The Oh Shit Moment
We asked Mark about that one moment that changed everything. He calls it his “oh shit moment.” “It’s when you realize you’re all in,” he explained. For him, it was early on, fighting a fish he didn’t want to lose. “Everything in me was like, ‘Mark, just do it yourself.’ But I handed it off to someone else and watched them light up. That’s when I knew, this isn’t just about me anymore.”
Now, he’s all about giving others that thrill. “Every day’s a chance to see somebody else have their ‘oh shit’ moment,” he said. “That’s priceless.”
The 30A Life
As we wrapped up, the sun dipping low over the Gulf, Mark cracked a beer and shivered a little in the breeze. “Hot tub’s gonna sting tonight,” he said, laughing about his cold feet. He’s still a beast—biking 25 miles in an hour at a 170 heart rate, lifting heavy, skiing mountains when he gets the chance. But 30A’s where he’s rooted, with Kayla, a boat, and a life he built from scratch.
“Sometimes I think about the cubicle days,” he mused. “I don’t miss it, but it got me here. And here’s pretty damn cool.”
Pretty damn cool indeed, Mark. Safe travels, captain, keep the stories coming.
