Cost of technical diving in Autralia...

Hi all,

I know I've been asking lots of questions lately about nitrox, deep diving courses, etc etc. People are always saying "do a trimix course!" to which I think "but I won't be diving trimix for ages". Well I've been doing some snooping around on an Australian diving website, and some of the divers there have confirmed my worst fears about the cost of trimix diving in Australia. Here's a sample breakdown. The cylinder sizes are 7L deco bottles, and 12L 232bar doubles (approximately 55cf and 100cf). These are some of the more popular sized tanks available, mostly made by Faber - due to different cylinder standards, DOT cylinders such as Pressed Steel are not available down under. Also note that Australia uses metric measurements. Oxygen and Helium is sold by the litre in Australia, often with an additional airfill charge per tank. The formula used to calculate the gas charge is:

percentage x tank capacity(L) x pressure(bar) x gas price(c/L) x number of tanks

Scenario - set of 2 x 12L double tanks, trimix 30% O2, 30% He
single 7L deco tank of EAN50
Oxygen - 2c per litre
Helium - 6c per litre

Oxygen charge for doubles:
0.30 x 12 x 232 x 0.02 x 2 tanks = $33.40

Helium charge for doubles
0.30 x 12 x 232 x 0.06 x 2 tanks = $100.22

total cost for doubles = $133.62

Oxygen charge for deco:
0.50 x 7 x 232 x 0.02 = $16.24

So for a set of doubles full of trimix, and a bottle of EAN50, you're looking at a total of almost $150 just for the oxygen and helium. Plus the LDS might charge an additional $5 to $8 per tank for air! Add a tank of 100% O2 and you're looking at another $32-$40. It could easily cost $210 for a single dive's gas.

Conversely, a set of doubles filled with EAN32 (0.32 x 12 x 232 x 0.02 x 2) is about $35.65, plus maybe another $16 for air, which works out about $52 for the dive. There could also be an additional goods and services tax (GST) of 10% (similar to UK's VAT) on all of these prices.

I ran these prices past some Australian divers, and they said they're fairly representative.

I think I'll stick to Nitrox until I can afford a rebreather

Yep it's expensive down here!

The prices you quoted were AUS $ though so the guys from the states are probably still OK with their US $ - sometimes wish I was back in Blighty earning the Queens Sterling!

So where are you? I'm in SA so tech deep diving is non existent, hell I've not even bothered using Nitrox here as the waters too cold for long dives and the average divers consumption rate is poor!!

Might make it into the cave's at Mount Gambier though but that's going to cost a shed load as well!

Later - Dave.

Crikey - I though Japan was pricey. I pay about A$20 for a 10l EAN 32 fill. Forget Helium though, far too much paper work. I'm going to Guam next year to do my trimix course and I only envisage diving it in the US or UK.

Jonathan

but would like to know what $210AUS is equivalent to in USD.

about US$120

how much does this same gas scenario cost here? Seems pretty pricey at $120/dive.

It's not really a point of $210AUD being about $120USD (which is still a lot), I'm earning exactly the same dollar figure here in the US for the same job as I was doing in Australia - so relative to income, it's about 75% more expensive in Australia. So to pick a figure, a $30,000 job in Australia is about a $30,000 job in the US - US dollars are just worth a lot more than Australian dollars when you convert. So regardless of whether I'm earning USD or AUD, if I'm earning $30,000, the dive is still going to cost me $210.

A new steel tank also runs close to $450-$500 Australian, versus about $280 in the US - about the same price after conversion, but if you're earning Australian dollars, it's almost double

Makes my $4.50 (USD!) air fill on the weekend look cheap