The Ruthless Report 12: Wham! Bam!… Plus Celebrity Notes
Wham! Bam! That's Some Bikini, Ma'am
We often talk about a competitor who has “burst on the scene,” but in the case of Arizona bikini bombshell Bam Bridges it was more like an explosion. The 5'2 3/4" mother of two from Scottsdale came out of nowhere in 2010 to take first in figure at the NPC Brown Chiropractic Arizona Open—Bam!—a feat she has duplicated in most of the contests she's entered in since then, including the recent ’13 NPC Iron Man Naturally Championships at the Los Angeles Fitness Expo, where she dominated the A-class and masters bikini lineups. Since getting onstage, this very busy lady has also started a successful training business, Bam Body, and currently is the co-host of "Your Body Matters," a San Diego-based syndicated radio talk show and Web-TV show that focuses on how best to help families stay happy, healthy, productive and balanced.
I first met the California-born, Utah-raised stunner last summer at Lonnie Teper's NPC West Coast Classic, where she took the masters bikini. An impressive gal, I thought, and I planned to feature her here. In researching the story, however, I found a cold trail. What exactly had the energetic 37-year-old been doing before July 2010, when she "burst onstage" fully developed and poised for the spotlight?
"Aside from raising my two children and working as a hairstylist, I was living my life on cruise control," said Bridges, whose first name is actually Amber and whose nickname came about because as a kid she was “a bit of a little toughie” and reminded her uncles of “Bamm-Bamm” from the Flintstones.
“In 2006, I had gone from being married and successfully running my husband's dental practice to being a single mom and going back into the salon full-time. By 2010 my children were getting older, and it allowed me a little more gym time.”
A lifetime fitness enthusiast, she said, “I fell in love with women's competitive fitness the first time I saw it on TV at the age of nine. I exercised in my bedroom, performing isometric and floor exercises until I saved enough money to purchase my first piece of home gym equipment, a Soloflex, at 14."
Her parents were "hippies" (she uses the term fondly) who had left Southern California for Panguitch, in southern Utah, population 2,500. Bam and her five sisters were raised around horses, and she worked “jockeying horses” for a while in her younger days. Though she describes herself as having been "painfully shy," she also had plenty of guts. Ten days after her 18th birthday, “I loaded up everything I owned—which was mostly cowboy boots, jeans and a western saddle—and I drove my old, worn-out four-door sedan straight into the Arizona sunset."
Flash-forward to that first competition—a transformative experience, she said. A friend who was prepping for the show had invited Bridges to join her. The friend didn't make it to contest day, but Bam somehow did. Getting up in front of a crowd under any circumstances did not come easily to her. “I must admit,” she said, "I entertained the thought of how I could gracefully bow out.”
The little toughie toughed it out. “I had one quote that kept playing in my head: ‘We often times don't realize just how close we are to success when we give up.’ I had decided that I would see the competition through regardless of how scared I was or what the naysayers said. Somebody had to win; why shouldn't it be me?
Bam credits “
preparation and timing" for starting her on her fitness journey and ultimately leading her to begin a new career. Networking played a role as well. “I've had some chance encounters with people along the way, and I've always made it a point to broker some kind of a relationship with them. I've built a great network of people that have been so kind to share their knowledge with me and help me." Also, she said, “I'm not afraid to put in the time and pay my dues.”
So, basically, when the right situation came along, Amber “Bam” Bridges was ready to meet it. “Becoming involved with the media in San Diego began because I was a guest on Dr. Keith Kanner's syndicated radio talk show, which I now co-host. He's a mental health contributor on many local San Diego stations, and through him I was able to get my feet wet and become involved in the media industry. The irony is that I was so deathly shy when I was younger that I would rather skip school than give an oral report in front of my class.”
Another thing about the dashing Dr. Kanner, a clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst specializing in children and adolescents: “He's the love of my life,” said Bridges, who revealed that the couple had gotten engaged on January 19, the day she won the Iron Man Naturally. No wonder she was glowing even brighter than usual afterward. The mother of Calvin, 12, and Aava, nine, she is excited about "becoming a stepmom to three terrific kids—Kassidy, 14; Chris, 11; and Zack, nine.”
Also on tap for 2013: a push to get her pro card as well as to pursue her career as a fitness model. In addition, she said, “I'm thrilled to have recently become a spokesmodel for Vizion Couture swimwear and competition apparel.”
Bam wanted to acknowledge some of those key people who have helped her become such a firecracker in the Southwest fitness scene—“Donna Newman, social media expert; Kevin Shepard, my mentor, personal trainer and diet coach; Ivan Almonte, IFBB judge and posing coach; and Keith Kanner.”
Said Bridges about what she has gained by getting onstage, “I was once a deathly shy girl who would NEVER wear a two-piece suit to the pool, let alone an itsy-bitsy bikini on a stage under the view of hundreds. [Now] I've come to love it—the thrill, the rush and the anticipation that builds just before you walk out onto that stage.”
Aw, c'mon, you little toughie. You know you had it in you all along.
Celebrity Notes—Welcome to L.A.
Also radiating an extra-speci
al glow at the L.A. FitExpo in January was Figure Olympia and International winner Nicole Wilkins, was lighting up the MetRx booth as usual. Over the winter break the Michigan native had migrated to Southern California—and it wasn't for the weather. After a couple of years of the long-distance relay back and forth to Santa Monica, she and her sweetie, Alan Donnelly (editor of www.npcnewsonline.com),had moved to Temecula, a small city in Riverside County about 85 miles southeast of Los Angeles. Wilkinshad recently announced that she would skip the International this year, for all she is the defending champ. “I felt I needed more time,” acknowledged Nicole, who admitted that she wasn’t happy with the package she’d presented at the Olympia, where she lost her title to Erin Stern again. Instead she is knuckling down with an eye on improving the situation. She plans to get onstage again at the New York Pro in May as well as a return to the Tournament of Champions, which she won in 2011, a few weeks before the O. Despite her new home base, Wilkins will continue to promote her Nicole Wilkins Fitness, Figure and Bikini Classic, scheduled for July 13, in the Detroit area (www.MichiganFitnessShows.com).
More Celeb notes—DiNino Is Hot & Fit (But You Knew That)
One regular who didn't make it to the FitExpo this year was my sometime video partner Nancy DiNino, who was busy in Toronto at Inside Fitness magazine's launch party for its February/March ’13 issue, including the fourth annual “Hot & Fit 100.” Congrats to Nancy, who not only made her third appearance on the list, which designates the hottest and fittest women from across Canada, but also served as official media personality, interviewing industry celebs on the red carpet.The obvious question (at least to someone who's lived in Southern California for a couple of deca
des): Is it harder to be hot and fit when you live where it's cold? The Redstorm was ready with an answer to my silly query—although it is not so silly, really, when you consider that most of the Brazilian bombshells in the industry live in Florida.
“I do find it more difficult to stay hot and fit in the winter,” she replied. “When every day is cold and dark, with a limited window of sunlight, who wants to go out in the cold? The easier option is layers of track pants and a movie rental.
“Knowing I have to look good to appear at something like the Hot & Fit party is so stressful that it does get my ass going,” she continued, laughing. “You know the Redstorm has got to represent.”
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