'Goofball' Dave leaves Survivor

Supplied

BAD BOY: Dave Cruser says he has 'no problem' being portrayed as a villain during his time on Survivor: China.

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Controversial Survivor: China contestant Dave Cruser, who stripped naked during one of the show's challenges, says he "got out at the right time" after being eliminated from the show.

The 37-year-old bartender and self-described "goofball" told Stuff.co.nz life with his tribe Zhan Hu was going downhill and he wasn't that sad to leave.

"Our camp was under six inches of water," Dave said. "There were bugs galore. It was only a matter of time before our rice went mouldy ... it was a bummer.

"It was looking pretty bleak so maybe I got out at the right time."

The former model annoyed team mates with his lack of clothes and confrontational manner. He argued regularly with school teacher Sherea, and WWE wrester Ashley described him as "patronising".

But Dave said it was only one side of his character and being portrayed as a villain didn't worry him.

"They have the ability to edit me anyway they want to. They've made me out to be the villain - it's only part of me and some of it's misconstrued.

"The people who know me know who I am and they think it's great and so do I so it really doesn't matter to me."

Stripping for one of the show's challenges was a spur-of-the-moment decision, and he had no problems appearing naked on the show.

"We'd lost every challenge up to that point. They had Hercules (James) and Andre the Giant (Jean-Robert), and Aaron's no slouch himself. I needed every possible advantage I could.

"Unless you're gay you don't really want to have a crazy naked guy charging you."

Dave struggled with the lack of food - eating small snails and mussels for sustenance - but said the toughest thing about Survivor was dealing with "all the social things going on".

"You just know every three days it's going to get dirtier (as) someone's going to get voted off on one side. Every time someone gets voted off the intensity and the vibe in your tribe just expands even more and people get more paranoid."

Dave said he wanted Denise to win because "she's a lunch lady and a mother of three boys and I think her family would really benefit".

• Survivor: China screens at 8.30pm on TV3 on Thursday nights. Stuff.co.nz will exclusively interview every contestant as they are eliminated. For more information, visit the Survivor: China website.

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