Erik Huffman

Erik Taylor Huffman is a contestant from.

Profile
Erik Huffman was born in Greenville, South Carolina, where he remained through college. From an early age, he enjoyed a number of sports, excelling in football and baseball. He also achieved academic excellence, from competing at the Greenville County Spelling Bee at age 10 to ranking 10th out of 243 people in his high school graduation class. He continued playing football in high school and began running track. Huffman's hopes of being a potential college football prospect were shattered when he broke his leg during his senior year. In track, he specialized in the Triple Jump, qualifying and competing once for the State Championship.

Huffman graduated from Furman University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Administration in 2003. In 2001, he also spent six months studying at Griffith University in Queensland, Australia. During college, he played intramural sports, but his energy became more focused on music. Having previously worked as a sporting goods sales representative and a waiter, Huffman found more pleasure in media and entertainment. At age 18, he began modeling and landed spots in local print ads and commercials in Greenville. His profile took a leap when he was discovered by Ford Models. He has done work with Hanes, Glamour, Abercrombie & Fitch, Finish Line (in Sports Illustrated), Macy's, Target and many others.

Huffman's father began teaching him guitar at age 13, and he later picked up bass guitar at age 16. Music was a passion, but it remained only a hobby for years. During his free time at Furman, Huffman began playing bass guitar with Alex Florez, and just before graduating college, he decided to pursue music more seriously. He is currently a full-time musician, playing bass guitar and singing with his rock band, FLOREZ. The band travels in a 15-passenger van to various cities across the United States, playing about three shows a week at clubs, colleges and private parties. FLOREZ has shared the stage with Sister Hazel, Better Than Ezra, Josh Kelley, The Doobie Brothers, Gavin DeGraw and Robert Randolph, to name a few. In 2005, the band signed a co-publishing deal with BMG Songs North America and, in February 2006, their song, "Natalie," was featured in the television series "Scrubs." Aside from music, Erik still models part-time. He currently appears in the Summer/Fall 2007 Hanes campaign.

Huffman's hobbies include running, football, lifting weights, frisbee, golf, Sudoku, movies, snowboarding and skateboarding. He describes himself as genuine, honest, sensitive, competitive, a problem solver, athletic and sometimes, a perfectionist. Huffman is a Christian, and he believes his faith will keep him strong and focused when faced with the physical, mental and emotional hardships of SURVIVOR: CHINA.

Huffman currently resides in a Nashville, Tennessee. His birth date is January 31, 1981.

Survivor: China
After the competition of the Welcoming Ceremony and the reveal that the castaways would only have the clothes on their back, Erik Huffman was placed on the Zhan Hu tribe. Zhan Hu ended up losing the first challenge of the season to it's rival tribe, Fei Long. At Tribal Council, Erik joined the majority in voting out Chicken Morris over Ashley Massaro and Peih-Gee Law.

The next day, Dave Cruser resumed his role leader with Peih-Gee as the number two. Erik notes that Dave, while he had good ideas, would stick with own ideas over others. At the reward challenge, Erik was teamed with Jaime Dugan and Sherea Lloyd for the first round of the challenge. They lost their lost and Zhan Hu lost the challenge. Fei Long was also given the choice to kidnap someone from Zhan Hu and they chose Jaime to demoralize Zhan Hu. Zhan Hu situation didn't get any better as their camp was flooded and they lost the next immunity challenge. At tribal council, Ashley was unanimously voted out over Dave.

Things improved for Zhan Hu when the women won the tribe it's first challenge, giving the tribe comfort items, a tarp and a lantern with kerosene. Zhan Hu chose to kidnap Leslie Nease. Leslie bonded with Zhan Hu because of shared Christian background. The women also learn some of Fei Long's tribe dynamics such as Aaron Reisberger being their tribe leader. Zhan Hu was able to keep up the good fortune by winning the immunity challenge.

Unfortunately, Zhan Hu's bad luck resumed when Frosti Zernow discovered Mold growing the rice and lost the reward challenge. Fei Long chose to kidnap Dave until the next immunity challenge. Without Dave, the tribe had to pick up the workload he usually does. Erik gotten annoyed with when Sherea Lloyd she sat in the shelter. At the immunity challenge, Erik competed in the last round with Jaime. However, they was unable to overcome the deficit their tribe had and Zhan Hu had to go to another tribal council. Erik personally wanted to vote out both the irritating Dave and the lazy Sherea. At tribal council, Erik join the tribe in voting out Dave in a unanimous vote over Sherea.

On Day 13, Erik and Jaime bonded and revealed facts about their personal lives. Later that day, The tribe received a note saying to people Fei Long's two strongest members. Zhan Hu chose Aaron Reisberger and James Clement. Under the assumption that they would have an 7-5 numbers advantage, Zhan Hu was surprised that they Fei Long gotten a similar note that allow them to pick two Zhan Hu to become Fei Long and chosen Frosti & Sherea to join them. At the immunity challenge, Erik and Aaron managed to give Zhan Hu a lead. However, Jaime & Peih-Gee squandered the lead and Fei Long won immunity. He later learned that the women threw the challenge to vote out the Fei Long members on Zhan Hu. Realizing that he can't flip on the women, Erik join them in voting out Aaron in a 3-1-1 vote over James.

Post-Survivor

 * JaimeErikWedding.jpg is now married to fellow Zhan Hu tribemate Jaime Dugan. They have a son named Harper.
 * Erik and Jaime won an $80,000 wedding courtesy of the Charleston Area Convention and Visitors Bureau in Charleston, S.C., not far from their hometowns in upstate South Carolina.

Trivia

 * Erik is the only male castaway to make the merge in China and never be a member of Fei Long.
 * Erik was the only original Zhan Hu member who didn't vote for Todd Herzog at the Final Tribal Council.
 * Erik only successfully voted out castaways who were members of Zhan Hu at some point.
 * Erik is the first jury member to vote for the Second Runner-Up at any Final Tribal Council in the show's history. He would be followed by Baylor Wilson in.
 * Erik is the fifth person be the only juror to vote for a single finalist while the others vote for the other finalist(s). Erik is the first person to do that in a Final Three. The first five being Butch Lockley, Tijuana Bradley, Coby Archa, and Rafe Judkins.
 * They would be followed by Ralph Kiser, R.C. Saint-Amour, Carter Williams, Vytas Baskauskas, Tasha Fox, Baylor Wilson, Sierra Thomas, and Rodney Lavoie Jr..
 * Erik is the second player to marry a fellow Survivor contestant (Jaime Dugan) who competed on the same season (Rob Mariano and Amber Brkich were the first).
 * Erik and Jaime are the third overall married couple of Survivor contestants, following Rob/Amber and Alex Bell/Kim Powers. All Couples would then be followed by Keith Tollefson and Whitney Duncan.