Who needs to go see X-Men, when there are those among you pulling off crazy stunts? We gathered up a second installment of CRE pros who love extreme sports.
Colliers co-chairman Bob Parsley's wife wanted to celebrate her 50th birthday by skydiving, and over a few margaritas at El Patio, Bob also invited her 78-year-old mother to join. Bob’s oldest daughter got involved, so three generations of Parsleys jumped together (with their favorite priest… with such precious cargo, Bob thought they might need extra blessings). Since then, pretty much Bob’s whole family has gone, and Bob says the memories are particularly sweet since his mother-in-law passed away two years ago.
Kirksey’s Natasha Shamshiri enjoys aerial art, Cirque Du Soleil-style, in her spare time. She attended a show several years ago and was inspired to learn how to perform the tricks and stunts that the acrobats were doing. Now she trains at Vault Houston in Spring Street Studios, where she particularly loves aerial silks—she’s learned climbs, locks, drops, and how to incorporate them all into choreographed sequences. Hopefully she won’t leave Kirksey to join the circus anytime soon because she is currently working on Energy Center Three, Four, and Five.
King Development Services principal Gerald King says some people don’t consider off-roading an extreme sport, but he thinks there are few things more white-knuckle than steering through skinny little trails with massive fall-offs on one or both sides of your truck. Above, Gerald’s with his beloved Land Rover in Arizona—he drove to the north rim of the Grand Canyon and camped out for six nights at different look out points. Here he’s on Black Bear Pass dropping into Telluride Colorado (he was so terrified he was not breathing regularly).
And yet bounding toward the edge of a cliff without protection of a car didn’t scare him? Gerald tells us “I just had to get out there!!!” He had to navigate down three levels to get to this point, but it was worth it to lean over the edge and feel the wind blow his hair up.
Vantage Point Acquisitions’ Andrew Cushman loves back country skiing in between multifamily acquisitions. Here’s a couloir (Wikipedia says: a narrow gully with a steep gradient in a mountainous terrain) he did in March. (Suddenly watching basketball doesn't seem as interesting.) Andrew says simply getting here was an adventure—it was in the wilderness miles from the closest ski area, and it took seven and a half hours to climb it carrying their skis on their backs.
Marcus & Millichap’s Nate Newman is all about adrenaline rushes, which is why in both CRE and wakeboarding he aims to go big or go home. He grew up on the water (he learned to sail when he was six) and he and his brother wakeboarded on Baylor’s waterski team. Although Nate doesn’t get out as often as he’d like these days, he still finds time to hit the water about two weekends per month, occasionally still with his brother—the last time the two went, they took Nate’s nephews (three and four years old), and rode around with the kiddos standing on the board with them.
JLL tenant rep Lesa Nickelson is a newbie to extreme sports. Above, she learned to French surf in Maui last year, and admits to us that she isn’t a pro yet—“that’s my biggest wave!”
(We’re putting the finishing touches on a third installment of adrenaline junkies now. If you want to be included in it, email catie@bisnow.com.)
