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2017
November
25
“The Athletic Mind” in Candy magazine

“The Athletic Mind” in Candy magazine

Published on November 25, 2017February 26, 2019 by Bowen

My article on “The Athletic Mind” was published in Issue 02 of the Battery‘s Candy magazine.

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Two Days Outside the Gate
A visit from S.
Lemmy was a good Buddhist
Spin the Bottle
Nobody asked me, so I’m asking you
Falafel stop
Dear Jenny
An Ordinary Disaster
This little hawk
Lost bits
Flying, Flow and Awareness
Entering Romania
I was a teenage boozehound—
until age 48
I used to love shopping
Fear, Flow and Freedom

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Kite foil training at speed in San Francisco Bay.

Kite foil training at speed in San Francisco Bay. As much as I miss walking the streets of North Beach, I love seeing my home city from the water. There are so many unique and precious points of view but only those of us out on the bay get to experience. Cruising downwind East of Alcatraz, I came upon one of these classic bell buoys, clanging slowly with each wave that passes, a perfect machine making music for the rare sailors who pass close enough to hear, but first of all the pelicans and sea lions and the old pier pilings, all of us washed by the same salt grace.

Writing is endlessly challenging, but while langua

Writing is endlessly challenging, but while language is something key to our basic humanity, we did not evolve to fly. Flying, and training to fly safely, involves putting myself not just in the sky but in the situation of FALLING OUT OF THE SKY. I’ve done this several times now, and still I can’t quite wrap my head around how I manage to go practice something so entirely out of the ordinary. I loved what I heard @jamesoroc say the other day, that both paragliding and psychedelics are “examinations of differentiated states of consciousness” — and I’d say that SIV is akin to a “heroic dose” something that I’ve never had the courage to do.

I’m not necessarily talking about the objective reality of SIV—“simulated incident en vol,” or ‘simulated flight incidents’—here. I’m talking about my own personal experience, which, by the way, has been entirely positive in all cases, and something that I encourage all paraglider pilots to pursue regularly.

SIV compresses the entire experience of flying into a few minutes, and intensifies everything to a heightened state. Fear, anxiety, awareness, presence, commitment, execution, flow, integration, learning, growth, expansion—it’s all there.

Yesterday morning I woke at 5:15, knowing that at six I’d have to start driving to the lake. At 6:30 I knew that only an hour’s drive remained, and at 7:12 I stared at the clock as it ticked down the last minutes before I arrived. The entire time I felt this fear in my stomach, felt it there as real as anything, telling me to turn around, go home, go back to bed, do anything but do what I was about to do. I did not _want_ to go do what I was going to do. I knew that there was not much real objective danger, but my evolved-as-a-flightless-human body could not help but speak up in protest. You don’t have to do this. It’s not natural!

I also know that if I want to fly, I have to train properly, and SIV is part of that. And so, if give in to the protest, my flying career is over, or at least vastly reduced.

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Climbing in Yosemite, age... 9? Looks I was in the

Climbing in Yosemite, age... 9? Looks I was in the middle of a three-person team. Big wall for sure 😉

My dad took me climbing in Yosemite several times in my pre-teen years, which eventually led me to be able to lead easy trad 5.9 with my wrist in a cast, and, years later, not be quite certain how to tie a sling harness. I have a bin of gear in my storage that may include the early wire stopper placed above my head. I’m not sure how to explain the hex that I’m wearing as a necktie. Is it tucked under my chin? Dig the cords and swami belt!

Early adventures like this were gifts that opened my world. Thanks dad.

Different kind of face. I managed to get away from

Different kind of face. I managed to get away from Mt Vaca for the second time today. A challenging place to fly—you take off and are usually immediately below launch height and have to work back up to get anywhere, since unlike almost any other place you might go to fly, there is no LZ below. Promotes a particularly sharp state of mind. Verging on anxiety, ideally not that, but highly tuned. Attuned even.

Here though I’m just standing in a field.

Waterscapes of San Francisco Bay, by kite.

Waterscapes of San Francisco Bay, by kite.

Now go listen to the Faces.

Now go listen to the Faces.

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