Erik Cardona

Erik Cardona is a contestant from .
Despite being in a comfortable position on the Galu tribe, Erik found himself blindsided at the start of the merge when the minority Foa Foa tribe, most notably Natalie White, managed to paint him as untrustworthy. Erik later became remembered for his impassioned jury speech in calling out Russell Hantz for his arrogance, Mick Trimming for his delusional entitlement, and support of eventual winner Natalie.
==Profile==
Retrieved from CBS.com
Erik Cardona (28)
Hometown: Ontario, Calif
Occupation: Bartender
Proud womanizer, Erik claims that he can date four to five women at the same time without any issues. He has no qualms about chasing after a taken woman (as long as she is not married) just for the fun of the chase. He says, "There's nothing sweeter than taking another man's goods." His top hobby is skirt chasing. Even though he can be found chasing multiple women at once, he says that he does have a special female in his life … his dog, Adrian.
Erik holds two degrees from Pepperdine University in Psychology and Sociology but has chosen a career as a bartender. When asked why he has chosen that specific career route, he explains that he likes waking up around 10:00 a.m. and running on the beach instead of being stuck pencil-pushing in a cubicle. He says that he enjoys life while the "sell-outs" do not.
He greatly admires his father because he has sacrificed everything in life for him. In raising him, Erik observed his father's mental and physical strength as well as endurance for raising an active boy. He feels that his father's example has provided him with tools that will help him win this game. In addition to his father's influence, Erik is self-motivated by his competitive nature and desire to prove to himself that he has what it takes to be the next Sole Survivor.
Currently, Erik resides in Los Angeles, Calif. His birth date is April 13.http://web.archive.org/web/20230208163314/https://www.cbs.com/shows/survivor/cast/36300/
==Survivor==
Erik started the game on the Galu tribe. On Day 1, the castaways were asked to pick a Leader based on first impressions. Yasmin Giles and Shambo Waters both picked Erik while he picked Russell Swan, who became the leader. Russell S. picked Erik as Galu's strongest member and Erik had to lift bundles of wood to the mat. Despite Erik trying his best on his portion of the challenge, Galu lost the challenge because of John Fincher botching the swimming portion of the challenge. Erik was annoyed with John's defeatist attitude and laying on the mat. At camp, the men of Galu clashed over building the shelter. Galu, however, won the first Immunity Challenge.
That was the start of a winning streak for Galu as they won many rewards and immunity twice. During this time, Erik found the Hidden Immunity Idol. However, life at Galu wasn't all peachy. Shambo alienated herself from the tribe and lost the snorkel piece to the fishing gear and allowed a chicken to escape. Erik attempted to catch the chicken, but he only ran into a clothesline and fell down which Dave Ball referred to as "Comedy Gold". Erik was not only mad with the chicken escaping, but also the fact that no one really cared about the chicken. Galu's winning streak came to an end on Day 10. Erik and Russell S. both wanted to vote out Monica Padilla because of her slowing down the tribe enough to allow Foa Foa to catch up and gain a lead. However, most of the tribe rallied with Monica and wanted Yasmin out for doing nothing around camp. Erik agreed with the most of the tribe and voted out Yasmin.
Galu resumed their winning streak afterwards. However, things changed on Day 15, when both tribes were revealed to be going to Tribal Council and the challenge was for pizza and the ability to watch the other tribe's Tribal Council. However, the challenge was canceled when Russell S. collapsed. The Galu men came together and decided to vote out Monica because of her weakness in challenges, close friendship with Laura Morett, and treating the game like a vacation. However, with Russell's evacuation, no one was voted out that night. The men of the tribe decided to elect Shambo the leader of the tribe in order to further drive her to their side, which angered Laura and Monica as they felt Shambo didn't deserve to be the leader. However, Galu won the next two challenges, keeping the tribe intact.
On Day 19, there was a major argument between Shambo and Laura. Erik believed that all it did was made Laura look bad as Shambo was crazy. Later, both of the tribes merged into Aiga. Erik believed that Foa Foa's situation didn't change aside from a new beach. At the Immunity Challenge, two people, one man and one woman, could win individual immunity. Erik wanted the highest possible score but failed to score. John and Laura won immunity. Erik wanted to keep the former Foa Foas from winning immunity so they can vote them out. Erik learned from Laura that Russell Hantz had the Hidden Immunity Idol and they decided to flush it while voting out Jaison Robinson, who was not contributing to camp life. However, John convinced Erik to vote out Monica to keep Laura weak and use the Foa Foa's votes. However, Dave thought it was crazy to vote out one of their own. Erik also told Jaison, Mick Trimming and Natalie White to vote out Monica. However, Natalie used this against Erik by telling Laura and Kelly Sharbaugh about the plot. The Galu women told everyone of this and Erik became the target. At Tribal Council, Russell H. played his idol while Erik didn't. This was fatal as Erik was voted out by everyone in Aiga (except Shambo) in a 10-2 vote. As a juror for the following Tribal Councils, Erik enjoyed seeing his Galu tribemates get voted out one-by-one for their betrayal by voting him out before voting out the remaining Foa Foa members.
At Final Tribal Council, Erik told Mick that he didn't do anything to prove himself worthy of the title of leader and told Mick he was responsible for Foa Foa's lack of guts. Then Erik told Russell H. that they had nothing in common and made it to the end despite his pride in his completely unethical game. Finally, Erik told Natalie that despite people looking down on her, she was still at the end of the game and was just as deserving and dangerous as the other two. Also, despite her opinion of being the least deserving, Erik told Natalie that she was the most deserving compared to the arrogant Russell H. and delusively entitled Mick and he was voting for her to win the game and hoped she got at least four more votes. True to his word, Erik gave his jury vote to Natalie, who won the game in a 7-2-0 vote over Russell and Mick.
<tabber>Challenge History=
Episode 	TribeAffiliation 	Challenge 	Challenge Type 	Sit-Out? 	Result
1 	rowspan=11 	Chief's Choice 	Reward 	No 	
1 	Yank Your Hank 	Immunity 	No 	 	
2 	Schmergen Brawl 	Reward/Immunity 	No 	 	
3 	Sea Crates 	Reward/Immunity 	Yes 	 	
4 	Bocce In A Box 	Reward 	Yes 	 	
4 	Well Stacked 	Immunity 	No 	 	
5 	Samoa Smoothies 	Reward 	No 	 	
5 	Sack Attack 	Immunity 	No 	 	
6 	Roll With It 	Reward 	No 	N/A 	
7 	Brain Food 	Reward 	No 	 	
7 	Canoe Dueling 	Immunity 	No 	 	
colspan="6" 	 	 	 	 	
8 	 	Nut Cracker 	Immunity 	 	
 	 	 	 	 	
