ALAMEDA – A kiteboarder who died at Robert W. Crown Memorial State Beach was experienced on the water and was just getting ready to set out for an afternoon on the waves when an exceptionally strong gust of wind caused him to lose control of his kiteboard, according to investigators.

Brett Spence Powell was at the edge of San Francisco Bay near Westline and Shoreline drives and was briefly lifted about 50 feet into the air and blown landward before he dropped and crashed into a metal electrical box, police said.

Despite wearing a helmet, Powell suffered severe head and neck trauma during the accident, which happened about 4 p.m. on May 12, said Lt. David Phulps of the East Bay Regional Park District Police.

Powell never regained consciousness and was pronounced dead about four hours later at Highland Hospital in Oakland.

The wind was blowing about 22 knots, or about 25 mph, and approximately 150 people were at the beach at the time of the accident, Phulps said.

“From what I understand it was pretty optimal conditions for kiteboarders to be on the water,” he said.

The 57-year-old Powell lived in Fairfax in Marin County, police said.

A Bay Area native, Powell attended the University of California at Los Angeles and received an MBA from the University of Washington, according to a GoFundMe page that friends and family have set up to benefit organizations that Powell supported, including the Surfrider Foundation, the Marin Conservation League and Trout Unlimited.

“There was nothing Brett would not try, or encourage others to attempt, in the pursuit of fulfillment,” the fundraising page says. “And, there was no one he would not lend a helping hand to. If Brett was not out biking through his beloved hills of Marin, or hiking with his two dogs, he was surfing, rowing, kite boarding, fly-fishing, diving, skiing, writing, doing yoga, reading or traveling.”

The page said Powell had “an encyclopedic knowledge” of the natural world and was committed to a wide range of environmental and social causes.

Powell’s survivors include his two sons, Travis, 23, who lives in New York City, and Tanner, 20, who attends UCLA, his current wife and other family members.

Donations to the Brett Powell Memorial Fund can be made at https://www.gofundme.com/brettpowellmemorialfund.