So you talked about walking out of Tribal Council with 30 pounds of clams. Was that a threat, or did you actually have them when you were voted out?It wasn’t a threat. I swear on my life. I took that giant clam shell and I had it in my bag. And you have to walk to the beach to get the Tribal Council. It’s a long walk and my bag’s like 45 pounds with all my clothes, my shoes, and my clamshell. I brought it home. Well, I wanted to bring it home. Because my mom has this Megalodon she got when she was younger from a friend that was a stripper. And I wanted to put all her shark teeth in and that would have been fantastic. But then I learned you get a $20,000 fine if you do something like that coming back to the U.S. So it’s in Fiji. (Laughs.)Oh! So it wasn’t like you had threatened to walk out with the food supply for the tribe if they had voted you out?No, we had already eaten the clams. It was just the clam shells. I would have never taken food out anybody’s mouth. But at least the clam shells I found were very beautiful. The structure of the clam had fins and little waves on top. It was just such a beautiful creature when I found it. I would have liked to bring it back so other people can enjoy it as well.Well I find it appropriate we got off on a tangent about seafood. The past couple of episodes have been about you spending an extensive amount of time fishing, something you said in a secret scene allowed you to connect with your late grandfather, who was a fisherman. But your tribemates made several comments about you isolating yourself while fishing, with Sami going so far as to say, “He’s not making tight bonds with anybody except the fish.” Did you know others were feeling that way?It is not surprising hearing from the people that said it, because I didn’t get to strategize with them as much. So the fact that I didn’t get to talk to them and strategize and gain that bond with those people, it makes sense to feel like, “This guy, all he does is work hard.” But people saw me. Gabler saw me fishing; he went out fishing as an elder. He was like, “Hey, you’re doing excellent at this, teach me how to do it.” And it was nice and humbling to see that on TV. Because sometimes I do overwork myself. But at the same time, I did make connections with people. And I think it was them also trying to pay the target of “all he does is fish.” So that when it comes time to vote me out, it’s like, “Well, he doesn’t strategize with you. He sees all he cares about is fish.” So I don’t take it to heart. I know every person who was there was a great person. But you’re on TV. So you see a guy out there who’s fishing for three and a half hours and come back with 21 fish, you’ve got to make it seem much less of an achievement. Because honestly, if somebody else was doing it, I’d be like, “Okay, let’s keep this guy a little bit longer.” So, yeah, it was surprising, but at the same time I understand.Were you surprised to find out that you were really on the chopping block during that Jeanine vote? Or could you sense the sharks were circling?so actually we have to go way back to when Geo was voted out. My papaya brother was gone. I didn’t feel safe. I honestly didn’t feel safe ever, to be honest. I felt like I had more of a place after that seven because I was part of their numbers. But I didn’t feel like it was a home. I felt like more of a free agent. I wanted to break off, make my own alliances, and talk to other people to have my options open. Because I knew after that vote, I wasn’t at the top of Coco. I wasn’t even in the middle of cocoa. I was in the bottom of Coco. So when Coco was on the top of that seven, I’m not part of that top Coco. It made me think I need to go and get some agency, do as much work as I can since I have all this energy. And I want to enjoy myself, because I like work, so everything I did I enjoy. So it was a matter of trying to find that happy medium for me to be able to process information, not taking too many things, and get the work I thought needed to be done so at the end of the day, I’m comfortable sleeping warm on the beach.So who were those allies you were trying to seek out as you wanted to crack the “Coco coconut”? Did you have an endgame in mind by the time you left?Honestly, it would have had to been Noelle, Gabler, Owen and Cody. That was four. We’re picking a couple from the seven so it’ll make them weaker, and we’ll be able to move around. But that didn’t come to fruition as much as I thought. We talked about it. I thought it was a thing. But obviously, it wasn’t a thing. (Laughs.) So I was trying to strategize. I was trying to make movies. I wasn’t always just out there fishing. But it just was other people’s bonds. Jesse and Cody from Day One are ride-or-dies. Gabler probably picked up on that and was like, “Well, it’s better to sit with Jesse and Cody. They’re gonna get me further than just Ryan. And Ryan’s a physical threat.” He actually told me in the game, “I told Survivor, ‘That guy’s a threat.’” So I understand people looking and saying, “There’s two people there. And there’s one guy that can beat me in a challenge if he’s on his A game. So I’m gonna go with the two votes over here that can keep you safer, longer, and more connections.” It’s about socializing and strategizing, and that’s maybe something I should have done more instead of fishing. (Laughs.)We have to go back to this Geo vote. He told me that you had mentioned the idea of throwing the challenge before to him, but that he didn’t know you had done it. What made you feel at that point you should throw things to try to get rid of Cassidy?So Cassidy wasn’t part of my main lines. It was supposed to be me, Geo, and Karla. And Cassie can be back and forth. She didn’t seem to get along well with Geo, calling him “sassy” all the time. They didn’t rub each other the right way. He did a lot of work. He couldn’t really compete in challenges, but he could work his butt off. And that’s why I really bonded with Geo. We’re always out getting papaya or he’d be spending 30 minutes to an hour grabbing snails so that we can boil up some snails and eat. And I just felt like he was underappreciated because he wasn’t useful in challenges. But I saw, “Hey, he’s saving me time and effort. And I can see he wants to put in the work.” So seeing him go home really sucked. But my mindset was, before we left, I had conversations with people. Because our morale was low; we just lost. And they were like, “Oh, yeah, if we lose again, I wouldn’t mind voting Cass.” Well, that was probably just because they were telling me the name I’m wanting to hear. And I was like, “Okay, well, I don’t necessarily trust her 100%. I trust everybody else more.” So if I try this challenge, one, it will make our numbers look less of a threat going into the merge. Because I had already seen them help each other out to quell our numbers. So if we’re 4-4-5, now Baka looks more like a threat. Two, Ryan messes up, he’s not as much of a challenger threat. And three, it gets somebody out of the game I don’t think it’s gonna vote for me at the end and isn’t I don’t think is trustworthy to work with. So it was a number of things that I thought was an advantage. There was more pros and cons. But then my brother went home. And I was sad. He turned around to wave goodbye and I was like, “(Mimes a tear rolling down his cheek.)