Notes: Russell S. collapsed at the challenge, causing the challenge to be stopped with no winner.	Notes: Russell S. collapsed at the challenge, causing the challenge to be stopped with no winner.	Notes: Russell S. collapsed at the challenge, causing the challenge to be stopped with no winner.	Notes: Russell S. collapsed at the challenge, causing the challenge to be stopped with no winner.	Notes: Russell S. collapsed at the challenge, causing the challenge to be stopped with no winner.	Notes: Russell S. collapsed at the challenge, causing the challenge to be stopped with no winner.
|-|Voting History=
Episode 	Erik'sVotes	Voted AgainstErik
1 	 	
2 	 	
3 	 	
4 	 	
5 	 	
6 	colspan="2"	
7 	 	
8 	 	
 	 	
Voted forSole Survivor	colspan="2"	
</tabber>
==Post-Survivor==
* On January 9, 2010, Erik attended 's 10-year anniversary party.
==Trivia==
* Erik was recruited for and was one of the two alternates added to compete in at the last minute.http://www.realityblurred.com/realitytv/2009/09/survivor-samoa-erik_cardona/ The other was Foa Foa's Ashley Trainer.
** Erik revealed in his Quarantine Questionnaire that this was why Samoa didn't have a Family Visit, as the budget normally used to plan the Loved Ones Challenge was instead used to add him and Ashley to the cast.https://ew.com/tv/survivor-samoa-erik-cardona-quarantine-questionnaire/
* The original intro for Samoa had Erik's name misspelled with a "C" instead of a "K".
* Erik lost 17.6 lbs. during his time in Samoa.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpoVOjMIESw
* Erik is tied with Laura Morett for the most votes cast against them in Samoa, with 10.
** After receiving 10 votes at the seventh Tribal Council of Samoa, Erik broke Jon Dalton's previous record for most votes received at a single Tribal Council.
==References==
Category:Contestants
Category:Male Contestants
Category:Samoa Contestants
Category:Samoa Jury Members
Category:Galu Tribe
Category:Aiga Tribe
Category:12th Place
Category:Survivor (U.S.)
Category:Survivor (U.S.) Contestants
Category:Survivor: Samoa
Category:1981 births
Category:Living people
Category:Latin American Contestants