Enriched Air

[njedrn]

Nitrox training and use has been one of the better investments into my diving career (young but moving) that I've made. In addition to the increased bottom time and shorted Surface intervals, I feel less tired after each dive as compared to pre-nitrox. Now I will admit that some of that may be due to better buoyancy, better trim and increased awareness of my dive profile in the water, but it general i felt much less fatigued when the dive was completed.

 

[Davidstealey3]

i am just going to put this out there and DONT want people to take any offense to it.

SDI hase a course called computer nitrox diver that goes very well with the OW class they teach. it is done in a manner to plug the info into the computer and be able to dive. yes it goes over all the stuff as a regular nitrox class, i just dont believe ( and i could be wrong here ) it covers any tables at all.

so this is a good course for a person strugleing with tables and new divers not very familiar with the tables yet. as PADI transfers over to the new course they are developing ( if not in use allready ) they will probally develop a class similar to this. hope this info is helpful to everyone.

 

[Interceptor121]

Major concerns when diving with oxygen are oxygen toxicity, which can be avoided not exceeding the maximum operating depth,
and having your gear nitrox compatible.
You also must analyse each tank before you and set your diving computer accordingly

Benefit of nitrox is the increased NDL and reduced surface intervals

If you take the Padi course and have the new materials tables are optional however it is extremely beneficial
to actually use them and understand them.

Things that are NOT true about Nitrox: reduced risk of
DCI, less fatigue
the first is due to the fact that DCI cause are primarily fast ascents and the second has been demonstrated in a study
that there is no relationship between fatigue and physical
performance between air and nitrox

Hello everyone!

I just signed up for the Enriched Air course at my LDS. I just had a surgical procedure done so I figured I could continue my diving education while laying in bed over the next few weeks. So unfortunately my diving season is over! So to my questions:

It looks easy enough, but what are the major concerns when diving Nitrox? Depth?

I'm not a pro at reading tables (love my computer)...should I brush up on my open water tables or dive into my Nitrox tables? Assuming I only dive with enriched air in the future my old tables would be obsolete, correct? My goal is to use the computer between my ears more and rely less on my battery operated one.

Nitrox seems like a logical path for most divers, are there any of your guys/girls that just don't see the need for using it? And why?

Thanks everyone....I'm probably asking silly questions but I have a good excuse. Pain medication....good pain medication!

Rich

 

[TSandM]

Nitrox is an interesting tool. It is not really a gas for deep diving, since oxygen toxicity means that the deeper you go, the less additional oxygen you can safely add to your mix, and the less decompression advantage you get. And it isn't really useful for people whose gas consumption limits their dive time, as is the case for many newer divers.

Where Nitrox comes into its own is for the somewhat experienced diver, who is not gas limited on their typical dive, and is either doing repetitive diving (as at a resort or on a liveaboard) or dives in the moderate (80 - 110 fsw) recreational range. There, it will substantially increase your allowable bottom time, or shorten the required surface interval.

Learning to use Nitrox is not particularly complicated, although it involves some simple math. It's a good use of your recuperation time, I think!

 

[Lee Taylor]

Hello Noob,

You might find this interesting. For recreational diving purposes, you dive nitrox just like you dive air. Nothing changes. Except for a depth limitation and monitoring your oxygen loading.

The saying in scuba circles is: There are no good reasons for NOT using Nitrox.

When I have more time I will post an excel spreadsheet I use. It makes it simple and shows how to optimize bottom time.

 

[ScubaNoob]

Thanks Lee Taylor, I love Excel spreadsheets....I'll be looking for it!

 

[Tigerman]

Hello everyone!

I just signed up for the Enriched Air course at my LDS. I just had a surgical procedure done so I figured I could continue my diving education while laying in bed over the next few weeks. So unfortunately my diving season is over! So to my questions:

It looks easy enough, but what are the major concerns when diving Nitrox? Depth?

I'm not a pro at reading tables (love my computer)...should I brush up on my open water tables or dive into my Nitrox tables? Assuming I only dive with enriched air in the future my old tables would be obsolete, correct? My goal is to use the computer between my ears more and rely less on my battery operated one.

Nitrox seems like a logical path for most divers, are there any of your guys/girls that just don't see the need for using it? And why?

Thanks everyone....I'm probably asking silly questions but I have a good excuse. Pain medication....good pain medication!

Rich

Brushing up on the tables could be a good idea for sure as you will have to use equivalent air depth tables and the air tables to plan your dives. The major concerns of diving nitrox is covered in the course obviously - Depth is a big concern, but its a concern because of the gas youre breathing and its a variable concern depending on mix.
Its a worthwhile class and no diving need to be involved, although it is nice to actually dive the tanks you have to analyze for the practical part.

 

[irishsquid]

Hello Noob,

You might find this interesting. For recreational diving purposes, you dive nitrox just like you dive air. Nothing changes. Except for a depth limitation and monitoring your oxygen loading.

The saying in scuba circles is: There are no good reasons for NOT using Nitrox.

When I have more time I will post an excel spreadsheet I use. It makes it simple and shows how to optimize bottom time.

I'd like to see that also.

 

[The Chairman]

SDI hase a course called computer nitrox diver that goes very well with the OW class they teach. it is done in a manner to plug the info into the computer and be able to dive. yes it goes over all the stuff as a regular nitrox class, i just dont believe ( and i could be wrong here ) it covers any tables at all.

More importantly, it teaches how to effectively USE your PDC (Personal Dive Computer)when you dive. That's a skill that is sadly lacking a lot of the time. There's an electronic set of tables built in to every PDC.

There is one thing that many NirtOx presentations seem to leave out or at least they don't emphasize it enough. In my mind, the biggest danger with diving NitrOx is in partial pressure blending, especially if you dive all over the place like I do. One bad fill that contaminates your otherwise oxygen service clean tank, and you are in for a terrible dive when you do the next partial pressure blend. I won't go through that again, and now I only use banked nitrox, continuous blend nitrox and membrane ntirox. I don't want 100% oxygen put in my tanks anymore.

 

[DiveNav]

......I just had a surgical procedure done so I figured I could continue my diving education while laying in bed over the next few weeks. So unfortunately my diving season is over! ....

Hi ScubaNoob,
I know the feeling .... I am now finally recovering from a motorcycle accident I had in May (lot of broken bones all over my body :depressed and I only got to do 4 dives the all summer
But now I am OK and plan to dive the Spiegel Grove in a couple of weeks on my way to DEMA.

Sorry for the long preamble ....
Since you can't dive for real, I suggest you virtual dive with our free eDiving simulator .... just to keep you in the diving mood and hear your bubbles
It includes a Nitrox mode (but you have to select a dive computer that supports it - so far we have 5 dive computers ..... more to come after DEMA) and when diving Nitrox you can see in the planning screen how FO2 and maxppO2 affects MOD and EDT.
With the simulator you can do a series of repetitive dives using Nitrox, (yes, between dives you can plug in the surface interval and see your N2 tissues loadings going down) then do them again with Air (try to follow the same depth profile) and compare the difference for the final N2 loadings.
And if you go deeper than your MOD ....... you will find out soon why you shouldn't do it

We designed the sim for people like you (and me not too long ago), that would like to dive for real, but for whatever reason they just can't do it.

Have fun

Alberto (aka eDiver)