Galu
Tribe Profile
Season	Samoa
Namesake	Samoan word meaning "Ocean Wave"
Tribe Type	Starting Tribe
Day Formed	Day 1
Rival Tribe(s)	██ Foa Foa
Tribe Status	Merged with Foa Foa on Day 19
Challenge Wins	8
Lowest Placing Member	Yasmin Giles (16/20)
Highest Placing Member	Brett Clouser (4/20)
Flag
Insignia
Buff

Galu is a tribe from Survivor: Samoa.

Challenge-wise, Galu was the stronger of the two tribes on Samoa, winning eight of the ten tribal challenges. However, after the merge, tribal conflicts erupted, causing its members to be eliminated in an almost consecutive order. The tribe color was purple.

MembersEdit

• Brett Clouser, a T-Shirt designer from Salem, Oregon.
• Dave Ball, a fitness instructor from Los Angeles, California.
• Erik Cardona, a bartender from Ontario, California.
• John Fincher, a rocket scientist from Los Angeles, California.
• Kelly Sharbaugh, a hairstylist from Los Angeles, California.
• Laura Morett, an office manager from Salem, Oregon.
• Monica Padilla, a law student from San Diego, California.
• Russell Swan, an attorney from Glenside, Pennsylvania.
• Shambo Waters, a sales representative and former marine from Renton, Washington.
• Yasmin Giles, an actress and hairstylist from Detroit, Michigan.

Tribe HistoryEdit

On the first day of the competition, the ten members of Galu were instructed to vote (based solely on first impressions) for a leader. They chose Russell Swan, who did not choose wisely in the first Reward Challenge. However, this was merely a speed bump on Galu's road to pre-merge domination, which became clear when the first eight days saw the tribe immune from the first few votes.

Whilst the tribe enjoyed early success, there were clear factions within the group. The girls' alliance of Laura Morett, Monica Padilla, and Kelly Sharbaugh and the mens' alliance of Erik Cardona, Russell Swan, Dave Ball, John Fincher, and Brett Clouser left Shambo Waters a sitting duck.

After the elimination of Yasmin on Day 11, Galu remained a force to be reckoned with. However, Russell S. began to show signs of struggling at a Reward Challenge which led to his eventual evacuation. Jeff Probst instructed that the tribe elect a new leader. Erik took this opportunity to bring Shambo into the alliance and make her the leader in order to control her later down the line. Her reign as leader was short-lived and the majority of the time scrutinized as the decisions she wanted were regularly rejected straight away (one incident regarding who would be making decisions at a Reward Challenge).

Yasmin and Russell S. were the only people eliminated from Galu, as the tribes merged at the Final Twelve.

GalleryEdit

Yasmin Voted Out

Russell pulled out of the game due to medical reasons.

Members of Galu at a challenge.

Add a photo to this galleryAdd a photo to this gallery

TriviaEdit

• Following Jaburu, Moto, Viveros, Bayoneta, and Puka Puka, Galu is the sixth tribe to not vote out any male member pre-merge.
  • It would then be followed by Upolu, Salani, and Kalabaw.
• Galu is the only tribe to have the most original tribe members voted out consecutively at the merge, with 7.
  • However, Galu is also one of two starting tribes to have 7 members voted out consecutively, along with Sook Jai. Coincidentally, both tribes' color was purple.
• Galu is the fourth starting tribe to secure all but one jury spot, following Rotu, Koror, and Timbira.
• Galu is similar to Moto, in that they each had lost one man to a medical evacuation and one woman to tribal council.
  • Coincidentally enough, a female member of each tribe was also eliminated by a Hidden Immunity Idol post-merge (Stacy Kimball (Moto) and Kelly Sharbaugh (Galu)).
• Galu also shows similarities to the Timbira tribe.
  • Both made it to the merge only losing two members: an African-American man and woman.
    • The male was eliminated due to their medical condition.
    • However, Russell Swan was evacuated, while Timbira's Jerry Sims was voted out.
  • Both Galu and Timbira took up all but one spot on the jury, the second-to-last spot.
• So far, Russell Swan is the only previous Galu member to come back for another season, being a contestant in Survivor: Philippines.
• Galu is the sixth purple tribe.
• Coincidentally, on the first day after Foa Foa's victory, Jeff Probst labelled Galu the underdogs.
• Similar to Pagong, Samburu, Sook Jai, Mogo Mogo, Rarotonga, Timbira, and later the Heroes, Zapatera, Savaii, and Manono, Galu was systematically decimated after the merge occurred.

ReferencesEdit