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Forrest Galante CALL OF THE WILD
the Discovery Channel’s Naked and Afraid last December, you might have seen 25-year-old Montecito resident Forrest Galante, yes, in the buff, but not particularly scared, as he (and a similarly unattired female traveler) endeavored to survive 21 days in a Panamanian jungle. “I really had a good time,” says Galante, who foraged for edible fruits, vegetables, and shellfish; built a leaky shelter to shield against the unceasing rain; dispatched an anteater in the quest for food; and eventually caught a fish with a speargun he fashioned from bamboo, a thorn, and the rubber strap from his dive mask—the one piece of equipment he could take with him. “They call it the Everest of
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survival challenges,” he says. “There’s no prize, no reward, just a sense of accomplishment. No one does what we did, but I loved it.” The unscripted TV show seems tailor-made for Galante, who was born in Zimbabwe but moved to Cayucos, California, at age 14, when his family was evicted from their African farm at gunpoint during a period of political unrest. After finishing high school, he majored in biology at UC Santa Barbara, ran a business teaching adventure science, and upon graduation, spent the next 14 months traveling through 26 countries with his girlfriend (now fiancée) Jessica Evans. Since he’s returned, he often works as a contract biologist, assessing species or monitoring a habitat for state or federal governments or private industry. Galante’s entrepreneurial spirit, though, is irrepressible, and he’s forging ahead on several fronts with his own projects. The first is a website that originated from his experience traveling around the world. “I’m a big-time foodie,” he says, “and I was sitting in Thailand, going to Laos the next day, and wondering what I would eat there. I gathered information for four years and launched Travelgrub.com last October. Organized by kind of dish, it’s about things to eat around the world.” Galante, who is known as a competitive free-dive spear fisherman too, is working with his sponsor, Sturgill Spearfishing, on weeklong hunting-and-gathering adventure trips to Mexico’s Sea of Cortez, Australia, and the Caribbean. Not surprisingly, he’s also talking with a network about developing a TV show. After all, he emerged from Naked and Afraid with the highest primitive survival rating of any of the season’s participants—8.8 out of 10. “I’m not a big planner,” he says, “which is probably terrible for the long run. But I do things as they come up. I never say no to any opportunity.” The only thing the Panama experience did “is reinforce my love of extreme and unusual adventures. If I can make a career out of being a lunatic adventurer, I’d love that!” –JOAN TAPPER SPRING 2014
3/28/14 12:47 PM