Extracurricular

FITNESS / RACING

Joel has been a fitness buff ever since he first stepped into a gym in high school to join the football and wrestling teams. He's never been far from a weight room or yoga studio but discovered a new-found passion for races when he joined the Team 2 End AIDS to raise money for AIDS Project Los Angeles by running the 2011 LA Marathon.

Since then, Joel has gone back and run the LA Marathon 2 more times, the NY Marathon and, most recently, ran the Athens Authentic Marathon (the reason Marathons are, well, called marathons). With "T2," he's also competed in the Malibu Triathlon, Concrete Hero and Camp Pendleton Mud Run, all while raising money to help those living with HIV/AIDS. It's become such a passion for him, he currently coaches a Boot Camp with T2 to prep people to race in the Camp Pendleton Mud Run.

His reawakened competitive spirit has led him to take up Mud Runs and Obstacle Racing. He's earned 2 Spartan Trifecta Medals, qualified for the World Championship of Obstacle Course racing twice, was the overall winner in the inaugural Escape Race, consulted on Laird Hamilton's new endurance race series, and competes regularly in whatever race he can find that involves running, jumping, swimming, climbing, throwing, scaling, lifting and a free beer coupon.

TRAVEL

Honolulu, Hawaii

Joel is on a constant search to quench his wanderlust. Since he was born to an Austrian mother, he spent most of his youth shuttling between the U.S. and Europe. His obsession with road trips clicked in high school when he would take every chance he got to hit the open road with friends and explore what New Mexico (his home state) and surrounding states had to offer.

In college at Pepperdine University, he was lucky to be chosen to participate with his theatre department in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland. Traveling by plain, train, bus and shuttle from Paris to Amsterdam to London to Edinburgh made it stick: There's was so much world to see, so many new experiences to have, and so many new cultures to ingrain yourself in to. His wanderlust constantly burns and he's always looking for a reason to pack his car, his backpack or his luggage and see what this globe has to offer.