The Other Guys: Phil Bowen

The only people that have ever been interviewed on Johnny Klister are coaches, wax testers, supporters of the scene- the other guys.  Phil Bowen is a photographer that supports skiing.

Phil Bowen lives in Kampala, Uganda with his wife Paige and one year-old son, Odin. Phil works with NGOs in Uganda, documenting their activities and providing assistance with photography, design and communications. His clients include Save the Children in Uganda, United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Minnesota International Health Volunteers, and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Before moving to Africa, Phil was a serious nordic ski racer, first at Carleton College, and later with Nikolai Anikin’s Gitchi Gummi program and finally with the Subaru Factory Team.  He is also a better Ultimate Frisbee player than anyone you know. (Dude has his college team’s ultimate logo tattooed on his calf.  Respect.)

Phil’s love of this game keeps him following the Nordic World Cup circuit capturing images of the races as well as behind the scenes and occasionally for Johnny Klister who is not a client of Phil’s because we do not pay anyone, because we have no money.   Actual clients include the US Ski Team, Fischer Skis, Rossignol, Swix Sport USA, Cross Country Skier Magazine, SkiTrax Magazine and FasterSkier.com. Phil is an accredited photographer for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, BC.

Phil, where are you living?

I’m in Kampala, the capital city of Uganda. We’re on the equator, bordering some countries that you’ve probably heard of: Sudan, Congo, Rwanda, Tanzania and Kenya. Uganda is pretty sweet from a landscape standpoint – savannah, jungle, volcanic mountains and a 5000m mountain range with snow, all in an area the size of Oregon. I’ve driven most of the country. You can fly here direct from Amsterdam, Heathrow, Brussels and Dubai. It’s a pretty accessible country on a number of levels.

How many other xc skiers are around?

Um, yeah. The sports here are Soccer, Rugby, Boxing, Running (2005 World Steeplechase Champion Dorcas Inzikuru, 2009 World CC Silver Medalist Moses Kipsiro whom we met http://andersonbowen.com/blog/2009/04/27/moses-kipsiro-is-the-man/), Basketball, among others. We’ve helped grow an impressive Ultimate scene that had already been here for a few years before we arrived. Now that I think about it, the former CFO of Helly Hansen lives here. He’s a Norwegian from Trondheim and has a few good adventures under his belt, as you’d expect. He dropped the corporate cushiness to come work for Save the Children in Uganda. And if you’ve ever watched the Tour de France on TV, you know who Paul Sherwen is. He’s from Kampala and lives here with his family. We see them from time to time at expat parties.

How do you stay involved in skiing? You have a growing and impressive array of clients, how do you stay in the mix?

I hope my client list is growing, my business plan isn’t quite sustainable at this point. If anyone out there knows how to monetize cross country skiing, yeah, get in touch. I’m staying in the mix because I’m following what I want to do. Literally shoot first and ask questions later. I’m fortunate that nearly 100% of the US Team coaching and service staff are peers who I’ve raced and trained and traveled with, so they trust me that if they give me access I’m not going to be a distraction. My goals from day one have been to promote the US team, whether that was only using US Team athlete images in the Gear West catalog or the NCCSEF calendar or now trying to get good images of the US skiers so that Rossi can use a photo of Liz or Torin instead of Vittoz or Saarinen in an ad.

How has ski racing informed your life?

I guess it’s sort of like having a home to come to. The last three+ years living in Uganda, the only time I’ve gotten on snow is one or two days a year when I’m at a World Cup. I’ve skied maybe five or six times since March 2006. But it immediately feels so familiar and so right and it’s a validation that I was lucky enough to find what I was supposed to do.

I know that I’m going to have a wood-fired sauna. I’m going to live close to ski trails and forest. Every year I’m going to down a pitcher of beer at 10:30am in a bar full of locals, filled with mounted fish and white-tail deer heads, just off Main Street in Hayward.

What has you fired up right now in the ski scene?

I like how accessible the athletes and the races are now. Half the World Cup is tweeting, there are a bunch of youtube channels. Blogs are ubiquitous. You can find clips, if not full footage of every race, sometimes day of. Are people just jumping on the bandwagon? Who cares! It’s awesome that we can connect to the athletes now. As a junior, there would be so many places to find inspiration. We had what, every four years a new set of VHS of Olympic races, and like three of us doing online journals of our domestic racing?

There is a ton to like about North American skiing right now. Most of the main players are young. The Super Tour is really established. The US Team staff is pushing the right buttons in my opinion. Youth and junior development. Coach and club development. We the spectators are starting to expect a North American podium every weekend. Kershaw, Harvey, Grey, Crawford, Renner, Babikov, Randall, Newell, Koos have all been there. And Bird is like a cumulative 3.5 seconds away from having four or five career podiums.

Back when we were in the Gitchi Gummi scene it seemed like a very vital time with very vital people- and there are many of us still in skiing.  What from those days have you carried with you?

I feel really lucky to have been part of that scene. Great group of athletes. Been thinking about it a lot lately because of Nikolai. Here’s what I carry: I think he really presided over a set-up that taught us how to live as cross country ski racers, the culture of being a full-time athlete. The daily cycle of wake up, assess your body, morning exercise, eat, relax, morning training session, eat, nap, afternoon training session, eat, relax, sleep, do it again tomorrow. That’s applicable to a lot of things. I think there’s a lot more but I’m not sure I have the words to explain.

Have you ever seen anything as funny as that Sifle and Ollie skit about the ice cream truck?

Those were the golden years. Radiohead’s Paranoid Android video was sick. I’d be all over Sifl and Olly on youtube if I had any kind of internet here.

Can you explain Ultimate to people that don’t understand?

There were times talking to the blue-hairs in the breakfast diner before a tournament when I would just say that I was part of a soccer team or a hockey team. But now I kind of feel it’s my duty to bring awareness to the sport even if I have to endure the weird looks or questions about whether that’s with the dogs or the Frisbee golf or whatever. So I try. There are some guys that have a really polished elevator answer. I’m not one of those guys. My team now is sponsored by Surly Brewing Company in Minneapolis. People are a lot more receptive to an explanation when they get a pint of beer while they listen.

Are there any World Cup skiers that have skills in Ultimate that you know of?

I played with Kuzzy when I was coaching the junior program he was in. Minnesota has a huge high school scene. I’m not sure if I’ve played with any other WC athletes. The biathletes in MN have been into it for a long time, too, so you might find some ballers there. If I had to make a guess on potential, though, I’d pick the nordic combined guys. Endurance, no fear of throwing their bodies around and a big vertical leap.

Predictions for Vancouver?

Ugh. I think chances are good that Ola V and Petra will make it to the sprint finals. I’m just there to document what I see as an impartial, unbiased observer…

Anything else? Shoutouts?  Etc.?

I don’t have a mafia or a posse or anything, so I’ll just give big ups to my boy Odin. In about 18 years he’ll be Dominating the sport of his choosing on the world stage. For real.

We’re moving back to MN in January after being here since 2006. In the next couple years I’m gonna get an interval start 50km classic race going. 3×16.7km loops. Not sure where, when, maybe it’ll travel around, maybe it’ll be short-term notice with big money, like the Quicksilver Eddie Aikau surfing comp. Go where the snow is. So get ready for that.

And BTW, just because you don’t pay me because you don’t have any money, doesn’t mean you’re not a client of mine. In fact, I think that makes you perfectly suited to be the client of a professional photographer.

Hence I will continue to not pay you, Mr. Phil.