Sorry, all you babe boaters hoping for a piece of Brad Ludden. Competition for the blond and buff Colorado boater just got a lot tougher as Ludden recently won a contest to become Cosmopolitan magazine’s Hottest Bachelor.
Of course, being a dirtbag boater at heart, he stacked the deck a bit in his favor, calling upon friends of his First Desecents Cancer Camp to vote online, with the promise to pledge the $10,000 first-place prize to First Descents.
But he can certainly bank the bragging rights, which just might make trying to hit on him in an apres-paddle bar a little harder. (“I dunno,” he might say, “I am Cosmo’s Hottest Bachelor, you know.”)
And ballot-stuffing efforts aside, with ore than 20,000 votes cast for all the bachelors, his Brad Pitt-like looks certainly helped matters. For the honor, had to beat out contestants from all 50 states, including buff surfers from Hawaii and metro-sexuals from New York. And that’s right where he went (and belnded in admirably) for the awards ceremony.
“The last three days were a whirlwind of experiences in NYC,” he says. “But I want to thank everyone for their support in voting. The most important thing is that we were able to raise $10,000 for Young Adult Cancer. Thanks to everyone’s help, we were able to win this competition and will be donating the $10,000 prize money entirely to First Descents.”
“I was honored to be on stage holding that check on behalf of everyone who believed in this and will be even more honored to present it to First Descents,” he adds. “We showed that we are strong in the face of cancer and that we will continue to be so until we live in a cancer-free world. These efforts are something to be proud of.”
Of course, he’s also quick to thank “the girls of Cosmopolitan Magazine and Hearst for making all of this possible.”
“This year’s group of guys was our best to date, and choosing the Bachelor of the Year, Colorado, was a difficult decision,” says Cosmo Editor-in-Chief Kate White, who reviewd the top vote-getting candidates with team of Cosmopolitan editors to select this year’s Bachelor of the Year. “Brad is so great looking, and as a professional kayaker and a pilot, he has a passion for life. But he’s also extraordinarily compassionate. He plans on donating his prize winnings directly to a charity that he founded.”
For information on this year’s bachelors, check out the November issue of Cosmopolitan, now on newsstands, or visit www.cosmopolitan.com.
About First Descents
First Descents provides free outdoor adventure programs for young adults with cancer, most of which focus on taking them kayaking. The program has grown tremenedously since its inception in Vail, COlo. “It’s been a crazy summer for FD,” says Ludden. “We saw our biggest expansion ever and served 140 participants over the course of 9 weeks in 5 different states. Sadly, we also lost our friend and Executive Director, Allan Goldberg, to cancer on the first day of our programs in June. It’s in his name that I would make this donation in order to continue the collective goal of expanding these programs to reach as many young adults as possible…and because he would have been the first to give me a hard time about the nomination.”