On line Nitrox course

[Kingpatzer]

Nitrox Course in Short:

Here's some new tables, they work the same way your old tables did, the numbers are just different.
Don't smoke or have open flame near O2, that's bad.
Here's an 02 analyzer, it works just like you'd expect it to.
Here's how to mark a tank.
Here's how to figure out which table to use with your fill.
Here's your card.

It should take about 15 minutes. That PADI and others have managed to charge for this and turn it into a multi-day affair is really an astounding feat!

 

[Stu S.]

With NAUI Nitrox, the only innovation was the NAUI Nitrox Wheel. I never touched one since. We also did the tables, briefly. If you can correctly plan an air dive, then you can just as easily do one for nitrox. Same fundimental methodology.

We had the first instructor in Central Florida that did not require two supervised nitrox dives to get the card. Others called him irresponsible. The class was experienced divers that just needed to know the nitrox-specifics. It seemed adequate for all involved.

 

[mksmith713]

https://rabbit.he.net/~divesda/SDAnitrox.html

I took this course and it was VERY THOROUGH.
More so than the PADI course my buddy took in Roatan.
They kinda bundled his Nitorx course with AOW and both courses were completed in 3 days with virtually no classroom time.

It's a shame the SDA folks got such a bashing in this forum...but then, I don't know the full extent of what went on with the online OW classes.
I do know the online Nitrox course was very very good.

 

[Airleron]

I'm not a fan on on-line anything scuba related.

 

[joolz]

Where did you get this from? I've taught a couple of PADI EAN classes and both have taken two evenings -- closer to 6 hours than 3. But of course I'm also including air supply management because I'm assuming that EAN divers can actually start doing some real dive planning.

I've taught it in as little as 2 hours. It all depends on the students and how much preparation they do on their own. In this particular case, it was 1 on 1 instruction, and the guy had watched the DVD, studied the manual and done all the KRs before he showed up. All we had to do was go through the questions to confirm he fully understood them, expand a bit on how the formulas are derived, and write the exam (which he aced). He went to the shop and analyzed two tanks the next day. I gave him two dive profiles, and he had to use the O2 analysis to figure out his oxygen exposure, MODs, EADs, PO2s, MBTs and pressure groups.

I spend a little bit of time explaining how the formulas are derived because I don't like the way PADI presents it in the manual (I use a different MOD formula that's more intuitive). Rather than just apply a formula blindly, I want students to know what they're calculating and why. Some students grasp this faster than others.

I haven't seen the PADI online nitrox course yet so can't really comment on it, but my sense is that it's more or less the same as the existing course except you're using a computer instead of a DVD and workbook. Students still do most of the preparation on their own, and the instructor is just there to clarify things they don't understand and show them how to analyze tanks and set computers.

 

[redacted]

I'm not a fan on on-line anything scuba related.

Who can argue with that rational?

 

[tk trekers]

Where did you get this from? I've taught a couple of PADI EAN classes and both have taken two evenings -- closer to 6 hours than 3. But of course I'm also including air supply management because I'm assuming that EAN divers can actually start doing some real dive planning.

Copied straight from the web sites of several PADI dive shops and they all pretty much say the same thing:

Nitrox The "buzz" is Nitrox. Just what is it and will it benefit the recreational diver? Get the facts. This 3 hour course teaches the diver to safely enrich the oxygen content of the air they are breathing, how to use the tables associated with the changed blend, and how to analyze the oxygen content in their tank.

 

[SDAnderson]

Where did you get this from? I've taught a couple of PADI EAN classes and both have taken two evenings -- closer to 6 hours than 3. But of course I'm also including air supply management because I'm assuming that EAN divers can actually start doing some real dive planning.

It's a 3 hour class, give or take; making it complicated isn't a benefit.

Recreational EANx is simple. Divers need to understand a little bit about CNS OxTox, even less about pulmonary OxTox. A brief explanation of Henry's Law and how reduced nitrogen levels make for longer NDL's and shorter surface intervals is sufficient. They need to understand enough about Boyle's Law and Dalton's Law to calculate best mixes as well as the MOD of a mix, though they should be encouraged to use tables/computers or standard mixes to validate their calculations. Finally, they need to practice (lather, rinse, repeat) analyzing and logging their fills and labeling their cylinders. If RecEANx students want to know more than this, the best path for the instructor to follow is to encourage independent study by giving them a reading list (there is a ton of free material available) and consider recommending they take a technical EANx course.

All of the information needed for RecEANx can be learned independently (online or off) and we should be supportive of students who want to educate themselves. It's important that the students have hands on practice analyzing their gas and it's a good idea to have an instructor available for questions but most divers simply don't need to sit through a classroom session to develop the knowledge they need to utilize EANx.

Secondarily, if it's taking you 3 more hours to add information about gas management you're either unclear on the concepts yourself or over-teaching. Beware wasting your students time buttering your ego.

 

[SDAnderson]

I'm not a fan on on-line anything scuba related.

Then what are you doing here?

 

[Garrobo]

I learned a lot about Nitrox by watching a DM fill some tanks and picking her brains about what she was doing. I got a free lesson on analysing and a couple free introductory dives with the same lady. That was enough for me to figure out that it wasn't necessary for the type of recreational diving that I do since I like to do wrecks on each outing which usually go around 120-130 feet in the area that I usually dive and if I understood correctly Nitrox maxes out at 100.