“The next day the tribes come together. And as you mentioned, you were on the bottom of Coco. Did you try to explore options with the other tribes to find new allies?So I feel in the beginning. challenges really painted a target. Because I I did not hold back. I’m gonna be honest, other than that challenge that I threw, I was giving my all. Even when I was missing those sandbags, I was throwing them as hard as I could. (Laughs.) So I feel like I was possibly a threat, and Coco winning as much as we did made Coco themselves a threat. And Vesi and Baka already had that bond of helping each other with a challenge. And they already thought, “We can work together moving forward. We can get all these Coco guys out.” So hearing my name come up on TV as much as it did, I was like, “Hey, I really was dodging bullets! I’m glad I made it as far as I did.” So it was surprising to see my name get thrown out there so much, considering how much I was trying to do for the tribe. But the first few days on the new beach, I couldn’t fish at all. So they didn’t know I can fish. The full moon made the tides incredibly dangerous. So we stayed away from the water for a while. But I tried to do as much work as I could and I guess that divided me from the group and made it easy to try to say, “Hey, that guy’s not talking with you or me. Let’s get him out.“Yeah, talk to me more about that. There’s a secret scene where you end up isolating yourself hours after everyone comes together to build some sort of wall to block out the wind, something that everyone takes note of. Was that purposeful, or just going back to your hardworking nature?So one thing I could have done better was ask more people to help so that I can bond with them while working, try to sit back and let people use their opinion on what should be done, how they think things should be done. Because I’ve done a lot of things and I’d like to get a lot of experiences. So when I come to a situation, I’m like, “Well, this person did it this way. And this person did this way. So I’m gonna do it this way.” And it usually works out very well. A lot of people are like, “How did you do that? It was your first time doing it.” It’s just critical thinking skills. But the reason I made that is because I was I had an accident in college that messed up my lower back. And I could not sleep on bamboo. I tried the first night and I ended up on the beach by myself. And then they joined me out there. Honestly, my back doesn’t hurt anymore. Sleeping on the sand, I guess realigned me with the earth. But I knew if I started sleeping on that bamboo, I’m not going to be good at challenges.,I’m not going to be efficient in camp, and I’m gonna get kicked off real quick. So the wind was horrible; sand was blowing everywhere. So I thought, “Well, they have this shelf up there and it’s not big enough to fit all of us.” Cody actually helped me. Let’s make this wall that’s blocking the wind. And like Elie said, she went down saying, “I don’t think it’s gonna work. But it works!” It was nice to have all the camp move from up there down to the beach. There’s no bugs, the breeze is nice during the day, and the sand is comfortable. So in my opinion, it was 100% worth it, to see how comfortable people were able to be, how comfortable I was, and how much people actually enjoyed it. It was worth my time and my effort.You have this incredibly inspirational story about being born with mild cerebral palsy and pushing through that adversity to get where you are today. What was it like to get to tell that story to millions of people?The amount of support and the amount of people that have reached out is stupendous. I’d say over 100 people with not only mild cerebral palsy, but other things that have given them disabilities. They’re like, “He had a disability and he powered through it. And he was able to do it.” And I always try to give them support. I always respond. And I tell them, “Thank you so much for the support.” Like I said, it’s stupendous how many people have been inspired. And then I listen to their story and I try to give the best feedback I can to also help motivate them further. Seeing somebody on TV like you is nice. But actually getting a response from that person of their story personally, and hearing the other person’s story personally helps me to understand. Though I felt different most of my life, I came back and got this amount of crazy responses. Like, “You have helped me motivate myself to help my son.” Or, “Our child has CP and their father’s not taking it too well. But seeing you on TV really helped motivate him and motivate us to have faith and have the will to keep pushing.” Love and support is what got me on Survivor. Love and support is what got me on my feet. I didn’t walk until I was 4. I didn’t roll over. I didn’t crawl. My mom said the first four years of my life all she was was in clinics and physical therapy. But she is so grateful and I am so grateful. It makes it not only my life better, because I’m able to walk around, but my appreciation for the time people give me is amazing. I really appreciate when somebody goes out of their way, or somebody does something small nice. Somebody brings me a sweet tea; it may not be that much, but I wasn’t I appreciate the fact that you saw it and thought of me and you brought it to me. So I really try to tell people, “Appreciate the time you spend with it. Really put your effort and your love into it.” And the body feels it. Your mind is amazing and can do fantastic things. So I try to give as much advice from my experience and the experience my mom had and what she told me to help people and give them hope. Because being able to help people is what I love doing, and being able to help people that have a disability like me really makes me feel at one with myself. It’s accepting that part of me that is different and makes things harder. That got me pushed around, and it took some time to really start to accept it. But after this I really realized I’m different, but so are many other people. And they’re all amazing. It’s fantastic. I love it.Next, read our interview with James Jones, who was also voted out in Survivor 43 Episode 9.
