IRIS SMOOT/Acorn Newspapers A 'TRAVEL JUNKIE'- Dave Cruser, the second local man to compete on the CBS hit reality series "Survivor" in the last two years, laughs over a memory in the backyard of his Simi Valley home. It was a bit of an accident that Simi Valley local Dave Cruser became a contestant on the 15th season of CBS TV's "Survivor."

In fact, if he'd entered the right casting room, he might have landed a television commercial, not a hit reality series.

"I went to the wrong casting," Cruser, 38, said. "I was headed to one for a Wal-Mart commercial, but it wasn't the right time. . . . Thank God."

Cruser walked into a casting call for alternates for the reality series "Pirate Masters" and the producers liked him. But he had only a week to get his shots and handle a background check, and it didn't work out. That was when the producers offered him a spot on "Survivor," one of TV's most successful reality series.

"I just remember saying, 'Anywhere but China,'" Cruser recalled. "It's humid and pushy and gnarly and polluted. It's the urban social environment you just don't want. But the producers told me I was going to experience China differently, and to open my mind and embrace it."

Cruser did just that, and while making a name for himself as a productive- albeit pushy- leader, he also satisfied his hankering to see more of the world.

"I'm a travel junkie and I was in need of a serious fix," said Cruser, who had been back in Simi Valley for about a year prior to China. "I was happy to get out of Dodge. It's nice here, but getting stuck here for awhile was getting quite painful."

Cruser has spent much of his life around the globe, first traveling to Paris for a modeling job after a semester at Moorpark College.

"It was a random opportunity. So I decided that instead of going back to school I'd go to Paris for the fall. . . . It turned into going all around Europe living the rock star life for awhile," he said.

He spent time all over Europe, in Hong Kong and in Miami and spent a few years living in South Africa. While there he married and later divorced. But he hasn't fallen out of love with South Africa, he said, and hopes to be there when he turns 40.

Although Cruser had visited China in his travels, he said the "Survivor" experience was very different, especially living in a camp with seven strangers.

"The sun rose at 4:30 a.m. and everybody else would be sleeping. It was the only peaceful, quiet, cool time," he said.

Mike James, a childhood friend, said he wasn't surprised when he heard Cruser was going on "Survivor," and his perfectionism at camp was also expected.

"When he wanted to build that fire place, that's totally Cruser," James said, referring to an argument Cruser had with his tribe over an elaborate stone fire pit. "He's an engineer at heart. That was his mission, to build the best fire pit he could, so nothing else mattered. Even if he couldn't walk for the next three days, he was going to do it.

"I took some art classes with him in school and he was the same way. Once he'd have a vision everything else was about the process of achieving that mission."

Dave Gandel, a friend since second grade, agreed.

"Once he's put his mind to something, it's over," Gandel said. "Dave is very demanding, and I don't mean that in a bad way. He's pure. His intent is always good. He'd give you the shirt off his back, no questions asked. He's affected a lot of people in a very positive way. He makes people feel better."

Cruser didn't have too many compliments for his teammates, but he did care for Michael "Frosti" Zernow, the 20-year-old student-athlete from Chicago who was voted off the show last week.

Although Zernow voted for Cruser in what would be the Simi Valley man's final "tribal council," Cruser said he doesn't hold any grudges.

"He's a great kid," Cruser said of Zernow. "He had to vote for me. He had to stay in the game, and I respect that."

Cruser said his team likely took as much issue with his goofiness as they did his bossiness, as some eventually labeled him "Crazy Dave."

"There was a lot of editing and it didn't really show all the goofing off," Cruser said. "(My tribe mates) were probably thinking, 'What a weirdo. Why is he having such a good time?'"

Gandel said that's been Cruser's attitude since he was young.

"He's energetic and fun," Gandel said. "We did some really stupid stuff and had a lot of fun together. He's very creative and he always seems to be the center of the party."

And despite getting a bad rap for being an overbearing leader on the show, Cruser said, that's just one side of him.

"Of course it was a representation of me," he admitted. "How long though before I got to be in that state of mind? How long does it take to get your patience worn out? We need kindling, firewood, water. If you don't know what you can do, always collect those things. We never have enough. If I am bossy dictator, so be it."

But back in his home town of Simi Valley, where he grew up playing water polo and swimming and serving as junior and senior class president, Cruser seems nothing like his "Survivor" alter ego.

Relaxed and personable,

Cruser is a man who easily makes friends with strangers. Those unfamiliar with "Survivor" find it hard to see how he could get kicked off a show more about personal relationships than eating bugs and building fires.

James, still a Simi Valley resident, is still laughing at some of Cruser's high school antics. The two have been friends since seventh grade and Cruser served as James' best man in his wedding.

"He was really involved," James said of Cruser in school. "We had so much in high school. We were always goofing around. ... His laugh is absolutely contagious."

James recalled planning an event with the student council when he and Cruser came across some balloons. James said they stuffed Cruser's baggy sweats with blownup balloons and traipsed around campus that way until being caught by a teacher.

"He was also kicked off the swim team," James said. "He did a flip turn and lost his shorts, but he didn't stop. . . .We had fun. We stayed out of trouble, well, allegedly."

But at 38, Cruser thinks he clashed with his team because of the age gap.

"My stylist, whom I've known for 20 years, asked if I could go back, would I have done anything differently to prepare," he said.

"I'd actually get a stronger 2020 view of what's happening. I'd get a book on social dynamics on the youth of today."

Simi Valley High School art teacher Bruce Kanegai was featured on the 12th season of "Survivor" in Panama in 2006.