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

[jm]

Hi,

Personally I would take a nitrox course.

However after reading your initial question, I think you don't give yourself enough credit. You are smart enough to take a diving course and pass. You are wise enough to pose a good question on Scubaboard. You are intelligent enough to consider other peoples opinion on this subject.

What I am saying is that I think you will do well with anything you choose to do in SCUBA diving.

Take Care,

Joe

 

[tin_the_fatty]

Not all Nitrox classes utilize tables. SDI's class caters to using a PDC instead.

I have just gotten my SDI nitrox cert this summer. Learning the tables was compulsory. Using a PDC was demoed.

 

[offthewall1]

As a diver, you're already diving Nitrox. The air we breath is Nitrox. Nitrox is any combination of Oxygen and Nitrogen. The air we breath is approximately 21% Oxygen and 79% Nitrogen. There are other trace gases as well.

Your question is really "Should I get EANitrox Certified?"

The answer is NO.

Air works just fine and has for many many years. While I am a Certified Nitrox Instructor and have been Nitrox certified myself for more than a decade, I have not found a reason to use it in many years... at least not a good enough reason to spend the extra money on it.

You see, Nitrox was really introduced to the recreational dive industry as a way to make money for dive shops. In the early days, there was great debate over whether it was even safe for recreational diving.

While there are certainly situations where EANitrox may make sense, generally speaking these situations are beyond the scope of entry level recreational diving and even advanced recreational diving.

With the new limit of certification to 60', EANitrox makes little sense. When it comes to deep diving from 60' - 130', it certainly has applications - but these applications also come with increase risked from its use.

Increased partial pressures of oxygen can be toxic and deadly to divers who wander to deep while breathing it. Understanding the MOD (maximum operating depth) is critical.

This is the basis for why I do not dive it. I may purposely want to deviate from my dive plan, say on a wall dive or wreck dive and go deeper than my plan. My EANitirox mix could become a detriment on such dives. With less limitation on air dives, I will always choose air.

Of course with air, you may have a more limited time than you would on Nitrox, but you're in no danger of oxygen toxicity and you can always simply carry more air and do longer safety stops.

Decompression diving, while outside the true scope of entry level recreational diving, is a safer, less costly approach with proper education and planning.

I also happen to be one who believes DECO stops produce some of the most chance and exciting open water encounters you'll ever have... from open ocean sharks to whales, pods of dolphins, ocean sunfish etc... these are things I may never have had such exciting encounters with if I wasn't "hanging out" on the line.

After a good Open Water course, the only thing you really need to do is go diving. Get some experience and explore your world. Nitrox is definitely one place not to waste your money.

 

[PatW]

Well, I am nitrox certified. They dove nitrox in AOW so I did the certification. I have over 100 dives and have not used nitrox since. Most of my diving is boat diving. Generally a nitrox fill costs more money and on boat dives, they limit the time anyway. I have not been in a situation where nitrox was available and it would have made a difference.


The class is not hard or long and it does not cost much. But if the money is a factor, you can probably find more useful ways to spend your money.

Now if you plan to go to dive resorts, some of them give "free nitrox" to sweeten the deal. Diving nitrox would be really nice in a situation where you planned to dive as many dives as possible per day as you might in a liveaboard. So there is some advantage to being nitrox certified.

 

[bracko]

hrmm... I'm in a similar(ish) situation myself... I've just bought a tank and I'm wondering if i should get it O2 scrubbed and EAN stickers put on.

pros: when diving multiple dives on a boat with EAN i can use my tank, for longer dives (50min+) which i will be doing a lot of with rescue/DM/IDC in the coming 12 months i do feel the difference after...

cons: price, filling is $5 more + scrubbing ($66), non EAN certified divers shouldn't really borrow my tank

hrmm...

 

[Stu S.]

We don't need our tanks scrubbed like we used to. Partial pressure blending puts pure oxygen in the tank first (that requires the cleaning) and then adds air. That's the old-time way. Most places in Central Florida blend the nitrox and store it in a bank of cylinders. Filling pre-blended gas requires no oxygen cleaning. The yellow and green band is no longer needed either, although I hear places in the Florida Keys require it.

You may want to locate a fill operator that pre-blends the gas. Pre-blended EAN fills are $7 here.

 

[bracko]

shop won't fill a non marked tank, which i think is a fair enough point.

will check, i know for a fact they don't bank the EAN and they do have tanks of O2 in the shop, so it could be either system

 

[Stu S.]

Brako, sounds like your shop does the partial pressure fill. A good fill operator can partial pressure fill a tank to be exactly what % O2 you want. It is more time consuming than just turning on the nitrox tap, and you usually pay for that.

 

[String]

Its easy to decide whether to do nitrox, just ask yourself:

(Q) Am i ending dives due to air consumption/operator time limits or due to no stop limits.

If its the former then no point, if its the latter then do it.

 

[Meggie66]

Hi there

Personally, my limiting factor on most dives is air (and sometimes nitrogen), but I recently got enriched air certified because I'm in the process of becomming a divemaster, and while I don't intend to work in the industry at the moment, I wanted to be able to answer enriched air diver questions should I be asked.

To the OP: as you're a relatively new diver, I'd agree with most other posters that your best course of action is to work on buoyancy and other skills before going the enriched air route. I'm about the farthest thing from an expert there is, but wanted to share what I've been taught: It's important to understand that exceeding the recommended maximum oxygen partial pressure of 1.4 can lead to central nervous system oxygen toxicity, which can be fatal. While this may not be a factor on some dives, in other cases (eg if you're on a wall in clear water) it's crucial to continually monitor your depth to avoid exceeding the depth limit for the blend you're diving on. You'll be taught about these limits when you do the enriched air course, but obviously buoyancy control plays a part in ensuring you don't exceed them.

All the best with your diving

M