Jon Bowermaster

Photo by Jennifer May

Writer, filmmaker and adventurer, Jon Bowermaster is a six-time grantee of the National Geographic Expeditions Council. One of the Society’s ‘Ocean Heroes,’ his first assignment for National Geographic Magazine was documenting a 3,741 mile crossing of Antarctica by dogsled. Jon has written a dozen books and produced/directed more than fifteen documentary films.

His Oceans 8 project took him and his teams around the world by sea kayak over the course of ten years (1999-2008), bringing back stories from the Aleutian Islands to French Polynesia, Gabon to Tasmania, and more, reporting on how the planet’s one ocean and its various coastlines are faring in today’s busy world.

Jon lives in New York’s Hudson Valley. He is the Executive Producer of Oceans 8 Films and President of One Ocean Media Foundation, Chairman of the Advisory Board of Adventurers and Scientists for Conservation and a Board Member of Mark Ruffalo’s Water Defense.

3 words to describe Nature? 

BIG. ALL-ENCOMPASSING. AT-RISK

3 things Nature taught you? 

HUMILITY 

APPRECIATION OF QUIET

RESILIENCE

3 most treasured Nature spots? 

ANYWHERE ON THE EDGE OF THE OCEAN

When you look at the ocean, it makes you feel...? 

THAT PLACE WHERE BLUE-MEETS-BLUE: CALM

When you see a forest, it makes you feel...? 

DARK AND MYSTERIOUS

When you see a volcano, it makes you feel...? 

VIOLENT

When you see a sunrise or sunset, it makes you feel...? 

SUNRISE = EXCITED / SUNSET = AT PEACE

When you hear thunder, it makes you feel...? 

EXCITED AND A LITTLE FRIGHTENED

When you hear the wind howling, it makes you feel...? 

CALM

Are you an Ocean, Mountain, Forest, or Desert person? 

OCEAN

On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is Nature to your well-being? 

10

Share with us a childhood nature memory? 

FIRST SAILINGS ON CRYSTAL BLUE LAKES OF THE NORTHERN MIDWEST; FIRST KAYAKS ON THE SAME BODIES OF WATER. AS AN EARLY TEENAGER.


Dave Freeman

DAVE FREEMAN have traveled over 30,000 miles by kayak, canoe and dogsled through some of the world’s wildest places, from the Amazon to the Arctic. National Geographic named him and his wife, Amy Freeman, Adventurers of the Year in 2014. Their images, videos, and articles have been published by a wide range of media, from CBC, NBC, and FOX to the Chicago Tribune, National Geographic, Outside, Backpacker, Canoe and Kayak, and Minnesota Public Radio. When Dave and Amy aren’t on expeditions or speaking tours, they guide canoe, kayak and dogsled trips near their home on the edge of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in Northern Minnesota. Check their educational company - Wilderness Classroom.

3 words to describe Nature? 

Calming, dynamic, grand

3 things Nature taught you? 

Confidence, humility, happiness

3 most treasured Nature spots? 

Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness

Lake Superior

Amazon Rainforest

When you look at the ocean, it makes you feel...? 

Small

When you see a forest, it makes you feel...? 

Alive

When you see a volcano, it makes you feel...? 

Young

When you see a sunrise or sunset, it makes you feel...? 

Calm

When you hear thunder, it makes you feel...? 

Alert

When you hear the wind howling, it makes you feel...?  

It depends on the situation anywhere from excited to terrified.

Are you an Ocean, Mountain, Forest, or Desert person? 

Ocean and Forest, but lakes and rivers more than anything.

On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is Nature to your well-being? 

10

Share with us a childhood nature memory? 

I remember by first canoe trip in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness when I was 12. I remember listening to loons calling on calm evenings and catching small mouth bass. It felt like we were in the middle of a vast Wilderness even though we had just scratched the surface.