Cristina LaMonica holds a 2nd degree black belt in the martial art of jujitsu. Originally from Akron, Ohio, Cristina trained with her parents from the age of three. Her parents are the first non-Asian Americans to hold the highest-ranking belt in the world.

Athletic training stood Cristina in good stead for finding herself on location in Hawaii with a Treks in a Wild World crew where she hiked across Molokai and sea kayaked Kauai's rugged Na Pali coast. "The pure experience of relying only on yourself, doing it all on your own and the physical challenge of it, is the adventure."

In April 1999, she drove cross-country to Los Angeles. "Anything we could possibly see, we saw it. We saw dinosaur footprints on the side of a mountain. We explored Arches National Park in Utah, Zion National Park, Grand Canyon, and went through Vegas just to say we did it."

Cristina enjoys her days playing volleyball, soccer and of course, jujitsu. She now calls LA home.