Buddies on Air ~

My buddies will be diving air and I'm taking a Nitrox course while on vacation.

Can I just use my regular air computer and dive with them as I observe Nitrox tables or do I have to buy a new computer?

Your air computer will be fine with you diving nitrox - its even a little safer from a deco perspective.

The cautionary statement is that you want to ensure that you do not violate the MOD for the nitrox mix you are using and that you monitor the total CNS expore for the mix you are using.

Once you decide to extend your bottom time you will want to get a nitrox computer as multilevel diving with tables and nitrox ends up being a wash in terms fo extra dive time.

That's fine, I do it all the time. Nitrox will give you more bottom time but if you dive your computer is on air it just makes your dive a good bit more conservative.....the computer will read one NDL but your actual NDL with nitrox will be somewhat longer. Just make sure you don't go past the mixes MOD (max operating depth- not likely unless your diving deep 100+ , you will learn about it in class). Most likely your instructor will want you to use the tables instead of your computer.

Just make sure you stay within the Maximum Operating Depth of the mixture you are breathing.