Title: Contributing Writer
Email: bdwelle@gmail.com
Location: Sausalito, CA
Social Media Links
Expertise
- Topics of Expertise: kitesurfing, kitefoiling, wingfoiling, sailing, windsurfing, e-foiling, kayaking, surfing, SUP, climbing, backpacking, trekking, trail running, paragliding, adventure travel, long-distance expeditions, international travel, guiding, writing
- Years in This Expertise: 40+
- Number Of Products & Number Hours Spent Testing: 100+ products, 500+ hours
Education & Certifications
- Education: B.A. Geography
- Years of Writing: 5
- Certifications: Wilderness First Aid, USHPA P4
- Club or Association Memberships: Creative in Residence at The Battery in San Francisco
- Previous publications: Good Men Project, Kiteworld magazine, Candy magazine, Adventure Sports Podcast, Storied San Francisco podcast
Experience
Bowen grew up in San Francisco, making him one of the few and the proud for whom it’s OK to say “Frisco” and for whom there is no name for our city’s cool, grey marine layer other than just…“the fog.” As a City kid with a couple of outdoors-nerd parents, Bowen got good at bombing hills, riding MUNI, and navigating big urban public schools while at the same time becoming a passionate outdoors person. From his first night out in the thin alpine air of Tuolumne Meadows as an infant to his fifth decade, Bowen has become a jack-of-all-trades involved in many action sports, as well as an entrepreneur, an independent thinker, and a life-long seeker of freedom and adventure.
Skateboarding, climbing, mountain biking, and windsurfing in his twenties, kitesurfing and running his own conference business in his thirties, selling that business, as well as kite-foiling, trail running, paragliding and guiding trips in his forties, and wing-foiling, and medium-distance trekking in his fifties have all contributed to the outdoor sports experience that Bowen brings to his endeavors. As a dedicated writer, Bowen’s writing shows his passion for wordcraft, a love of depth and truth, and a combination of humor and pathos that takes readers on a journey both deep and wide, much like the legendary San Francisco Bay where he’s most often found, flying across the water on his wing-foil under the Golden Gate.
Career Highlights
- Long distance kitesurfing more than 1,000 miles on the coast of Brazil, carrying my gear in a waterproof backpack, and sleeping in a hammock along the way.
- Helping to share the stoke about the ground-breaking strutless Cloud kites with riders around the world as a former team rider for Boardriding Maui.
- Being one of the athletes profiled in a kitesurfing adventure documentary film project while guiding for SurfinSemFim in Brazil.
- Trekking for a full month in Corsica, first crossing the island west to east, and then north to south on the legendary GR20 trail.
- Landing my paraglider after a glorious flight in Slovenia just in time to meet the taxi that I’d arranged previously, which dropped me at the station just in time to catch the train to Ljubljana, just in time to catch my flight back to the States.
- Backpacking in the “God Zone” of the high Sierra of California, roaming the open granite off-trail and above the tree line.
A Word from Bowen
As a teenager, I imagined myself as a writer later in life — and then mostly forgot about writing over the course of at least two other prior careers. As I got more and more involved in wind sports in my thirties and forties, I also found the motivation to improve my health and fitness, and my overall level of stoke and flow gradually replaced years of depression and addiction. As I was approaching fifty — which is exactly the age that I had envisioned myself as a writer way back when — I remembered that original inspiration and began my journey as a writer.
Since then I’ve completed a book-length memoir manuscript, developed a substantial following for my writing online at An Ordinary Disaster, started several writing groups, worked with a number of fellow writers as a coach and editor, and most recently, joined the team at The Inertia as a contributing writer. I’m finding great joy in having the opportunity to combine many of my personal interests in writing, action sports, the outdoors, great equipment, and community in being part of this project.
