Opinions on the value of taking the course so you can use Nitrox?

[JamesK]

Broken down Barney style, I would hate to get ignored for saying tard, I say get the training. Even If you do not use nitrox on the dives, the classes will help you learn more about diving in general. I will not get in to exactly what because then it would not be tar errr wait, Barney style.

 

[ScubaPink]

get the Nitrox knowledge

LOL. Lauging at myself- Use the force Luke!

 

[ChrisMan]

Didn't read every post, so may have missed something, but at 13 dives I doubt your air consumption is low enough to worry about needing enriched air to prolong your bottom time. That said, I've known some new divers that I've had to question whether they actually took a breath!

Basically, if you need to extend due to to NDL, enriched air is worth it. If you come up with a low tank anyway, you will still come up with a low tank of enriched, but it will have costed more for the same dive.

 

[HowardE]

If you come up with a low tank anyway, you will still come up with a low tank of enriched, but it will have costed more for the same dive.

Believe it or not... In some places, Nitrox fills cost the same as air fills.

 

[Token]

It may be a while before I get any benefit from nitrox in terms of increased bottom time, however I have several of the aggravating factors for DCI [kinda old, not terribly fit, kinda...uh...not lean]. Therefore the value of nitrox to me is in reducing my nitrogen exposure with repeat dives. I'll be doing a fair amount of diving for a couple of weeks this winter [Maui...wowee!] and I plan a liveaboard week in '14 where I could be doing 3 or 4 dives a day....and then flying home. The less nitrogen I soak up, the better.

 

[LowDrag]

It may be a while before I get any benefit from nitrox in terms of increased bottom time, however I have several of the aggravating factors for DCI [kinda old, not terribly fit, kinda...uh...not lean]. Therefore the value of nitrox to me is in reducing my nitrogen exposure with repeat dives. I'll be doing a fair amount of diving for a couple of weeks this winter [Maui...wowee!] and I plan a liveaboard week in '14 where I could be doing 3 or 4 dives a day....and then flying home. The less nitrogen I soak up, the better.

That brings back old memories!!! LOL!!! :banana:

 

[Mantra]

Ah. I can't help myself.

Tard/retard etc are words that are used as hurtful insults to people with developmental disabilities. Using them in offhand, joking or other ways reinforces the notion that developmentally disabled people are defined by stupidity. Seeing such use as harmless sends a message that the prejudice is OK. We express social beliefs through our phrasing. Imagine a society where we had pejorative words for people with blue eyes, words that implied some deficit or failing or grotesqueness or less-than-humanness about them. Even if I don't go around directly insulting people with blue eyes using those words, every time I make a joke that surfaces the belief, I'm helping reinforce and create a social norm that excludes and even harms those people.

Its very fashionable nowadays to think political correctness is a nonsense or unduly burdensome. I don't think people who speak up against this kind of thing are thin-skinned. I think they are principled people who care enough not to take the much easier road of being silent when they see someone doing the wrong thing. I'm sure there will be people who think less of me for making this post. And yet, I can't walk past this kind of injustice. If people want to read that as a moral failing, so be it.

Words have power, right? If there is one term that is potentially offensive to people who already have it hard, and there are other terms that are not offensive, what does it cost us to use the non offensive term?

I'm a novelist and journalist, and a huge free speech fan, and I believe hate speech has power. The OP causally used a word, was corrected on it, and replied saying that she was sorry and it was in poor taste. I respected everyone in that exchange. But now a bunch of 'you did nothing wrong' people seem to have piled in.

'Lighten up' is not an appropriate reply to someone pointing out inequality and discriminatory behavior. If you need to use words like n*gger (scubaboard censors this word already, acknowledging ts power), or retard, or gook, or spastic, or *******, or mong, or whatever to express your authentic self, then I do wonder if there is something about your authentic self that is best not expressed.

Showing respect to other people by not using words that might hurt them is fairly reasonable, isn't it, especially given how easy the alternative is?

