Thistlegorm on air

hi all

is it silly of me to want to dive the thistlegorm on air, the last time i was in sharm i asked my guide could i do it and he said it would be best if i did the nitrox course first,but he was the one doing the nitrox teaching and i was thinking that perhaps he was just looking for a student to keep him busy for a day or 2 because he didnt seem busy with nitrox students hahah, the place i dive with uses air 28 its a mild nitrox mix that doesnt require nitrox certification and the computer is set to air so this would give me extra saftey on the thistlegorm right

im going to sharm next week and im trying to work out if i should do the nitrox course or not so i get a chance to dive on the wreck,i arrive on thursday will probably do a check dive on friday and i guess i would be starting the nitrox course either friday afternoon or saturday morning, i think there thistlegorm trip is on tuesdays so would i have time to get to dive there

thanks guys

It's better to do it on Nitrox. However, it's still doable on air.

Outside of having a really short bottom time, I can see nothing that would keep you from diving air.

I would think it's more important to know how to shoot a bag from blue water (in case you get blown off).


All the best, James

buleetu:

hi all

<snip> the place i dive with uses air 28 its a mild nitrox mix that doesnt require nitrox certification

<snip>
thanks guys

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...This, I found interesting...



All the best, James

Bollocks. Any nitrox mix requires certification.

Please name the dive centre so we can avoid it in future.

That said: Diving the Thistlegorm on a day boat out of Sharm entails two morning dives with a short surface interval. You will definitely notice a significantly shorter no-deco limit on the second dive, and nitrox offers an obvious advantage here. The wreck lies in 30 meters of water, so it's safe to use the regular EAN32, though in Egypt that can mean anything in the 27-34 range.

thanks for your replies

bollox your self mate

i was there in september last year and out of 40 or 50 divers that went through in the 2 weeks i was there i think about 10 of them were certified nitrox divers

heres the link to subex have a read and post what u think and i wont be avoiding them at all,quite the opposite infact,u my friend feel free to avoid all u like though SUBEX Red Sea Diving Centers - The Art of Diving

i wouldnt imagine they are allowed to stick un certified divers into the water using air 28 without getting into trouble with the government in egypt, i think there very strict when it comes to dive safety or maybe im completly wrong about that i have seen some dodgey looking practices in egypt to tell the truth,but morally i wouldnt think a company like subex thats been around for so long and talks they way they do would be putting there customers at risk that easily, i have had this argument on the forum before about the un certified using this air 28 and im not having it again until u at least read the information on there website

wouldnt the air 28 give a longer bottom time, it is nitrox after all??????

buleetu:

bollox your self mate

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Cheers

heres the link to subex have a read and post what u think

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Okay. The key part of that page is:

How come?

Complying with the maximum recommended depth of 40 m for sport divers and taking on board the maximum partial pressure of oxygen of 1.4 bar, SUBEX air28 makes divers far less susceptible to decompression sickness or oxygen poisoning.

Unlike NITROX, SUBEX air28 does not necessitate the use of special dive tables or computer settings, though divers still go down with dive computers, set to a normal air mixture.
This means:

* greatly enhanced safety with respect to saturation and desaturation;
* a lower risk of inert gas narcosis (rapture of the deep);
* shorter mandatory breaks before flying.

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All this is true, and safe on Thistlegorm where you won't find anyplace deeper that about 30 meters. EAN28 (whatever they call it) is definitely not a safe mixture for novice divers over a dropoff. I find it hard to believe that offering it to uncertified divers is allowed under any standards.

buleetu:

wouldnt the air 28 give a longer bottom time, it is nitrox after all?

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Sure, but not if you dive on air tables which is the whole point of the above.

thanks for the reply

EAN28 (whatever they call it) is definitely not a safe mixture for novice divers over a dropoff

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why over a drop off, because maybe the novice can end up deeper than they should be perhaps??

Sure, but not if you dive on air tables which is the whole point of the above.

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i see what u mean, the NDL is gonna be shorter on the 2nd dive anyway


roughly what would the max depths of the 2 dives from a day boat on the thistlegorm be?? i wanna look at the tables and work it out

thanks arthur

Ok, this is the deal. If you dive the Thistlegorm as I the natural multi level dive it is you can dive on air or nitrox and it won't matter much. wWhat's limiting your dive is not your NDL but your gas consumption.

You start with the propeller and rudder (31.2m), have a look at the guns on the weather house, swim over the blast hole, inside over the cole, through the holds (24.5m) out from hold #1, through the fo's'cle back over the deck (17m) and then have a look at the superstructure. You won't get near NDL but you'll have a 40 minute dive.

...a...

Good to see that using 28% lowers narcosis