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Team Playboy Extreme
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Three Playboy Playmates and a New York futures trader take to the arduous Eco-Challenge course.
By Buddy Levy, Quokka Sports |
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Navigator Owen West, a 30 year-old New York futures trader and novelist, must have thought he had died and gone to heaven when his wife called him with the news: a request had come from the Eco-Challenge offices asking if West would do the race in Borneo with three Playboy Playmates.
West agreed in a heartbeat, and was immediately in contact with team captain, Danelle Folta, who founded Team Playmate Extreme "to shatter stereotypes and expose a different side of Playmates."
"In addition to all their gear and food, they had added heavy weights to their packs, which were twice as heavy as mine. I was impressed"
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Over the last two years, the team has achieved increasingly difficult goals in a variety of sports. Folta works as a stuntwoman, so she's pretty comfortable with heights. Said Folta, "I'm not too worried about the rappel, because I sometimes hang 1000 feet in the air from a helicopter." Kalin Olson of Sherman Oaks, California, has completed two adventure races (Hi-Tec Adventure Racing Series), and has experience running, scuba diving, and mountain biking. The last addition to the team is Jennifer Lavoie, who got the call from Danelle when another member got nervous and backed out. Said Lavoie, "I was so excited. I had wanted to try to get on the 'Survivor' show, and when I asked Danelle about that she said 'do Eco-Challenge with us instead, it will be better than Survivor!'"
Lavoi then joined her team for a training camp in New York, where they stayed up for 27 consecutive hours practicing sports under duress and sleep deprivation. Folta had thrown down the gauntlet, saying, "If you can survive this, you're in." Lavoi passed her test, loving it. Said Lavoie, "I committed that weekend." The Playmates were trained in Florida by experienced adventure racer Army Ranger, Blain Reeves, and they recently did a 40-mile hike with West. Said West, "During one break I checked out Danelle's backpack, and realized that in addition to all their gear and food, they had added heavy weights to their packs, which were twice as heavy as mine. I was impressed. These girls are serious and can really hike."
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