The New Horizons Staff
We are a diverse group of diving professionals with a wide variety of experiences and interests. Meet us:
Lavon & Travis Land: Owners
Lavon & Travis bought New Horizons on March 3, 2010. They have been members of the New Horizons family for almost a decade; they did their beginner training here and have been active divers ever since. Travis is a PADI Master Scuba Diver Trainer, a DAN Instructor, a certified PSI tank inspector and a factory trained technician for several scuba equipment brands. Lavon is a Divemaster and a certified PSI tank inspector.
Justin Byall: IDC Staff Instructor
Justin has been teaching diving for over fourteen years. He often helps with the UK scuba course, and he teaches a wide variety of classes locally during the summer.
Bill Conrad: Master Instructor
Bill was inspired to learn to scuba dive years ago when he saw James Bond fighting off attackers and accomplishing covert missions under water. While Bill has never had to face enemy agents in the water, he has managed to do quite a bit of challenging diving, including cave and deep diving in a wide variety of locations. He is one of our most knowledgable instructors, and he is an instuctor-trainer who has had a positive influence on many of our staff and customers. He has training from PADI, GUE, TDI, IANTD, and more.
Ed Gabe: Instructor & Equipment Technician
Ed is an instructor with both Global Underwater Explorers and PADI. Ed has been diving since 1991. He teaches a wide variety of courses, and he does the majority of the equipment service and repair work for New Horizons’ customers. He also teaches CPR and First Aid, and a wide variety of diving safety courses through DAN. He is also a gas blending instructor. His fun dives are often focused on the caves of Florida and Mexico. Click here to visit Ed’s website.
Johnny Varner: Instructor
Johnny is a retired college professor. When not backpacking and searching the southern Appalachian Mountains for endangered plant species, he enjoys teaching others to dive. His experience is broad, from deep trimix dives in Florida caves, wrecks off the coast of Bonaire and the Florida Keys, cave diving in Mexico, to the warm waters of Belize’s reefs. As a good diving instructor, Johnny knows you can never stop learning and challenging yourself. To that end, he recently completed a cave DPV course in Florida and is enrolled in cave side-mount and extended range DPV classes. He is part of our GUE team.
Gregory Sparkman: Instructor & Shop Staff
Gregory is a very experienced diver and instructor. He hails from the Lone Star State and has taught scuba in Hawaii, Cozumel (Mexico), and Texas. His most recent job prior to moving to Lexington was working as a member of the NASA Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. Gregory enjoys diving in a variety of environments and locations, and he is looking forward to exploring some Florida caves in the near future. He works in the New Horizons shop on a regular basis and teaches lots of classes.
Kerry Chambers: Divemaster & Shop Staff
Kerry is one of the most experienced, knowledgeable, and helpful members of our dive team. He learned to dive in 1992, and since then, he has visited caves, shipwrecks, and reefs throughout Florida. He has used a wide variety of scuba equipment in his diving career, and he is currently enjoying a new sidemount setup. Don’t hesitate to ask Kerry about what equipment makes the most sense for your diving; he is a great resource. If he’s not in Kentucky, he’s in his favorite place: the Florida caves!
Dan Lawson: Instructor
Dan has been a “water guy” all his life. He’s been a diver for a long time, and now he serves as an instructor as well. Dan also dedicates free time to the Boy Scouts, and is happy to introduce Scouts to scuba diving, including earning their Scuba merit badge.
Gary Mahoney: Instructor
Gary has been a dive professional since 2008. He lives in Berea and teaches at Berea College, and enjoys working with open water classes in both Lexington and Berea. Much of his dive experience has been in the Caribbean where his focus has been on fish and invertebrate identification related to reef ecosystems. He also enjoys underwater photography.
Bill Bowles: Instructor
When Dr. Bill isn’t performing surgery or riding his Harley, you can bet he is headed for a diving destination. Bill enjoys everything about scuba, and he is always happy to bring newcomers into the aquatic realm.
