Reasons NOT to use Enriched Air?

[ianr33]

Do remember to not to try to lift someone while still in the convulsion phase of the attack (up to 2 mins)- the airways is closed and they'll embolise.

Agreed. Which brings up an interesting point: Buddy seizes,wait until he breathes again.If you only have one gas then the only thing to breathe is the gas that just brought on the seizure,not a good situation at all.
If the seizure was brought on by,say,switching to 100% O2 at 70 feet at least you have a low O2 gas to breathe (backgas)

I pretty much figure that if I ever tox on a dive then for all practical purposes I am dead.

 

[hypertech]

With nitrox, you need to make sure you obey your depth limits, and you need to make sure you allow a 1 hour surface interval between repetitive dives.

Interesting advice. One of the benefits I have seen posted a lot is that nitrox reduces your surface interval impliedly into the sub 1 hr range. Unless floating, I would think most SI's, especially those shore diving would be an hour anyway by the time you get out of your gear and get a good drink of water.

If I remember correctly the procedure was not to reverse the seizure, but the correct way to ascend with the diver experiencing the seizure was to:

Hold regulator in their mouth.
Tilt head backwards to open the glottis and prevent expansion injuries.
Make a controlled ascent to the surface.

I don't recall anything about stopping / reversing a seizure. A diver who suffered a seizure would be in no condition for quite some time afterward to be able to dive self sufficiently.

Do remember to not to try to lift someone while still in the convulsion phase of the attack (up to 2 mins)- the airways is closed and they'll embolise.

What class do you learn these skills in? Being a new diver, my training has mostly been on how to avoid the situation and not how to deal with it if it does come up. I think these are skills I want to have sooner than later. I had planned to do AOW next summer and rescue the next. If you learn this in rescue, I may try to get AOW in this fall and do rescue in the spring.

 

[Gombessa]

I pretty much figure that if I ever tox on a dive then for all practical purposes I am dead.

Ian--I have a suggestion for you then: don't tox on a dive.

You can thank me later

 

[Bismark]

If you are diving really shallow, such as 20 to 50 ft along the coast or in the tropics, then EANx would be a waste of oxygen and money. The only time that diving shallower than 50 ft would make sense with nitrox would be for diving in the mountains (high altitude).

The general rule is that EANx is ideal, and better than air, for any depth between 50 ft and 150 ft.

For dives in the range of 50 ft to 90 ft, EAN 36 is the best mix.

For dives in the range of 100 ft to 130 ft, EAN 32 is the best mix.

For dives in the range of 130 ft to 150 ft, EAN 25 is the best mix. However this is normally considered a technical deco dive, since your NDL would only be 5 mins.

For anything deeper than 150 ft, you whould be diving with trimix, and now you would be outside the range of nitrox.

A basic nitrox certification would allow you to use EAN 36 or EAN 32, for diving to depths of 130 ft.

"General Rule"? Maybe I didn't get the memo. Or maybe it is an ESL problem.....

 

[Blackwood]

What class do you learn these skills in? Being a new diver, my training has mostly been on how to avoid the situation and not how to deal with it if it does come up. I think these are skills I want to have sooner than later. I had planned to do AOW next summer and rescue the next. If you learn this in rescue, I may try to get AOW in this fall and do rescue in the spring.

It was covered in my Advanced Rescue, Advanced Nitrox and Deco Procedures courses.

 

[hypertech]

It was covered in my Advanced Rescue, Advanced Nitrox and Deco Procedures courses.

Hmmmmmm, sounds like I have to put a lot more dollars in to get to learn the good stuff.

 

[HowardE]

Interesting advice. One of the benefits I have seen posted a lot is that nitrox reduces your surface interval impliedly into the sub 1 hr range. Unless floating, I would think most SI's, especially those shore diving would be an hour anyway by the time you get out of your gear and get a good drink of water.

Frequently we do boat dives where we get 30 minute or less SI's with nitrox. We often dive in the 60-90 foot range (with a sandy bottom at a known depth) with 36-40%... Since we're staying down longer than the air people, and the boats often need to get back at a certain time... we usually take shorter intervals. Nitrox lets us extend our bottom time, and shorten our SI's.

What class do you learn these skills in? Being a new diver, my training has mostly been on how to avoid the situation and not how to deal with it if it does come up. I think these are skills I want to have sooner than later. I had planned to do AOW next summer and rescue the next. If you learn this in rescue, I may try to get AOW in this fall and do rescue in the spring.

Most of this info is explained in a basic nitrox course.

 

[hypertech]

Most of this info is explained in a basic nitrox course.

I was talking about the discussion related to helping a toxing diver and how to bring them up.

In my nitrox class, we discussed ox tox, what it is, how its caused, and signs of it. We did not discuss how to treat a toxing diver - is that something you learned in basic nitrox?

 

[HowardE]

It was discussed... Yes.

 

[Riger]

About learning the "good stuff" in general;

I have found this ScubaBoard to be an excellent source of thought provoking discussion generating food for thought and the origin of some valuable keywords to search in wikipedia.

I appreciate that nothing beats the formal training of [insert your institute here] but there is so much info out there for those that look for it.

Have an Excellent Day

Richard (Riger)