new to diving and want to know if i should get nitrox cert

[OneRestlessNative]

Do your nitrox before AOW. It is a fairly cheap and easy class, it will help build your knowledge base, confidence, and it will benefit you more on your deeper dives when you decide to take your Advanced class. If you understand air tables, nitrox tables aren't any different. You have 2 other considerations you learn in the class as well, a max depth for each mix, and a max amount of O2 consumption allowed in a 24 hour period.

I'm still not the greatest on air consumption and I did my AOW first and wished I did it after nitrox. It would have benefited me at the deeper depths. If anything it adds an extra safety margin if you decide to dive nitrox on air tables at shallower open water depths.

 

[drbill]

I've been diving for almost 50 years now and despite being a true "geezer," I've never used "geezer gas." Out here on the island it is quite expensive compared to air. Your mileage may vary.

 

[Troutmaster]

I disagree with most everyone so far: Go for it! Getting better educated about gas and gas consumption is always a plus. You should understand deco theory just a tad bit better after the class and that's GOOD. You will also get to do a number of "what ifs" with an instructor which can be invaluable for a newbie diver.

While you're at it: do that AOW too! This gives you in water time with that instructor, and you get the chance to imitate their diving style.

Gear is important, but buying gear without really knowing what you want is a fool's game. Too many divers throw gear at a training issue (like using a pony rather than learning gas planning). Most diving classes include diving as part of the course. How cool is that? Improve your skills while having fun. Just remember that you get what you pay for. a cheap class is usually no bargain.

+1

The principals you learn in nitrox class are good information. This is primarily a "classroom" class (vs. a pool or OW class). You learn good stuff. It will help you think about why you breath what you breath and how it affects nitrogen loading and off-gassing. It is a good class, even if you don't dive enriched air often.

If you are going to take AOW, do nitrox with it. Most instructors do nitrox as a cheap "add on" to almost any other class.

Unrelated to your original post, I think the best thing you can do at your level of training and experience is to GO DIVE. Even if it is shallow quary dives, the more bottom time you get, the better off you will be.

 

[on_two_wheels]

I'd say do AOW first. Get more dives under your belt, reduce your air consumption, etc. Then do nitrox. By then it will probably be more useful AND make more sense. Looking back, I'd have been wiser to skip it and go with the navigation course, though.

By the way, saying air is nitrox is ridiculous. While it's true, we all know in the scuba world when a diver says nitrox he/she is referring to enriched air NOT 21%....let's not pretend otherwise. Someone asks me if I'm nitrox cert, I say "yes" even though my card says enriched air. No one says, "I don't need to be certified to breathe air."

 

[Straegen]

Get the Nitrox cert. What is learned in class reinforces some very good knowledge and is a great "cold weather class" for warm weather divers as no dives are needed to complete the cert. Whether you use Nitrox or not after that is your choice.

Aside from giving more bottom time when pushing the NDL and theoretically feeling better (which I believe I do placebo or not). Nitrox reduces a divers "fizz time" or surface interval for the same number of dives compared to normal air. This is pretty much only handy if everyone on the boat is doing Nitrox though.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

I've been diving for almost 50 years now and despite being a true "geezer," I've never used "geezer gas." Out here on the island it is quite expensive compared to air. Your mileage may vary.

I could never understand that about Catalina Island ... your dive sites out there are ideally suited for nitrox diving, and very easy to get into deco using air.

By my third dive at the dive park I was racking up 25 minutes of deco obligation ... which is an awful lot when diving a single tank on air. But if you're out there on vacation it just doesn't make sense to have to dive air because that's all you can get.

That's my one complaint about the place ... there's no reason not to have nitrox available ... Catalina's just a short boat ride from one of the major cities in America. I've had an easier time getting nitrox in most third-world countries I've been to ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[theduckguru]

Getting a nitrox cert [<$100] is going to break the bank, but do you really need it? Yes, it will allow you some longer bottom times and shorter surface intervals, but on a standard two tank dive day you really don't need it and the extra expense for EAN32 really isn't worth it in my view.

 

[TSandM]

Catalina's just a short boat ride from one of the major cities in America

Yes, but that major city, with a HUGE scuba diving industry, is one of the hardest places in the US to get Nitrox . . .

 

[dbulmer]

Getting a nitrox cert [<$100] is going to break the bank, but do you really need it? Yes, it will allow you some longer bottom times and shorter surface intervals, but on a standard two tank dive day you really don't need it and the extra expense for EAN32 really isn't worth it in my view.

I was recently in Bonaire and met 2 people from California who had been doing 2 dives a day on air for 10 days in 50/60 foot water and one of them got a bend. For repetitive diving nitrox might help.

In locations like Bonaire where nitrox can be included as a free upgrade in a package it might help to use it provided you have the training of course

To the OP, do nitrox if you can control your buoyancy. If you feel your buoyancy control could do with some more practice it might be better to wait a while before doing Nitrox.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

To the OP, do nitrox if you can control your buoyancy. If you feel your buoyancy control could do with some more practice it might be better to wait a while before doing Nitrox.

Just curious about your logic here ... what's the connection between the two?

Or do you mean that your money would be better spent on a PPB specialty?

... Bob (Grateful Diver)