The Rock's 'sub-10 king' Asafa Powell is stripping down and baring it all in his 2014 calendar which hits the stands today for a mere $1,500. Now, fans and admirers of the Olympian can have a little piece of the sculpted athlete to hold on to as each calendar month is perforated so the picture can be kept as a poster after the month has passed. To get a little more insight into the idea behind the calendar, we spoke to Powell in a recent candid interview.
According to him, the whole idea started, "After I got back from the Olympics last year and Tara and I started discussing the idea because we felt it was a good way to show the ladies a different side of me." He continued, "The whole idea is to allow the ladies to see the not-so-shy side of Asafa and also to fulfil the constant requests for pictures or posters that I get on a daily basis."
Being a naturally shy and reserved person, Powell has never before embarked upon anything of this nature and so, it took him some time to bare it, all for the calendar shoot. "It was the first time I have ever done anything like this. Tara was at me for weeks about the more revealing ones, convincing me that I should do them so after a while I actually caved and went along with it so yeah she pimped me out," he ended laughing. We posed the question to the athlete asking why people should buy his calendar when others are being given free of cost and he quickly smiled as if expecting that question and responded, "My calendar is nothing like Jamaica has ever seen. It's not the typical roll up, one year on a page that is given away every Christmas. This calendar is definitely up to international standards ... it offers four bonus months in 2015 printed with a high finish and it's perforated so each picture can be torn off once the month is over and be kept as a poster," he stated.
Creating a calendar was no easy feat from concept to realisation. Both Powell and Tara Playfair-Scott, his publicist, agreed that the calendar was a go, so they looked at concepts and layouts and narrowed down the looks they wanted. William Richards was chosen to be the photog and so they set dates for the shoot. After all that was over, Playfair-Scott located a designer and began the process of narrowing down the pics, layout, etc., until they found exactly what they wanted. Fast-track to a year later and the calendars are printed and ready for sale. According to Powell, "We did all of this way in advance so that we would have everything ready for October 2013."
The calendars will be available in Jamaica at Sangster's Book Stores islandwide, as well as Bookophilia in Kingston, but the fans outside of Jamaica can buy their calendars online at www.iamasafa.com. The cost in Jamaica is J$1,500 but that cost might vary online depending on where in the world you are making the purchase from. The last words from Powell to his fans about the calendar: "Expect the unexpected."
