December 12, 2001
By Susan McKenzie
"Wait until you see what we have," said a mud-covered Dianette Strange of Team Metabolife/Challenged Athletes Foundation as she pulled a lilac see-through thong out of a damp Ziploc bag buried in her backpack.
Every adventure race has a mandatory gear list, a comprehensive accounting of every piece of equipment each team member must carry on the course. Headlamps, first aid kits, a compass, and water purifying tablets are just a few examples. But it's fairly safe to say only Expedition BVI put ladies underwear on its mandatory gear list - with no explanation. Before the race began, athletes were probing and pushing, trying to figure out why they needed underwear, would they get it back, could they wear them.
Partway through the mountain bike leg on Day 2, teams reached Checkpoint 14, a bar called The Bomba Shack on Tortola. When they reached the CP, they were told they could not check in until they had given a piece of ladies' underwear to Bomba himself. An offering to Bomba would give the team an unspecified time bonus.
The Bomba Shack is one of Tortola's most notorious bars. And it really is a shack, pieces of aluminum siding hammered together in a haphazard way, usually picked up when hurricanes blow apart a roof or another shack.
Every full moon, Bomba holds a tea party - a magic mushroom tea party. Photographic evidence of the effects of the tea (suffice to say, much nudity) are pasted all over the walls of the shack, and suspended from the rafters are the dozens of ladies' underwear that full moon tea-totallers have given up to Bomba.
Dianette Strange's offering pleased Bomba. He said they were pretty, but, "too wet."
"These are still my favorites," he said, pulling a pure-white lacy G-string out of his pocket, crushing them in his fist and smelling them. The G-string came from the first team to check in, King Oscar/Adventuretraining.com. No word whether Robyn Benincasa had ever worn the g-string.
Less than half an hour later, Nokia Adventure arrived. When Mika Hirvinen was told he had to present a pair of ladies underwear to Bomba, he looked blank then shook his head, as if he did not quite understand what was being asked of him.
Jukka Pinola pulled down his cycling shorts to reveal a pair of purple briefs. Pointing, he said, "Underwear?"
"But we cannot," said Petri Forsman. "She is wearing them."
Finally, a tourist watching from the doorway took pity on the Finns and performed a trick only women can - she nimbly whipped her bra off out from her t-shirt and handed it to Mika, who then handed it to Bomba, A quick thank you and they were off, still shaking their heads a bit.
"I've got some, but I need them," said NYFIX/racingahead.com's Tracyn Thayer when she was asked to give up her underwear. The team, which is racing in the Competition category, chose not to give up Tracyn's underwear and chose instead to pass on the time bonus. They spent some time at the checkpoint, though, as Norm Greenberg replaced a blown out tire.
One by one, teams made their donations. Terra Discovery/ BrokerXtrodinair's Jay Pichard nonchalantly handed Bomba a black bra ("Nice," said Bomba, "but I'm a panty man.).
Morgan Stanley's Danelle Balengee was apologetic as she pulled a pair of somewhat grungy underwear out of her pack. "They're not lacy, but they are Victoria's Secret," she said.
Once she understood what was to be done, Red Bull/Buff's Florencia Gorchs quickly stripped off her top (amid the whistles and whoops and hollers of her teammates) and then whipped off her bra, nonchalantly tossing it over her shoulder where it landed on the table in front of Bomba.
Rogoff's Viv Prince wasn't too keen to hand over any of her clothes, but Bomba was open to negotiation. No underwear, in exchange for a quick flash. Prince stood in front of Bomba ('closer, darling") and lifted her top quickly.
Viv Prince lifted her top - and Carleton Restoration's Sandy Geisel dropped her drawers. Bomba was unimpressed with her muddy, sweaty sports bra, but he gave her another option: the owner of the full moon party wanted a full moon from Geisel.
"Talk about doing one for the team," said Robie Robishaw as Geisel took her now famous seat and planted it back on her bike.
Epinephrine's Karen Lundgren had perhaps the foulest offering: a muddy, smelly cycling sock.
"I've been carrying that underwear since the start," she admitted. "But I forgot them at the bike transition area. So I was cycling along, trying to figure out what I could do when I thought, 'Hey, socks are underwear."
Local team Caribbean Star used local knowledge: Carolina Pettigrew simply walked into the bar, grabbed an old pair of underwear hanging from the ceiling and brought them over to Bomba.
One by one, each piece of clothing (even the sock) was tied to a long piece of string,
"When I have it all, I'm going to tie this up in my bar," Bomba said. Surveying his goodies, he leaned back and pulled the King Oscar white g-string out of his pocket.
"Man, I'm going to sleep like a champ tonight."
