Rocking in 3-inch plastic heels, Ashley Kowal, 20, stands on the pageant runway in a pink-and-white string bikini. Smiling, she scans each face in the crowd. Her smile widens when she spots a petite, red-haired woman under a green umbrella. Snapping her hand into the air, Ashley waves to her grandmother, then waits for the master of ceremonies to announce the winner.
The Miss Hawaiian Tropic bikini contest is new to St. Pete Beach. On June 15, Kowal competed in the second of six summer pageants scheduled at Rum Runners bar in the TradeWinds Sirata Beach Resort. Hawaiian Tropic estimates that 15,000 women compete in similar pageants across the country. Across Florida, the pageants entice women in 16 cities with prizes, a trip to the national competition in Hawaii, and the chance to become a company spokesmodel.
Five contestants register for the bikini contest. Charity Hodges, 25, dressed in white hot pants and a cleavage-revealing blue shirt, weaves through the drink-sipping crowd and finds a corner seat at the bar to fill out her application. As Hodges finds a seat, a man yells over the music. “We have a winner!” he says.Though this is Kowal’s first time in a bikini contest, she knows what to expect. In the pageant dressing room, she spreads on glittery body lotion, fluffs her long black hair, and checks her make-up.
A sophomore at St. Petersburg College studying international business, Kowal is a personal trainer at a Tampa fitness center and the head cheerleader of the Tampa Bay Storm arena football team. She learned about the contest from one of her teammates, Vaneeda Trukowski, a pageant veteran.
“I guess she thinks I have the potential for it,” Kowal said.
After the first round, the five contestants walk to their dressing room and start rummaging through their bags for hairbrushes and lotion. Kowal has a small black bag. In it is a make-up case and Western Humanities, a textbook she must read for school. Kowal pulls off the tight red baby doll T-shirt and bottom-baring white shorts revealing the pink suit she borrowed from Trukowski. One woman changes into a bikini with stars and stripes; another wears a fiery pink bikini with long straps circling the torso. Everyone is quiet as they change. Kowal looks around the room.
“Man, you guys have the awesomest bathing suits,” Kowal says.
The 11 judges sit next to the platform. They include a corporate headhunter, a national sales representative, a law student and a resort employee’s husband. “Give me number two!” yells one man from the crowd. “God bless America,” says another.
One judge brought his young daughter. During the competition, he talks to his daughter loud enough that two women in the audience hear. They recount the story later. "Honey, when you grow up, I never want you to degrade yourself and be in one of these contests," they say they overheard him say to his daughter. "If it is so bad," the daughter shoots back, "then why are you here?"
Kowal didn’t invite her father. She was worried about the audience. Because her mother couldn’t be there, her grandmother came instead.
“I take those comments with a grain of salt. I just use it to make me smile more on stage. I use it to my advantage.”
The contestants are judged on poise, personality and beauty. That’s what pageant organizers say. The audience likes to look and comment. One judge wears a T-shirt printed with a “Bikini Inspector” slogan.
But contestants judge, too. With a smile, a wave or a quick pout, a woman can make the crowd roar.
The first contestant answers a question about her perfect man. The host doesn’t ask Hodges a question. He simply turns to the crowd and says, “Just take 10 second and imagine.” After a few seconds, Hodges walks to the side, and the third woman walks onto the runway.
Kowal is last. The master of ceremonies reads that she wants to be an ambassador for the United Nations. He turns to her and asks her for a solution to the war in Iraq.
The votes are counted. Hodges wins and blows a kiss to the crowd. Kowal places third and gets $75.
Kowal slips her short sundress over her bikini and has a few drinks at the bar. Later, she goes home to cook veal piccata and pasta pesto for her dad. It’s Father’s Day.
