Air and NITROX

[washow88]

If you dive with air, and your buddy dives with NITROX or vise versa, if one of you ran out of air and needs to share the buddy’s air, would that affect any of you?
Obviously, the computers won’t calculate the change of the air, how would you handle this situation.
I am not a NITROX diver, I only want to know.

 

[scuberd]

I would imagine that if you were sharing air that you would be acending, and the nitrox would end up being like a deco bottle. The person on air would the off gas faster than if he had been on air the whole time, therefore being slightly less at risk for DCS.

 

[Ontario Diver]

If you suffer an OOA situation, you have bigger problems than trying to determine your new O2 tolernances...

I guess that when you are out of air - any air is good air!

(and no, there shouldn't be any problems....)

 

[Jonathan]

Then take what's available! You're going to be ascending and aborting so if it is recreational there will not be much to calculate.

If you are getting back in the water that day - I guess it depends on what the reason for the OOA was - then I would not bother trying to alter your RNT. a) it'll make very little difference (if any) and b) using air tables is going to be more conservative.

You may have clocked up an extra OTU or two on the ascent but as long as you are within recreational limits you should be OK.

Jonathan

 

[Zept]

...diving nitrox with a buddy who was diving air, that is, not running out of gas.

Since my buddy was diving air, we were diving within the air limits. No problem for me to switch to air for the last few minutes, because the plan would have allowed me to do the whole dive on air. No problem for them to switch to nitrox for the last few minutes, since the nitrox NDL is always longer than the air one. And they aren't going to be below the maximum operating depth (MOD), because we're diving together and I certainly won't be below it.

Running out of air, on the other hand, would be embarrassing at the very least!

Zept

 

[Braunbehrens]

If you're not certified for nitrox, then you can't breathe it. It's against the rules. If you run out of air, just hold your breath and head for the surface!









(Kidding guys, just kidding. Don't take any scuba lessons on the internet!)

 

[sheck33]

Braunbehrens once bubbled...
If you're not certified for nitrox, then you can't breathe it. It's against the rules. If you run out of air, just hold your breath and head for the surface!









(Kidding guys, just kidding. Don't take any scuba lessons on the internet!)

 

[washow88]

Thank you guys for the input.
I’ve never been in an out of air situation, nor have I had to share air with my buddy.
That was just a thought because I dive with a NITROX diver and I want to know what to do if I ever need to share air.
I like Braunbehrens’s solution though, not the breathing one, but the “scuba lesson on the internet.”

 

[Braunbehrens]

A few years ago I was diving nitrox, and my buddy was diving trimix. At some point we practiced an OOA and I was breathing from his rig. After the dive, he said "so, that was your first trimix dive, feel any different ?"

 

[MonkSeal]

IMHO good dive planning includes the fact that you and your buddy are supposed to breathing the same mix. That's how I dive. If I have to dive with someone who's not Nitrox certified then I'll switch to air.