THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, September 22, 1995 TAG: 9509210208
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 04 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DAWSON MILLS, CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: Medium: 94 lines
Melissa Ingram proved recently that the Beach Boys had it wrong.
Not everyone who has ever donned a bikini ``wished they could be a California girl.''
The 5-foot-7, blue-eyed blonde made quite a scene last month in the Golden State, where she earned a spot on Ujena's National Bikini Team by finishing among the top 12 contestants in Swimwear Illustrated's annual Bikini Jam.
Ingram has vowed to give the West Coast a run for its reputation as the hottest spot for finding swimwear models. Only weeks after she returned home to Virginia Beach, she already has started a local competition aimed at discovering the area's top talent.
For 10 years, Swimwear Illustrated has sponsored annual Bikini Jams on the West Coast. Up to 1,500 aspiring models apply, and only about 200 of those are chosen to compete in the event. Most are from Western states, where Ujena, the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based swimwear company that publishes Swimwear Illustrated, is better known.
The winner becomes Miss Swimwear Illustrated. She and other winners in the various competitions comprising the event land high visibility modeling assignments for the 1-million-plus circulation magazine and the company's posters, catalogs and other promotional material. The top winners get to join Ujena's National Bikini Team.
Ingram was among the 12 who made it to the Miss Swimwear Illustrated semifinals and landed herself a spot on the team.
Now the 24 year-old Great Neck resident has teamed with Jeff Myers, a staff photographer and model search coordinator for Swimwear Illustrated, to make Ujena's Bikini Jams as familiar on the East Coast as they are out West. They plan to form a Hampton Roads Bikini Team, and the first competition will be held at 10:30 p.m. Wednesday at Legend's at Waterside.
Ingram will be team captain and one of the judges in the competitions, which will be held weekly for 10 weeks.
Ingram had competed before in local dance and swimwear competitions, but her first Bikini Jam was different.
``I had no idea what would be expected of me,'' she explained. ``I was very nervous.''
It all started when Ingram sent some photos of herself to Swimwear Illustrated earlier this year. Ujena World Headquarters fired back a letter inviting her to be a contestant in Bikini Jam X, held Aug. 18 to 27 in Irvine, Calif.
Once there, Ingram threw herself into the whirlwind pace of the competition. She placed third in the calendar girl search (and will be featured in Ujena's 1997 calendar), was one of 36 selected in the poster girl search (and will appear on Ujena's posters), won first place and a trophy in the age group search, was among those selected in the Ujena postcard search, and competed in the Bikini Jam X Spokes Model Competition.
``I froze up in that one,'' she noted, ruefully, ``but,'' flashing that ready smile again, ``I'll be prepared for it next time.''
In the Body Pro Challenge, the athletic portion of the competition, Ingram participated in five of six possible events (volleyball, 5-K run walk, swim, fitness aerobics and sports modeling), skipping only the obstacle course. She finished 14th overall. The top 20 finishers went on to a final elimination, Power Aerobics, where she came in seventh. By finishing in the top 12 and making it to the Miss SWI semifinals she received a crown and her place on the team.
``It was great; it was so much fun much of the time,'' she recalled.
Miss SWI, the winner of the Body Pro Challenge and one selected winner from any semifinal event are awarded a trip to a Swimwear Illustrated cover shoot. This year's winners went to the French Riviera.
That's reason enough for Ingram to be looking ahead to 1996.
Meanwhile, she's trying to get Virginia Beach a Bikini Jam of its own.
In addition to the planned East Coast Bikini Jam, said Ingram, she and Myers are working on local Swimwear Illustrated Cover Model Search competitions. The first of 10 weekly contests was held Thursday at Chevy's in Chesapeake.
Ingram also is back at work in the office of Coastal Engine and Head Exchange, a family-owned automotive garage in the Cleveland Street industrial area. A graduate of Green Run High School, Ingram is pursuing a degree in accounting at Tidewater Community College.
If that weren't enough, she has just received her NASCAR license and has already taken a few practice spins at Langley in the two race cars built and owned by Coastal. She's anxious, she said, to give brother Ray a run for his money on the track. MEMO: For more information about Swimwear Illustrated's Hampton Roads Bikini
Team or Cover Model Search, call 431-8080 and leave a message.
ILLUSTRATION: Melissa Ingram, who works in the family business at Coastal
Engine and Head Exchange, plans to pursue a stock car racing career
as well as helping set up an East Coast Bikini Jam and local
Swimwear Illustrated Cover Model Search competitions.
Photo, left, by DAWSON MILLS
Photo, right, by ROBERT LAING
by CNB