Turn-ons: Cycling, Paddling, Yoga, Jungle Navigation! (Cont.)

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Outside Magazine August 2002

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Turn-ons: Cycling, Paddling, Yoga, Jungle Navigation! (Cont.)

TEAM PLAYBOY X-TREME is a brilliant idea, but it wasn't Playboy's. It was Danelle Folta's. Folta, a five-foot-ten redhead who likes to snowboard, wanted to use her celebrity to inspire women to get fit. She recruited 21 of her buffest centerfold friends, then lobbied parent company Playboy Enterprises for seed money. Playboy gave the team $100,000 and waived the licensing fee for use of the Playboy name, but that has been the extent of the formal relationship. Sponsors now pay for most of the team's expenses. It is, as Playboy Enterprises communications director Bill Farley says, "a win-win-win situation." Playboy gets exposure because of the team's name, and the team gets exposure because they are Playmates. The networks that air the events get lots of viewers, and the viewers get to look at Playboy Playmates. It's synergy at its best.

"People not in controversial roles don't have to be on top of their games like we do," says Folta, a former Miss April. "I hope that doesn't sound conceited."

In 2000, three members of Team Playboy X-Treme decided to take on the mother of all adventure races, the Eco-Challenge. The 320-mile race, held in Borneo, involved three days and nights of kayaking, 30 hours of mountain biking, two days of canoeing, and two days of jungle navigation, along with miscellaneous skills like caving and extracting leeches from unspeakable places. The Eco-Challenge has always been a hit with TV viewers, in part because competitors don't have to do much to qualify other than pass a few strenuous but rudimentary physical tests. As a result, catastrophes abound. There's always someone getting lost in the jungle, suffering mental collapse, and/or requiring rescue at sea. Not coincidentally, the Playmates' debut marked the first time the race was broadcast on the USA Network rather than the Discovery Channel. As the home of the World Wrestling Federation, the USA Network instinctively understands our national weakness for blood and boobs and cheesy human drama. Now that hapless adventurer could be someone who's posed for a magazine in only pearls and high heels.

Since Eco-Challenge teams require four members and must be co-ed, Folta invited her friend Owen West, a 32-year-old former Marine and author of a swashbuckling military novel called Sharkman Six. Predictably, the cameras ignored Owen, though he still had a fine time: "I learned a lot," he says, "and I'm a better man for it."

Just as predictably, the other teams made fun of the Playmates. They were dissed for all manner of transgressions, in particular for wearing bikinis rather than Speedos for the swim test and for sucking up media attention even after they were disqualified halfway through for not reaching the biking checkpoint in time. (Though out of the race, the team decided to soldier on, showing the same pluck they had early in the competition when they hammered their outrigger canoe back together after a wave swept them into some rocks.) Some suspected that the team had received preferential treatment by the TV producers, who had good reason to try to keep them in the race. "I think many people were sympathetic toward them until they saw the USA Network's program and couldn't figure out where they got a hammer and nails [to fix the boat]," says Bev Abbs, a racer whose team was sponsored by a software company called Discreet. Competitor Rebecca Rusch reported that a rumor had been circulating that the Playboy team received not only repair equipment but also clean clothing and extra food.

In the end, many competitors wound up admiring the Playmates' perseverance. "I was skeptical of them initially, because they acted more like bimbos than athletes before the race started," says Maureen Moslow-Benway, a member of Team Booz Allen. "However, as the race progressed, I was impressed with their gutsiness. All in all, they're good athletes deserving of the chance to compete in the Eco-Challenge. They got what most teams want—lots of publicity—and unfortunately, there's sour grapes from some people who can't deal with that."

Folta and her team were in the awkward position that beautiful women often find themselves in: They were given special treatment because of their looks and then resented for it, despite the fact that they did not ask for or expect any help. Their looks are at once their greatest asset and their most frustrating liability. "People not in controversial roles don't have to be on top of their games like we do," says Folta. "I hope that doesn't sound conceited, it's just that people are more critical of our performance. Sometimes it feels like we have to work twice as hard. People don't think you can do anything, but then you go out there and kick their butts."

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