Peter Hughes Leaves Peter Hughes Behind

After starting his namesake liveaboard business 25 years ago, moving it out of DIVI, where he was employed, and selling it to Aggressor Fleet owner Wayne Brown in 2008, Peter Hughes resigned as president of Peter Hughes last month. He will become president of a startup company called DivEncounters, Inc., which he will be running with Santiago Dunn, owner of the Ecoventura fleet of Galapagos liveaboards. While he says he’s grateful to Brown for purchasing the company during tough economic times for the dive industry, Hughes told Undercurrent he left to be more hands-on in the dive business again. “Working in this new company with an old, trusted friend offers me the challenges that I did not enjoy in my previous position, and the challenges I need to keep myself motivated and excited about the industry.”

Hughes had surgery in late May but after his recovery, his responsibility will be to manage the M/V Galapagos Sky (formerly Sky Dancer), raise the bar on operations and service, and consider future product expansion, which means more of Brown’s boats may gravitate to Hughes. He also plans to outfit boats exclusively with Scubapro gear. “For 15 years, I’ve been a staunch supporter and user. After I sold my company, the new owner preferred AquaLung over Scubapro, to my great distress. So as soon as I was my own boss again, I switched, re-establishing my old long-standing relationship.” So divers don’t have to deal with airline overweight charges, Hughes has just ordered 10 complete sets of Scubapro gear, including 10 female and 10 male wetsuits, for the Galapagos Sky.