Flower Gardens Trip - Should I get Nitrox Certified?

[Icyymike]

Yes I know there are 1000x of these threads, but I am hoping for a more tailored answer to my upcoming series of dives.

We are going on a live aboard where there will be 5 dives on Saturday (2.5 hour surface intervals between each) and then 2 more on Sunday morning.

The dive location is the Flower Gardens which starts at 60ft and gooes past max recreational depth.

Based on my very extensive research I am having a hard time determining if it is worth spending $200+ on Nitrox for this trip.

My concerns are that air will be why we have to come up and not NDL. Which would be the main benefit to Nitrox.

So if we did 5 dives between 60-90 feet (yes i know that's a wide range) is NDL even going to be a problem with the 2.5 hour Surface interval? If so, how much bottom time would we lose roughly? This would really be what I base our decision to get Nitrox or not on.

Any advice would be great as I am 50/50 on this issue as of now

 

[Dan]

Definitely Nitrox. I’ve been going to Flower Garden about 8 times since 2005. The last one was 3 weeks ago.

 

[RTC'83]

I been wanting to go, I also been researching and Nitrox is recommended by numerous divers that done the trip.

 

[RTC'83]

Definitely Nitrox. I’ve been going to Flower Garden about 8 times since 2005. The last one was 3 weeks ago.

Do you recall the first time you went? Can you provide some insight? Currents, navigation?

 

[tursiops]

Even if you run out of gas before you run out of NDL, Nitrox is beneficial on repeated dives because you will on-gas less nitrogen than if you had used air. that equates to more NDL if you need it, and to (for some people) being less fatigued.

If you want to play with dive times and depths and residual nitrogen, get our your dive tables. That is what they are for.

 

[Dan]

Assuming your SAC is good so the gas capacity in your tank won’t be the limiting factor. Mine is 0.4 cfm. So my limiting factor is the Nitrox NDL, which is longer than that of air.

 

[davehicks]

Very simple - yes. Dive it all the time. Why limit your options and education?

 

[Icyymike]

Assuming your SAC is good so the gas capacity in your tank won’t be the limiting factor. Mine is 0.4 cfm. So my limiting factor is the Nitrox NDL, which is longer than that of air.

Okay this is what I wanted to know. So when you dive the gardens NDL is your limit? To me that makes the Nitrox cert worth.

 

[Dan]

Do you recall the first time you went? Can you provide some insight? Currents, navigation?

Yep. 8/20-21/2005 dive # 22-28. Still on air then LOL. The water was warm 85-86F, calm, no current. August is the best time of the year to dive there.

That was on M/V Spree, @Wookie old boat

 

[Dan]

Okay this is what I wanted to know. So when you dive the gardens NDL is your limit? To me that makes the Nitrox cert worth.

My general observation is those guys on Nitrox tend to jump in earlier and back to the boat later than the guys on air. However, if you are an air hog, Nitrox will be a waste of $$$, but your N2 loading would still be less than the guys on air.