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Great Athletes

Bill Bowness

by Jack Ewing

Sport: Waterskiing

Early Life

Born on October 1, 1958, in Arcadia, California, William McLean Bowness lived with his two sisters and his parents. His father was a project manager for a company that manufactured galvanized steel, and his mother worked as a service manager for Pacific Telephone. For many years, Bill attended a parochial school in nearby Temple City. He liked school but did not like studying. What he did like was sports. He started playing ice hockey when he was seven years old, and he also enjoyed softball, football, and basketball. In high school, he joined the tennis and water-polo teams, becoming a well-rounded athlete.

When he was old enough, Bill got a part-time job and saved money to buy an old boat. He taught himself how to water-ski, but he did not ski competitively. For him, skiing was just a way to have fun. However, his life was forever altered when he was eighteen years old. While he was driving in Idaho, his car’s trailer hitch broke, causing an accident that left Bill paralyzed from the hips down.

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The Road to Excellence

Although the automobile accident made Bill a paraplegic, he still loved sports. During the 1980’s, Royce Andes, a former member of the U.S. barefoot ski team, contacted Bill while he was attending college at Chico State University to see if he would be interested in testing a new kind of water ski. Andes had become a quadriplegic, and he wanted to make an effective sit-ski for disabled water skiers. Bill agreed to help.

After learning to use the sit-ski, Bill became an accomplished water skier. He entered and won several small competitions. Then, in 1986, he traveled to Norway to compete in an international disabled waterskiing tournament. Bill skied so well that he won the competition easily. In fact, his skill level was so great that officials decided to raise the maximum speed for future tournaments.

When Bill returned from Norway, he felt confident about his ability to sit-ski. He began to pursue the sport in earnest, looking for coaches to help him become better. After much practice, he became a member of the U.S. disabled waterskiing team. Some of the athletes were blind, some were amputees, and some were sit-skiers like Bill.

The Emerging Champion

Because disabled waterskiing was a relatively new sport, not many competitions existed. In 1987, the U.S. team entered the first World Disabled Water Ski Championships in London. Bill performed exceptionally in the slalom event. His boat went 36 miles per hour, and his towrope was shortened four times, which made the course more difficult. Bill’s performance earned him a gold medal.

Bill realized how valuable Andes’s wide, fiberglass, 10-inch-wide and 6-foot-long sit-ski was. A canvas sling seat kept the skier positioned about 8 inches above the water. The equipment was not cumbersome, and Bill was able to maneuver easily on the slalom course.

To keep in shape for waterskiing, Bill practiced intensively. He also believed in cross training. He played tennis twice a week, hit racquetballs, shot basketballs, and became interested in marathons, training 70 to 80 miles per week in a special track chair. All this physical exercise helped Bill become a strong and coordinated competitor. He also trained regularly with both disabled and able-bodied water-skiers.

After competitors from more countries began joining disabled waterskiing, the International Water Skiing Federation decided to allow world records to be set. In 1989, Bill traveled to Perth, Australia, to compete in the second World Disabled Water Ski Championships. Here Bill set a world record. He earned a gold medal for both the slalom and the jump events. Additionally, he took the gold medal for the overall best in the competition.

When Bill returned from Australia, he had a dislocated disc in his neck. He had surgery in the spring of 1990. In September, he set a new world record for the slalom in a competition at Shortline Lake, near Sacramento, California.

Continuing the Story

Bill’s drive for excellence and his natural athletic ability were part of what helped him succeed. He believed in setting challenging goals. He did not believe a label like “disabled” should automatically limit a person’s experiences. He tried to convey this positive attitude to physically challenged people whom he taught in both water-skiing and snow-skiing classes.

Bill became a popular speaker at schools and with civic groups. He raised money for disabled sports programs and wrote a handbook about disabled waterskiing. A neck injury prevented Bill from competing in the 1991 World Disabled Water Ski Championships, but he returned in 1993 to sweep the competition with first-place finishes in the slalom, trick, jump, individual overall, and team overall categories. In 1995 and 1997, he finished first again in the team and individual overall categories.

Beginning in 1987, Bill skied in every World Disabled Water Ski event except the 2001 championship. During that time, he skied all over the world. He also skied on snow, competed in the Paralympics, and won many medals in that sport as well. Bill set three world records in the slalom and three world records in the jump. He was overall national champion seven times, from 1993 to 1995 and from 2001 to 2004, at the U.S. Disabled Water Ski Championships and was a nine-time individual world champion in slalom, trick, and jump skiing.

Bill and his wife taught adaptive snow and water skiing. They divided their time between homes in Brandon, Mississippi, and Truckee, California. Bill became a member of the board of directors of the Water Skiers with Disabilities Association. He became coach for the 2008-2012 Professional Ski Instructors of America-American Association of Snowboard Instructors national teams. Bill also coached the 2009 U.S. disabled water ski team.

Summary

Determination and confidence were always parts of Bill Bowness’s personality. His positive attitude helped him recuperate quickly and influenced his outlook about his future following a disabling accident. For him, life was a series of competitions in which he was determined to do well. One of the pioneers of skiing with a disability, Bill broke world records in slalom and jumping events and was a nine-time disabled world champion. He and his wife continued to give back to their sport as instructors and coaches of disabled skiers both on water and on snow.

Additional Sources

1 

Batcheller, Lori J. Alpine Achievement: A Chronicle of the United States Disabled Ski Team. Bloomington, Ind.: 1st Books, 2002.

2 

Dobbs, Jean, and Barry Corbet, eds. Spinal Network: The Total Wheelchair Resource Book. Horsham, Pa.: Nine Lives Press, 2002.

3 

Klein, Stanley D., and Gary Karp, eds. From There to Here: Stories of Adjustment to Spinal Cord Injury. Shanghai, China: No Limits Communications, 2004.

4 

Leitner, Michael J., and Sara F. Leitner. Leisure Enhancement. New York: Haworth Press, 2004.

Citation Types

Type
Format
MLA 9th
Ewing, Jack. "Bill Bowness." Great Athletes,Salem Press, 2009. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=Athletes_2347.
APA 7th
Ewing, J. (2009). Bill Bowness. Great Athletes. Salem Press. online.salempress.com.
CMOS 17th
Ewing, Jack. "Bill Bowness." Great Athletes. Hackensack: Salem Press, 2009. Accessed December 14, 2025. online.salempress.com.