Nitrox certification

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Dnaber

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Im taking the Nitrox training with SSI. My class room portion is next week and the water part is the following weekend. Heres the question.... Do I really need anything more than 32%? When I complete the class I can get my 32% card, or continue and do the dive and get the 40%. What do I really gain with 40%. The training manual doesn't really go into when I would use 40%. Can someone please provide me examples of when I would use more the 32%? Thanks


Don

Sent from my iPad
 
"best mix" [calculating/selecting] is part of the academics....

more than 32%? What about less? FWIW - my nitrox use is 28% due to the dives I'm doing. Never used 32%.... :D
 
Depends on your diving and who's paying for the gas. Are you sure about the requirement to do a dive with SSI and the 32% or 40% card? Sounds weird.
 
Im taking the Nitrox training with SSI. My class room portion is next week and the water part is the following weekend. Heres the question.... Do I really need anything more than 32%? ...

Depends on your planned dives, but probably not.

...//... When I complete the class I can get my 32% card, or continue and do the dive and get the 40%. What do I really gain with 40%. ...

Almost nothing that is useful.

...//... Can someone please provide me examples of when I would use more the 32%? Thanks ...

Advanced Nitrox. 100%. Extremely useful stuff to have on hand even if you never take it underwater.
 
So your classroom work only takes you to 32%, and you have to do a dive portion to get to 40%? Curious. Is that an agency position or a shop position?

The dive teaches you absolutely nothing new. In fact, some agencies have done away with a dive requirement altogether because of that. If it were a PADI class, you would get to 40% with just the classroom.

---------- Post added August 14th, 2014 at 10:53 AM ----------

Can someone please provide me examples of when I would use more the 32%? Thanks

One of the shops I use in Florida has so much demand for mixes above 32% that they have a very large bank of 36% and a very large bank of 40%, all mixed and ready to go.
 
I teach SSI's Recreational Nitrox specialty courses and maybe I can explain . . .

SSI offers a course leading to a "Nitrox Level II" certification which certifies you to dive any mix up to 40%.
A subset of the training qualifies you to dive only 32% and the cert is titled "Nitrox Level I".

In our shop we have only every taught Nitrox Level II (the full course, as it were).
Dives are in fact optional under the standards for both courses.

It sounds as though the OP's shop teaches the first and then offers an upgrade to the second, including a dive, which makes the specialty count towards advanced ratings (e.g., Advanced Open Water Diver, Master Diver).

Hope this helps,
Bryan

PS. In answer to the second question, mixes around 36% could be a good choice if you were doing a lot of repetitive diving in the 70- to 90-foot range.
 
I teach SSI's Recreational Nitrox specialty courses and maybe I can explain . . .

SSI offers a course leading to a "Nitrox Level II" certification which certifies you to dive any mix up to 40%.
A subset of the training qualifies you to dive only 32% and the cert is titled "Nitrox Level I".

What is the difference in the instruction between the Nitrox I course and the Nitrox II course?
 
In all the recreational diving I have ever done - I have only seen three mixes (other than 21% for the smart asses out there :D) and those were 28% 32% and 36%.

However, I don't do tech diving or really deep dives so what's used there will differ.
 
Assuming you are above the MOD of both mixes, a higher percentage of oxygen allows you longer NDLs at the same depth. 40% might be useful, for example, if you have done a deep dive for your first one, and then want to do a dive in the 70 - 80 foot range for a second dive. In practice, however, unless you are mixing your own gas, or getting it from a shop that will do custom mixes, you are generally limited to 32%, which is useful enough.
 

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