Joel & Garrett

Joel Strasser and Garrett Smith are a team of Best Friends on The Amazing Race 35.

The underdog best friends found themselves in the back half of the pack in the early legs due to them taking their time in tasks, though early on, they did admit that they didn't want to be perceived as threats. However, as the race progressed, they moved up the ladder and found themselves placing in the middle of the pack and top of half of the pack. Despite occasionally struggling in tasks, their perseverance allowed them to make it to the final leg. During the final leg, Joel and Garrett took an early lead in the Scramble challenge, being the first team to complete all of the scramble tasks, and maintained a good lead up until the final memory challenge. They found themselves stumped in the final memory challenge as they got two of their kayaks in the opposite order, which they took a long time to figure out. This error proved to be costly as brothers Greg & John caught up, finishing shortly before them and narrowly winning the race, leading to the best friends finishing in second place.

Profile[]

Retrieved from Parade.com^[2]

Relationship: Best friends
Age: 42 & 43
Occupation: Auto claims trading specialist & Delivery driver
Current Town: Kuna, ID & Meridian, ID

What do you think is the most important skill required to win The Amazing Race?
Garrett Smith: I mean, I don't know if you would call it a skill. But I have to go back to positivity. I feel like if you're constantly positive and telling yourself, "No matter what the challenge is, I can do this," rather than "I can't do this" or "this is too hard," you're going to get through any challenge. And you're gonna get through it a lot faster than if you have that negative attitude or that negative thought.
Joel Strasser: "I can do this. I can learn how to do this. This won't slow me down. This isn't gonna stop me." If you've got that attitude, you're head and shoulders above everybody else.

What previous Amazing Race team does your dynamic remind you of the most?
Joel: I think we've both had different people we've talked about. I really like Jet and Cord. I liked them a lot. I like how happy they always were. I liked how they always got along. And that's the reason so many people liked them. They remind me a lot of our dynamic. We're not cowboys or anything like that. We do come from Idaho, but we're not cowboys. But we have that same fun dynamic. I think I would model how I would hope to portray myself after Jet and Cord.
Garrett: A lot of what I see in the Afghanimals, the way they like to have fun and they interact with the people wherever they are and just mess around and joke around. That's another thing that I see in us is that fun, upbeat, play with the people that are in the towns that you're in, and all that too.

The Amazing Race 35[]

Race History[]

Joel & Garrett's Race History
Episode	Leg	Destination(s)	Detour Choice (underlined)	Roadblock Performer	Placement	Notes
1	1	United States → Thailand	Sword Play / Spa Day	Joel	7 of 13
2	2	Thailand	Stock Up / Scoop Up	Garrett	9 of 12
3	3	Thailand → Vietnam	Paper / Plastic	No Roadblock	2 of 11
4	4	Vietnam	Stand / Deliver	Joel	9 of 11
5	5	Vietnam → India	All Dolled Up / The Big Picture	Garrett	3 of 10
6	6	India	Bundles / Bricks	Joel	3 of 9
7	7	India → Germany	Just for Kicks / Matter of Taste	Garrett	7 of 8	^[1]
7	7	India → Germany	Just for Kicks / Matter of Taste	Joel	7 of 8	^[1]
8	8	Germany → Austria → Slovenia	Field Work / House Work	Garrett	4 of 7
9	9	Slovenia	Scrape Off / Swap Out	Joel	2 of 6
10	10	Slovenia → Austria → Sweden	Sort / Serve	Garrett	1 of 5
11	11	Sweden → Ireland	No Detour	Joel	3 of 4
11	11	Sweden → Ireland	No Detour	Garrett	3 of 4
12	12	Ireland → United States	No Detour	No Roadblock	2 of 3
				Average	4.33
Legend: The team finished in first place The team finished in last place and was eliminated from the race The team finished in last place in a non-elimination leg The team that won The Amazing Race The team that crossed the Finish Line second The team that crossed the Finish Line third ϵ The team used the Express Pass somewhere during the leg ⊂ The team used the U-Turn ⊃ Recipient of the U-Turn ⋐ The team that used the second slot of the "Double U-Turn" ⋑ Recipient of a second U-Turn due to the "Double U-Turn" twist
Notes: 1: Leg 7 featured two Roadblocks. The team member who sat out the first Roadblock was required to perform the second one.

Post-Race[]

Post race, Joel made a crowdfunding campaign to pay for Garrett’s daughter’s service dog. The campaign reached the $60,000 goal five days after the finale aired.

Trivia[]

Joel holds over 10 Guinness World Records, all involving the most objects stuck in a beard.^[3]
Joel & Garrett are the first team to reside in Idaho at the time of filming.