A culture of fierce I-can-be-whoever-I-wanna-in-your-face individualism is nice in some ways. A culture of mutual respect, courtesy and compassion is nice in many ways also. Fortunately we can have both. Be whoever the hell you want, but try not to hurt others. Especially if you think quite highly of yourself, then it would make sense to me to want to show those less fortunate a bit of compassion.

Sorry to threadjack, but I despise racism, and intolerance towards helpless minorities, including the disabled. The fact that the intolerance is tossed around casually does not make it better. The fact that it is being actively excused really makes me see red.

My wife and I are taking nitrox soon so we can do multiple dives on multiple back-to-back days with less worry about nitrogen loading etc.

 

[Centrals]

........
My wife and I are taking nitrox soon so we can do multiple dives on multiple back-to-back days with less worry about nitrogen loading etc.

If you are breathing nitrox long enough, your overall N2 loading will be the same as from breathing air. Nitrox mix also has ndl.
If you really want to cut down on N2 loading then breath nitrox but plan the dive as you are on air. BTW, make sure you do not pass the MOD of the mix.

I only use nitrox on certain depth(25m - 35m) where extended bottom time is appreciated eg. on a sea-mount, wreck etc.

 

[ScubaPink]

Mantra- From your words I can only infer you are a very nice person and the passion of your subject is honorable.

As a blonde, polish, short person I can relate to being the butt of many jokes. Maybe I am an anomaly- I like myself and I just laugh at them. They are funny!

That said- I read your post.............and then I read this....

There's a fine line between 'hobby' and 'mental illness'.

and the irony was too grand to let pass. You meant this in jest-as I meant mine. There are people with obsessive compulsive disorder that will take offense at the levity in which you use "mental illness." Did you mean it in insult? I would guess not. Can you help that someone will be offended even if it was not your intent? Absolutely not. Welcome to the human race.

 

[Mantra]

That said- I read your post.............and then I read this.... and the irony was too grand to let pass. You meant this in jest-as I meant mine. There are people with obsessive compulsive disorder that will take offense at the levity in which you use "mental illness." Did you mean it in insult? I would guess not. Can you help that someone will be offended even if it was not your intent? Absolutely not. Welcome to the human race.

Hey mate -

I also read my post, and then my sig, and wondered if anyone would make a similar connection I could nitpick about subtext - I'm not using a pejorative, have previously been diagnosed with PTSD and as such am joking from 'within' the group etc - but I actually think your point should stand. If people were to find this offensive, then yes, I could have helped it and would certainly not repeat the mistake.

Comedy and disability is actually fascinatingly complex. There is a tradition of disabled stand up comedians (the Aussie performer Steady Eddie is one) who make their disabilities the subject of their humour. Such treatment, playing into tropes and then subverting them, can be really empowering. There is the difference of laughing with rather than laughing at, and so on. But at the end of the day, if anyone does genuinely see the potential for offence in my sig, rather than a debate point, then please PM me and I will change it and learn a lesson too.

I really don't want to threadjack - so if a mod wants to move all this elsewhere, I will happily run with the topic as I find it fascinating, but it's not about nitrox and I am loathe to clutter the thread here.

I did, I confess, make an off-colour joke to a lecture theatre of about 400 undergrads the other day. So I'm by no means immaculate in this respect anyway. Your point is valid.

Anyway, I'm not going to generalise about you based just on one gag. I'm sure you're lovely. It's not so much that you slipped, it's more that others were starting to circle the wagons and defend the idea that worried me.

And the nitrox discussion is very interesting, so thanks for raising it.

---------- Post Merged at 12:25 PM ---------- Previous Post was at 12:18 PM ----------

If you are breathing nitrox long enough, your overall N2 loading will be the same as from breathing air. Nitrox mix also has ndl.
If you really want to cut down on N2 loading then breath nitrox but plan the dive as you are on air. BTW, make sure you do not pass the MOD of the mix.

I only use nitrox on certain depth(25m - 35m) where extended bottom time is appreciated eg. on a sea-mount, wreck etc.

Thanks, Centrals. I appreciate the tips!