Maryanne O’Canna: Instructor
Maryanne enjoys sharing her love of the underwater world by teaching classes, offering assistance on trips, and by staying active in the Bluegrass Dive Club.
Don Cizik: Assistant Instructor
Don is a member of the Lexington Fire Department and an avid diver and instructor. He enjoys diving in a variety of locations, and aspires to become a cave diver in the near future. He is an active leader in our GUE team.
Clare McEachin: Shop Staff
Clare was introduced to scuba by her brother Neil, and since then, she has been around the world to visit some of the most exotic dive destinations. She leads an annual summer trip to one of our favorite places: the Little Cayman Beach Resort. And she is often working in the store, helping others to get into this great sport.
Doug Spaulding: Divemaster
One of our longest-term, most loyal Divemasters, Doug never hesitates to jump in the water. Often on weeknights, you will find him conducting Scuba Review sessions for divers who want a skills refresher. Doug particularly enjoys wreck and reef diving.
Steve & Tamara Williams: Divemasters
Steve and Tamara are our dive travel addicts! Their calendar always has something interesting on the horizon. If you want great information about Caribbean cruise ship trips and all the cool scuba locations, these are the two to talk with!
Jeff (L) and Chris (R) Disponette: Divemasters
This terrible twosome is responsible for helping (challenging) many students during their Advanced Open Water and Rescue classes. No watery environment is too tough for the Disponette brothers. They take pride in operating their side business, Bluegrass Underwater Recovery Professionals. If it is lost underwater, these are the guys to call for help.
Jason Carty: Divemaster
Jason and his wife Krisy have been active divers since they started going on Caribbean cruises. Jason’s love of the underwater world developed into the professional side in 2009. As soon as his kids are old enough, he will have them breathing under water too!
Steve Gahafer: Divemaster
Steve loves to travel and dive, and he also enjoys photography above and below water. He has experience in a variety of locations, including Mexico, Turks and Caicos, and more.
Jim Leemhuis: Divemaster
Jim is a very active member of the New Horizons team. He regularly assists with all types of classes, and he also teaches the PADI Digital Underwater Photography course. An aspiring tech diver, Jim is a member of our GUE team and is adept at all types of diving, from warm Caribbean water to the coldest drysuit diving.
Travis McIntosh: Divemaster
Travis “T-Mac” is one of our GUE divers, and he is happy to be in the water in just about any circumstance. He enjoys diving in Florida as well as locally. He’s a loyal member of the New Horizons staff and helps with a variety of classes.
Stewart Shelton: Divemaster
Stewart got his love for the water from his first dive on the Great Barrier Reef in 2007. After diving the warm waters of the Florida Keys to the cold Kentucky lakes and quarrys he decided it was time to share his passion. He became a Divemaster in 2009 and enjoys working with students from Discover Scuba Diving through the most advanced classes. He is also a member of GUE and plans on becoming a cave diver soon.
Sally Nolan: Divemaster
Sally is one of the MOST passionate divers you will ever meet. She is one of our most frequent travelers; Sally has been to Belize, Mexico, Grand Cayman, Little Cayman, Bonaire, Fiji, and probably more places than we can remember. She is a member of the GUE team, and she has the most awesome drysuit of all the staff: it’s got skulls all over it! Sally is a very regular assistant with a variety of New Horizons classes. She’s a dedicated diver and loves to help others experience the underwater world!
Will Andersen: Assistant Instructor
Will is an avid outsdoorsman, and scuba diving is one of his favorite disciplines. Being an engineer, he is driven to precision and has great attention to detail, making him a super course assistant and teacher. Will is a member of GUE and is going into cave and technical training in the future.
Josh Howard: Assistant Instructor
Josh was born in Florida, so salt water is in his blood. He is a photographer and graphic designer by profession, and has a wide variety of experience, including work for National Geographic. His future plans include advanced cave photography and videography, and he is a member of our GUE team.