On-Site Barbados: Crossing Paths with MMA Fighter Brolik in Bathsheba
I take you down, then ground and pound.
This wasn’t the first thing Crystal “Brolik” Stokes said to me when we met a couple months ago, but I’m sure you can imagine from the photo above why it’s the one line of our conversation that has stuck with me the most. Simply put, Brolik is the most incredibly fit and intimidating woman I have ever laid eyes on. So of course, in true Uncommon Caribbean style, you just know I couldn’t resist talking to her…
We met in Barbados back in February. Patrick and I had just stopped in at the very special Seaside Bar rumshop in Bathsheba after taking in the action at the Barbados Surfing Association Junior Championship Series. The bar was loud and lively with a group of eight locals (obvious regulars) carrying on an animated conversation at one end of the bar, while this amazingly chiseled couple sat eating and talking quietly at the other. In true rumshop fashion, it wasn’t long before the entire place was laughing and carrying on together.
Round about the time one of the regulars told me why I should drink stout beer warm (yes, it has everything to do with sex), I worked up enough courage to start asking Crystal questions. It’s not every day you meet someone with a physique like hers in a random rumshop. Could her story be as spectacular as her body…?
The short answer: yes!
Turns out, Brolik is an MMA fighter and professional football player with the San Diego Surge of the Women’s Football Alliance (WFA). No, the WFA isn’t some powder-puff lingerie football league. WFA teams play by the same rules used in the NFL, so it’s just about as hard-hitting as the action most of America gorges on every Sunday in the fall. This suits Brolik, all 6′ 0″ 180-pounds of her, just fine, of course. For someone with her size and strength, playing defensive end for the Surge must seem like a nice warm-up to the beat-downs she lays on MMA opponents.
Well, actually, I’m sure it would seem like a nice warm-up to her beat-downs of MMA opponents… if one of them was, in fact, brave enough to face her..
The first girl saw me and said no.
Wow. Umm…smart girl.
While waiting for an opponent, Brolik decided to catch up with a buddy she had served with in the U.S. Marines who now lives in Barbados (i.e.: the similarly chiseled guy with her at the bar). They had met while deployed in Iraq, so Barbados was a VERY welcome change of scenery.
I LOVE Barbados! I like the culture. It’s just real chill; real laid back.
The trip to Barbados marked Brolik’s first time in the Caribbean, but she already had the basics of traveling the Uncommon Caribbean way down pat.
The highlight for me is just hanging out with the locals; interacting with them and learning their every day lives.
I’m guessing it’s not too hard for anyone anywhere to be nice and welcoming to Brolik, but you don’t have to be as crazy strong as her to enjoy the warm hospitality and good times served daily in Barbados’ legendary rumshops. Just stop in to one, pull up a bar stool and join the conversation. You just never know what you might learn (I’ve got a six-pack of warm stout stashed away in a cupboard for a rainy day), or who you might meet…
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