|
Sarah Neal – Owner, Mission Kayak
Kayak, Bike, Hiking, History & Museum Guide Texas All-Water Paddle Guide, ACA Level 2 River Kayak Instructor, ACA Level 2 Canoe Instructor with an Adaptive Paddling Endorsement, Texas Parks and Wildlife permitted All-water Paddle/Fishing Guide. Bachelors in Science – Environmental Biology – Wildlife Conservation and Management. Sarah was born in south Texas in the late 70's and spent most of her childhood in Austin TX. Her family moved to Newport Beach California in 1988 where she fell in love with the outdoors, the Pacific Ocean and eventually met and married her husband, a Marine, in 1995. In 2000 Sarah joined the US Air Force and spent 10 years in the computer and communications career field, deployed during IOF/OEF and eventually started a family. In 2006 Sarah and her husband received orders to Lackland AFB. San Antonio, Texas. Sarah was excited to return home to Texas after being gone for 12 years! Sarah left the Air Force in 2010 after a spinal injury cut her military career short. She became a Network Security Engineer for General Dynamics in San Antonio. While the pay was great she longed for the great outdoors. In 2012 Sarah was diagnosed with a congenital heart defect and had to have heart surgery to repair the defect. After her surgery Sarah sat back and took a hard look at her life and her career. She decided to make a drastic change. She quit her lucrative IT job to heal and the family PCSed (military move) to Albuquerque, New Mexico in October of that same year. Sarah spent 3 years in New Mexico where she completed a Bachelors Degree in Environmental Biology and fell in love with whitewater kayaking. Sarah started taking formal whitewater kayaking classes while in New Mexico and eventually became an American Canoe Association Level 2 River Kayak Instructor, Level 2 Canoe Instructor and obtained her Adaptive Paddling Endorsement. At the end of 2015 Sarah’s husband retired from the Air Force and the family quickly moved back to to the one city they always called home, San Antonio, Texas! Sarah was hired by Mission Kayak in 2016 as it’s manager, kayak guide and kayak instructor as well as a Texas Park and Wildlife All-water Paddled Guide. After managing the company for 10 months Sarah saw the potential Mission Kayak had and offered to buy the company from the previous owner. On 1 January 2017 Sarah bought Mission kayak, rebranded the company as Mission Adventure Tours and spent the first year making numerous improvements and streamlining the businesses. Sarah is currently enjoying owning and growing this wonderful company into San Antonio's premier Outdoor Tour Comany. |
|
Jim Lawson
Kayak Guide & Shuttle Driver ACA Level 2 River Kayak Instructor. Jim hails from Southern California where he was the owner of a prosperous electrical business in San Diego. in 2014 Jim retired, sold his business to his son and move to San Antonio, Tx. Jim was hired on as Mission Kayak’s shuttle driver in 2015. When Mission Kayak changed ownership in 2017 Jim agreed to become a kayak guide for the new Mission Adventure Tours . He obtained his ACA Level 2 Kayak Instructor certification in May 2017. Jim enjoys fishing all over the US and South America, and he as found a new passion White Water Kayaking! Jim is our go to guy and a "Jack of all trades". He can fix anything, and is an indispensable part of the Mission Adventure Tours team! |
|
Becky Lemanski
Kayak & Bike Guide Becky started working for Mission Adventure Tours in 2017 as a kayak rental specialist and over the years has progressed to being both a kayak guide and one of our main bike tour guides. When Becky is not guiding tours she is a full-time firefighter and EMT with the city of Kerby. |
|
Theresa Scheets
Bike, History & Museum Guide Theresa started with Mission Adventure Tours as a bike guide in 2019. She has been a bike guide on a number of San Antonio meetups for many years and in 2019 decided to make the transition and became our tour guide. |
|
Katie Barnhill
Kayak & Bike Guide, Shuttle Driver ACA Level 2 River Kayak Instructor. Katie started with Mission Adventure Tours as a rental specialist and bike tour guide in April 2020. In November 2020 she passed her Level 2 River Kayak Instructor and started guiding our kayak tours. |