Australian Survivor's Sam explains skimpy bikini: 'There was a method to my madness'

Sam had her bikini specially altered for Survivor, with extra reinforcement and adjustable straps. Photo / Instagram, samschoers

WARNING, SPOILERS: This article contains spoilers for the current season of Australian Survivor.

Model Sam Schoers became the latest Australian Survivor contestant to be blindsided, exiting the show in a shock elimination by the other members of her newly-swapped tribe in Monday night's episode.

Speaking to news.com.au before the episode aired, Schoers admitted that she really hadn't seen it coming.

"I had no idea. I even left a pair of shoes and a hat back at camp — I did NOT think I was going," she sighed.

Schoers, 30, provided one of this season's most talked about moments when she competed in an early challenge in a very skimpy bikini. She certainly won some new fans — while others wondered how her choice of clothing would last through her Survivor experience. Now she reveals there was a "method to the madness" of her outfit choice.

"Firstly, I don't know why there was 'uproar'; they were actually just bathers. There were plenty of other people in bathers … some of the boys were in their underwear!" she said.

"But I got those bathers in particular on purpose. The sides were adjustable on the bottom, so I could tighten them up, and I took the top to an alterer and got it completely reinforced. And it helped, because I lost eight kilos throughout my experience and I needed them to be extra tight; I needed them to be comfortable," Schoers revealed.

Schoers took to Instagram today to display the results of her "16-day, 8kg" weight loss:

View this post on Instagram

16 days and 8kgs later @survivorau 🌴

A post shared by Sammy Schoers (@samschoers) on Aug 5, 2019 at 2:09pm PDT

"So there you go: They might have looked delicate, but they absolutely were not," she said of the bathers. "I put a lot of thought into what I was wearing, because I didn't have a suitcase of clothing — I only had my bathers and my dry clothes back at camp."

Schoers' Contenders teammate Matt Farrelly provided another viral moment during Sunday's episode, as the high school teacher and pro-wrestler celebrated his tribe's win with an OTT chest-beating display. The testosterone-fuelled moment was enough for Champions tribe member Abbey Holmes to dub him "an actual idiot." So what's he really like?

"Matt reminds me a lot of my boyfriend — they're both school teachers; they're both very active. In real life he is the most down-to-earth, softly spoken, slow-paced guy," she said.

Schoers explained Farrelly's aggressive nature during challengers was "just that pro-wrestling character coming out — he's completely different one-on-one. He's a very humble, down to earth guy — hopefully they show a bit of that too," she said.

View this post on Instagram

All this Survivor watching makes me want another Vacay 🖤

A post shared by Sammy Schoers (@samschoers) on Aug 1, 2019 at 8:37pm PDT

Unsurprisingly given her rapid eight-kilo weight loss, Schoers said the "starvation" was far and away the most difficult aspect of her two-and-a-bit weeks spent on Survivor.

"Day seven, day eight of winning no rewards — the starvation was real. It's such a unique place to be in where you just don't have access to food," she said.