Peter Hughes/Skydance Galapagos now not supporting CCR's

jkaterenchuk

I was checking into the details of CCR support and costs for a trip to Galapagos on the Skydancer. After several emails I received the following decision. I have not included the entire email response, only the info regarding the decision to no longer support CCR use. The contact I was dealing with was very helpful in answering all my inquiries in a timely manner. As a result of this decision I will not be diving in Galapogos on the Skydancer.

"Hi John,
I just received word back from the owner of Sky Dancer that they are now suspending the use of rebreather's aboard the vessel in Galapagos. There came with that message many reasons for this, one of those being to due the size of and availability of only 50 cubic foot tanks of oxygen for rent from the welding company who supply the tanks and that they will now only release one to the vessel at time (this not being even close to enough air to supply a rebreather diver for the week). I am sorry to have to pass this information on to you, especially at this time after the work we have done together and your interest in visiting this destination. However, you can still have a most enjoyable visit to the Galapagos, diving one of the most High Octane dive destinations we offer. Many divers return with once in a lifetime memories and not once regret not having had the opportunity to use a rebreather. "

Explorer

Another frickin' operation not seeing that "REBREATHER'S ARE THE FUTURE FOR UNDERWATER EXPLORATION!!"

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KONA COFFEE

seafox

Oviously this gentlemen is NOT a Rebreather diver!
Not to say that Galagopous can't be enjoyed on OC, but what Rebreather diver wants to go back to OC's noise pollution!, +, +, +,+, +, +, +..............
It's too bad!

__________________
Protect the SHARKS!

Excellence is never an accident; it is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction, skillful execution and the vision to see obstacles as opportunities.


Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterwards!

Mixaddict

I just returned from Galapagos on the Aggressor a couple of weeks ago. Had an incredible time, but was forced to dive OC the entire week!
The entire time I was thinking to myself, this dive would be absolutely amazing on CCR. I spoke to the people on the boat, and their take on the situation was as follows: this is not an issue of ease of service, experience, ease of obtaining O2 or sorb, but simply one of liability. Apparently, somewhere in the world this past year, there was a rebreather death on an Aggressor boat, and it has scared the Aggressor people to death. It is unfortunate that they have had such a knee jerk reaction to this.

The fact of the matter is that Peter Hughes boats pretty much mirror anything that Aggressor does. Aggressor sets the trends. Peter Hughes follows trying to keep up. Not a good trend for us CCR divers!

I would say, let your voices be heard to both Aggressor and Peter Hughes. Just ignoring them, or taking your business elsewhere is not enough. They need to receive emails, phone calls, letters, etc.

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Randy Thornton (MixAddict)
Inspiration, Evolution, Hammerhead & Sentinel
CCR Instructor

diverklondike

Hmmmmmm...... I wonder if it would be possible for RBW to provide a "SEAL OF APPROVAL" to all of those operations that are CCR friendly and a thumbs down "SEAL OF DISAPPROVAL" at DEMA this year?? It may help people get the drift that we are an important segment of the industry. I have some thoughts on how we could pull this off if we are interested in trying to make this happen...

Just a thought

Mark

Freak214

The Aggressor dropping support bugged me but being from Richmond VA, I firmly believe anything that keeps people off a Peter Hughes boat is a good thing

JohnL

Dave Faye

Great Idea. I would support a ccr friendly and not so friendly list at DEMA

ScubaDadMiami

Great idea! Perhaps we can have several large "OK" hand signal banners with a CCR inside or some such logo that we can hand out to the operators so that they can post them at their boothes to show their proud support of CCR diving and patrons. We can turn it into a photo op and perhaps generate some support for RBW and the holy cause.

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Howard Packer
IANTD CCR Instructor
Miami Beach, Florida
CCRDiveTraining.com

denzel

Explorer,

Peter and his chums are not really into exploration.
They run rec tourist boats, and like to cater for the masses, and stay away from anything with an elevated risk.
Let's face it, Rebreather's are a niche market, and that'll never really change.
We here all love Rebreather's to bits, and being bitten by the RB virus people often forget that not everybody wants the same as they do. And it's not a natural progress for every diver to take the same route and end up tec and/or CCR.
Actually, it's a very very small minority that goes Rebreather.

And, having worked on various (liveaboard) dive vessels, I fully understand that they won't have any of it. Why the Xtra effort, why the elevated risk, why the logistics when you can make the same money with muppets to max 30m/100ft on OC?

Denz.

PS i kinda noticed that the tec dive centers usually have a tec minded owner, and diveboat owner/skippers taking Rebreather divers out more often then not dive RB's themselfs..
So maybe, if you wanna make a change, try to get more skippers and divecentre owners on Rebreather's...

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silent running

Hello all, when Aggressor stopped begrudgingly "supporting" RBs, I was not surprised, especially after diving SCR with them years ago. Remember, all the franchise boats forbid ANY deco diving, and god forbid-solo diving! Gasp! They don't want the liability or the hassel. Yes it's lame especially if your franchise name is Aggressor, but isn't most of the world kind of lame? Is this a surprise?

There are plenty of boats that are tech friendly. I can't think of 1 decent liveaboard destination other than Galapagos-not even sure there isn't one-that doesn't have a competing owner/operator boat that is Rebreather/tech friendly or at least a land based operation that can provide the same or much better service.

The big attraction/perception of the franchise boats is that they are sometimes cheaper than the tech specialist ops and sometimes more comfortable. But you will find that in many of the Pacific destinations the costs of a tech liveaboard are competitive or even cheaper than the franchise ops. And most like mv Golden Dawn in PNG are much nicer in every respect than the franchise boats and have smaller numbers of guests. I was looking at Drmike's home page the other day and digging the food spread on the liveaboard he dives off of in the South China Sea, they had some very fresh looking sushi... um, um, good.

My last trip was to Komodo on the Ikan Biru out of Blue Marlin resort in Lombok. Not the most luxurious vessel, but I had A/C and it was a bit over 200 US a day, substantialy less than any of the other A/C boats that go to Komodo. And I had helium, and a CCR dive master who dived with me exclusively most of the time, and no dive time limits, and there was only 4 other guests...

Support owner ops, they try harder and actually look forward to seeing you again. -Andy