?s on Papa Hogs - moved from July SBers thread

[okiejeff]

Brules, If you don't mind tell me about your experience with them.

Average dive time?
Dive to computer limits?
Ask for input from group on where to go?
Do they make everyone surface when the first one is low on air?
Will they visit any of the far south (Punta Sur, Marcaibo, El Islote, etc.) or north sites?
Will they go at a slow pace for the photog types????
Are you diving mornings only?

Jeff

 

[Firerescueguy]

Brules, If you don't mind tell me about your experience with them.

Average dive time?
Dive to computer limits?
Ask for input from group on where to go?
Do they make everyone surface when the first one is low on air?
Will they visit any of the far south (Punta Sur, Marcaibo, El Islote, etc.) or north sites?
Will they go at a slow pace for the photog types????
Are you diving mornings only?

Jeff

It doesnt look like the question was directed at me but, I thought I would put in my 2 cents. I dove with papahogs in February 2006. Dive time was around 50 to 60 minutes. Not a lot of input they seemed to go where they wanted. Yes, everyone comes up when the first person is out of air. We always dove the southern sites. I took lots of pics so I would say yes they will go slow for you. I dove mornings only.

 

[Brules]

TO add to the above, my experience has always been the boat would go where the majoirty wanted and if you have some air hogs with you, they go up first while everyone else finishes, unless dive time limit or end of reef is reached.

Been a few years since i have been down, so it is subject to change. But I have always been happy with them and they have been around a loooong time.

 

[dartref]

I was very happy with them at New Year's.

 

[Shepman]

I would heartily recommend Papa Hog's.

The last time I dove Coz, we happened to have an air hog in our party. Margaret does a great job of matching up divers to DM's and dive boats. This guy must've exaggerated his dive experience. We just started the first dive, when I noticed this guy heading back to the boat. I had 2600 pounds at that point! They really couldn't terminate the dive, it was just starting.

Eventually the Hog staff put him in another boat, got him bigger tanks, and worked on his consumption. At the end of the trip, I heard the guy had reasonable length dives. Papa Hog's doesn't end dives early based on divers consumption to my experience.

Papa Hog's is one of an elite group of dive ops in Coz. They are one of those places that focus on giving you a good week of diving. You really can't go wrong with them.

 

[driftin' by]

Dove with Papa Hogs last week and they are awesome. You dive to YOUR limit and ascend when it's YOUR time with your buddy. Fast boats with few divers. Their boats are painted black which is nice since all other boats are primarily white, it makes them easy to spot after you ascend. Excellent DM's (ask for Monkey) and Captains. For Mexico, reasonably on time. Majority rules on site selection... My wife and I were the last ones picked up everyday and It wasn't that the 4 divers that boarded the boat at Papa Hogs would make the decision without our input. After we boarded, Monkey would initiate the conversation on where we wanted to go. In fact one day, we were in route to Palancar Caves and half way there we changed our mind and wanted to do Santa Rosa wall so they turned the boat around and we did Santa Rosa wall. Another cool thing was one day my wife's computer wigged out and she had to abort her second dive. No fault of Papa Hogs, but they gave her a $20 credit for the aborted dive. Sorry, can't comment on requests for the extreme southern reefs or the northern ones but they are definitely eager to please so I'm sure they will make it happen. There are always exceptions though... on our last day we were with a pretty salty group of divers who had their daughter with them who had only 13 dives under her belt. For that reason some sites were off limits but not totally. We did Horseshoe, she stayed relatively shallow with one of her parents, dove 20 minutes longer then I did but we all have fun. I just hope that when I finally get to bring my daughter diving with me that I can find an accommodating operation as Papa Hogs and group of divers

 

[Brules]

Driftin, that sums up all my experiences with them quite nicely. I have never had a bad dive, or a bad crew and Mike and Margaret stay on top of things really well.

 

[EuphoriaII]

Dove with Papa Hogs last week and they are awesome. You dive to YOUR limit and ascend when it's YOUR time with your buddy. Fast boats with few divers. Their boats are painted black which is nice since all other boats are primarily white, it makes them easy to spot after you ascend. Excellent DM's (ask for Monkey) and Captains. For Mexico, reasonably on time. Majority rules on site selection... My wife and I were the last ones picked up everyday and It wasn't that the 4 divers that boarded the boat at Papa Hogs would make the decision without our input. After we boarded, Monkey would initiate the conversation on where we wanted to go. In fact one day, we were in route to Palancar Caves and half way there we changed our mind and wanted to do Santa Rosa wall so they turned the boat around and we did Santa Rosa wall. Another cool thing was one day my wife's computer wigged out and she had to abort her second dive. No fault of Papa Hogs, but they gave her a $20 credit for the aborted dive. Sorry, can't comment on requests for the extreme southern reefs or the northern ones but they are definitely eager to please so I'm sure they will make it happen. There are always exceptions though... on our last day we were with a pretty salty group of divers who had their daughter with them who had only 13 dives under her belt. For that reason some sites were off limits but not totally. We did Horseshoe, she stayed relatively shallow with one of her parents, dove 20 minutes longer then I did but we all have fun. I just hope that when I finally get to bring my daughter diving with me that I can find an accommodating operation as Papa Hogs and group of divers

I've been diving with them twice and both times they were very accomidating. Once when I was coming in on a cruise ship, they scheduled a later departure group so that we coul make it on time. Last time, they picked me up each day at Iberostar, pretty far south for the hotels
They alwasy aked the group where they wanted to dive and would make recommendations (telling you what kind of marine life they had seen recently in different areas). When I went in March, my first day I was on a boat full of newbies (I don't have that many dives under my belt myself anyway) but after seeing I could handle myself (air consumption, bouyancy etc) they stuck me on a boat with much more experienced divers the next day. So they do try to match up dive groups by experience/ability. Some of their dive masters are better than others. Monkey is my favorite also.
Every time I've been with them, each pair of divers is allowed to dive their own gauges. My last dive, I was teamed up with a diver with 500+ dives and she and I were in the water a good 15 minutes longer than the first divers that surfaced. The boat was waiting for us above.

I just sent them a request to go diving with them agian in 3 weeks

 

[cowboyneal]

Papa Hogs has always been a top-notch operation and is highly recommended by people who have used them in the past...