Survivor’s new season features Merced man who trained for the TV show at Lake Yosemite

Growing up, Vince Moua dreamed of competing on the TV show Survivor.

Watching the show was an escape for the Merced native. Over 38 seasons, the show has been shot in remote locations all over the world. It inspired Moua, now 27, to travel abroad after college and experience other cultures.

Shortly after spending over 7 years in South Korea, Moua got to live out his dream. Moua is one of the 20 contestants on the upcoming season of Survivor: Island of Idols.

Season 39 of the popular reality TV show will premiere on Wednesday night at 8 on CBS.

“Growing up in a lower-income family, we didn’t have access to too many channels,” Moua said. “Survivor was on a free channel and it’s a show my family watched.”

Watching Survivor showed Moua there was life outside of Merced and the Central Valley.

Moua was born and raised in Merced. He went to Fremont Elementary, Rivera Middle School and graduated from Merced High in 2009. He then went to college at Stanford University.

Both his parents Chongge Moua and Maggie Thor are Hmong refugees. In Moua’s bio on the Survivor website, he calls his father his hero.

“Despite the struggles of being forced into a totally foreign country with no immediate family members, he has never given up on living life to its fullest potential,” Moua said.

His mother is a teacher at Gracey Elementary School in Merced.

On the show, Moua is a member of the Lairo Tribe, which was filmed in Fiji.

The object of Survivor is to outwit, outplay and outlast the other 19 contestants on the show. Each week, contestants are voted out of the tribe by the other members. In the finale, the jury of contestants, who were previously voted out, will vote for a winner, who will receive $1 million.

Contestants compete with physical and mental challenges for immunity and rewards.

Moua found out he was selected for the show after returning from Korea where he spent five years teaching English and two more years as a public school college counselor in Seoul. Moua, who is now an admissions counselor at Stanford, calls himself a superfan of the show.

Moua said he did some of his preparation for the show in Merced.

“The crazy thing is when all this happened, I had just returned from Korea,” Moua said. “I had no insurance. I didn’t have money to join a gym. I didn’t have access to a swimming pool. I knew I had to swim because it’s a big part of the show, so I spent $6 and went to Lake Yosemite in Merced to practice my swimming. It was not the most enjoyable time.”

Moua says spending long days in the sun as a member of the Merced High Marching 100 will help him spend a lot of time under the sun in Fiji.

Moua said he spent time watching all of the previous seasons of Survivor. He said he also worked to gain 15 to 20 pounds before going on the show.

“I ate as a much as possible,” he said. “I know my body and I know I lose weight and gain weight relatively quickly. I wanted to gain weight because I was planning on being out there all 39 days”.

Moua becomes the second contestant from Merced to compete on Survivor. He joins Katie Gallagher, who finished as the runner-up in Survivor Palau in 2005. Gallagher won $100,000 for finishing second.

This story was originally published September 25, 2019 at 6:51 AM.