Aras Baskauskas

Aras Vydunas Baskauskas is the winner of. He later competed on with his brother, Vytas.

Panama
Aras Baskauskas completed his undergraduate program in three years and earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy from the University of California, Irvine. In 2003, he was named one of UC Irvine's "Most Eligible Bachelors" in the student newspaper.

Baskauskas continued his education at UC Irvine and graduated from the Graduate School of Management, where he received his Masters in Business Administration. He is proudest of being the only student to have played NCAA Men's Division One basketball on scholarship while in the MBA program.

Baskauskas is a former professional basketball player, having played briefly overseas in Lithuania. After leaving the court, Aras moved to Capetown, South Africa, where he opened up a donation-based yoga studio. He currently works as a yoga instructor in Santa Monica, California. His hobbies include meditation, golf and surfing. He describes himself as outgoing, compassionate and genuine.

As of Panama, Baskauskas lived in Santa Monica, California.

Blood vs Water
Name (Age): Aras Baskauskas (31)

Tribe Designation: Galang

Relationship to Significant Castaway: Vytas’ Brother

Previous Season: Survivor: Panama – Exile Island, winner

Current Residence: Santa Monica, Calif.

Occupation: Musician

Why Did You Want to Return to Survivor and Play with Your Loved One? I want to play Survivor with Vytas because I know we'll have a great shot at winning. More importantly, I know an experience like Survivor will bring us closer together. Early in our lives, we had a very rocky relationship. Taking on adventures as adults gives us the chance to make up for lost time.

Survivor: Panama
Originally part of the younger male Viveros tribe, Aras and the rest of the tribe, struggled early on, as the group of younger men were unable to set up camp, nor make fire. Their setbacks almost carried over at the first Immunity Challenge, narrowly finishing third place, avoiding Tribal Council.

In Day 4, Aras became a member of the new Casaya tribe and formed an early alliance with Shane Powers, Courtney Marit, and Danielle DiLorenzo. But the alliance was threatened with implosion when Shane wanted to quit the game, having smoked three packets of cigarettes a day prior to Survivor. But Aras convinced him not to quit, and the alliance regrouped and voted out Melinda Hyder, one of the two older women of the tribe. The dysfunctional Casaya tribe would then win two consecutive Immunity Challenges.

Aras led the charge to vote out Bruce Kanegai due to their clashing points of view, but Courtney, Danielle, and Cirie Fields felt that Bobby Mason was much more of a threat than Bruce, and they voted Bobby out. When the tribes merged in in Day 15, the ex-Casaya tribe members consisted of Aras, Shane, Bruce, Cirie, Courtney and Danielle had the power in numbers against the four ex-La Mina tribe members. Due to Terry Deitz, the largest target, winning immunity, the alliance voted out Nick Stanbury, Austin Carty, and Sally Schumann in three straight tribal councils.

In Day 25, Bruce was evacuated out of the game due to constipation, causing him immense pain. When Terry continued to win individual immunity, the alliance was forced to turn on themselves at the final six. Shane, together with Cirie and Aras, targeted Danielle, but Courtney, together with Terry, Danielle, and Cirie wanted to vote out Aras. Not happy with any of these options, Cirie brewed a plan of her own, and together with Aras and Danielle, voted out Courtney, whom Cirie believed was aligned with Shane.

Terry continued his immunity winning streak and once again the alliance was forced to take out one of their own. Shane, believing he was safe, targeted Danielle. But once again, Cirie had her own plans, and together with Aras and Danielle, they voted out Shane, who had aligned with Terry. At the final four, the long-standing rivalry between Terry and Aras was once again raised when Aras won a reward, much to Terry's dismay. When given the choice of picking someone to go on the reward with him to cross the Panama Canal, he decided to pick Cirie, which in turn sent both Terry and Danielle to Exile Island. When sent to Exile Island, Terry and Danielle formed an alliance against Aras and Cirie with plans of ousting Aras.

But Aras managed to win immunity, making him safe. Terry, due to the widely-known fact that he possessed the hidden immunity idol, was also safe. This created a 2-2 tie between Danielle and Cirie, who competed in a fire-building challenge to determine their fate. Shown over two episodes, Danielle won the challenge, and Aras' ally Cirie was eliminated. With Terry's idol now useless, it was now fair game between the final three, Aras, Danielle, and Terry.

The final immunity was the first to be predecessed by a "prepare for the immunity challenge" reward for the reward challenge winner. The immunity challenge was not one that the winner of the reward challenge would profit from. At the final immunity challenge, Danielle out-balanced the two guys to win immunity, giving her the power to choose her opponent in the final two. Danielle eventually chose to eliminate Terry, making him the final member of the jury and propelling Aras into the final two. The challenge ended the perceived battle between both Terry and Aras.

On Day 39, while he and Danielle had glasses of champagne, Aras slipped on a wet rock and fell, sending shards of glass into his hand and back. His wounds required seven stitches by the medical crew.

In the end, despite the injury, Aras beat out Danielle DiLorenzo to become the Sole Survivor in a 5-2 vote, gaining the votes of Austin, Sally, Courtney, Cirie, and Terry.

Post-Survivor

 * Aras is currently the CEO of TundraGear.com, a winter hat company.
 * In 2011, Aras released his debut album, "The Tree and the River", under the stage name of "Odd Us".
 * He was a guest on the second episode of the Survivor After Show in 2013. He mentioned that he had a girlfriend during the show.
 * On the above episode, Aras confirmed that his last name is pronounced "bush-cows-kiss"

Trivia

 * Aras is of Lithuanian heritage. His last name is pronounced: "Bush-kow-kiss".
 * Aras has the same birthday as Survivor: Vanuatu contestant John Kenney.
 * Aras injured himself on Day 39 on Survivor: Panama, but was not evacuated.
 * Aras was the only Viveros member to win individual immunity.
 * Aras received 9 votes against him on Panama - more than any other winner in a single season.
 * Aras is the only male Sole Survivor from a season shot in Panama.
 * Aras was the youngest contestant of Survivor: Panama.
 * Aras is the first male youngest contestant of a season to make it to the merge.
 * He is also the first male youngest contestant to become Sole Survivor.
 * Aras is the first winner of a season with four starting tribes.
 * At 6'3" (190cm), Aras is the second tallest winner behind Richard Hatch.
 * He was the yoga teacher of Survivor: Micronesia winner Parvati Shallow, and gave her advice before she appeared on her first season.
 * He is the only returnee from Survivor: Panama to not appear on Heroes vs. Villains.
 * Aras and Candice Cody are the only non-Survivor: One World returnees on Blood vs Water to bring a male loved-one with them.
 * Aras is the first contestant to cast a vote for Gervase Peterson and spell his name correctly.