In case you needed another reason to never under any circumstances volunteer yourself for the absolutely bonkers show, Naked And Afraid, here it is. Professional surfer Anastasia Ashley joined the season seven cast and is off to quite a memorable start.
After just six days in Belize, where she found shelter and made a duct tape bikini, something horrible happened: sand flies attacked, giving her over a thousand bites on her back. A THOUSAND. Entertainment Weekly has the exclusive photo, and safe to say it's not for the faint of heart.
“Being attacked from a swarm of freshly hatched bugs that decided I was their host while naked in the jungle, with nowhere to hide is really the worst experiences of my life,” Ashley told them. “It was pure torture. We wanted to jump in the fire to try to end the itching. Luckily we didn’t.”
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Ashley is a newcomer to the show, but has been in the spotlight for her professional surfing since she won the 2010 Pipeline Woman’s Pro in Hawaii at just 16 years old. Despite her rough-and-tumble lifestyle, she was somewhat sheepish when appearing on the show — hence the makeshift bikini.
“As a pro surfer I am in a bikini most of my life and I am very comfortable with my body and being in a bikini, but stripping out of that is a very vulnerable and awkward experience,” she explained to Entertainment Weekly. “I have never done nude shoots and I am pretty modest. I had duct tape, so why not bring a piece of the beach to the jungle?”
We'd wish Ashley a speedy recovery, but as per the name of the show, it doesn't sound like things will be getting any easier for the athlete, who's been paired with YouTuber Cory Williams. Although compared to a thousand individual bug bites, whatever lies ahead probably doesn't seem so bad.