Grew up on columbia river
Joel was raised in a small logging town in Washington State on the Columbia River. Growing up, Joel had no direction but only knew he wanted something that would challenge him and was searching for a path that would be the most rewarding and the most risky. Joel can recount a story when he was 10 years old about his father’s friend who tried out to be a SEAL but quit during a training exercise where he had to be revived after he was thrown in the water with hands and feet tied behind his back and tested to survive. As a kid, Joel would always swim in the deep end of the pool and think about that story. Then at 22 he sold off everything he owned to run off and go after his dream of becoming a Navy SEAL Frogman.