Barrie 'Swampy’ Ridley from Queenborough beat 80,000 people to make it on to the Channel 4 hit show Shipwrecked as part of the Shark tribe.

In this weekly column, he shares his experiences with Emma Grove

Fifteen weeks and Shipwrecked has come to an end and the winners have been announced.

The final episode on Sunday began on the morning of the final beach party, and the Sharks were feeling confident they could secure the five new arrivals they needed to win the competition.

Over on Tiger island and spirits were also high, despite trailing the Sharks by four members, they realised things could only get better at the beach party, where the Hawks each have to chose an island to live on.

Hawks were the people evicted from the main two islands but unknown the the other contestantsm, they were setting up their own island across the lagoon - and called it Hawks Island.

The Tigers travelled over to Shark island for the beach party and as soon as the Hawk girl and boys reunited, a chant began.

Realising it woule intimidate their rivals, the Tigers joined in and left the Sharks looking very uncomfortable.

As the end loomed, both tribes started to feel nervous and Tiger Carly revealed she regretted feeling confident and thinks there’s no way they could possibly win enough new arrivals to win the game.

When the beach party began, original Tiger Char announces her chosen island, and the Tigers cheered with delight.

The next two Hawks also picked Tiger island and each time, the Sharks looked more and more upset.

Joseph was next and he picked the Sharks, which they knew he would – he was the only one they were sure of.

Then disaster struck for the Sharks when all the remaining Hawks picked Tiger island, making the Tigers the winners of Shipwrecked 2008 at 21 Tigers to 14 Sharks.

Shark Barrie had told us it was a landslide, but said they didn’t realise it would be to the extent that only one of the 13 new arrivals would pick Sharks.

Barrie said: "What a travesty. Although the Hawks weren’t supposed to talk about their decisions, it was so obvious that they had been discussing it.

"James [original Shark] was a big shock when he announced Tigers.

"But the best thing is we can honestly say we had all Sharks on our island until the end, but the Tigers had two teams on their island.

"I got an amazing experience out of it and in our minds we won, we were winning for 15 weeks, the Tigers just won the twist."

So Shipwrecked has finished for another year, but if you have been watching Barrie, and think it is an experience you would enjoy, why not apply for Shipwrecked 2009?

If you’re interested, send your name, age, contact details, occupation and a photo to Shipwreckedapplication@rdftelevision.com or visit the Shipwrecked website at www.channel4.com/entertainment/tv/microsites/S/shipwrecked