Cayman Aggressor - Nitrox or Air??

[Esteban]

Hello,

My wife and I are looking into booking a trip on the Cayman Aggressor. Neither of us are currently Nitrox certified. We both have less than 100 dives (about 60 for me and 25 for her).

Is it "worth" the trouble/expense to get this certification and pay the added $$ to dive Nitrox if we plan on diving an average of 4 dives per day?

 

[HowardE]

That depends on the depths of the dives dive times, etc... But in general, diving nitrox on repetitive dives will benefit you greatly... This has been discussed a lot on the board, but I'm sure that most people will concur that nitrox has its benefits, you'll feel better, and require less surface intervals in general....
There is Oxygen Saturation to deal with when diving a lot, but you learn about that in the nitrox course.

So... I say ... do it.

 

[divebuddy68]

Hello,

My wife and I are looking into booking a trip on the Cayman Aggressor. Neither of us are currently Nitrox certified. We both have less than 100 dives (about 60 for me and 25 for her).

Is it "worth" the trouble/expense to get this certification and pay the added $$ to dive Nitrox if we plan on diving an average of 4 dives per day?

I haven't converted to Nitrox. I never miss a dive and generally do 5 dives a day on the Aggressors for 45-60 minutes each. I have never gone into deco or felt tired. Because you live on the boat there is plenty of time to space out the dives.

 

[mike_s]

I personally think it's worth it.

You get larger NDL (no deco limits) and you aren't as tired either.

Basically, it allows you to dive more on your trip.

 

[caymaniac]

Hello,

My wife and I are looking into booking a trip on the Cayman Aggressor. Neither of us are currently Nitrox certified. We both have less than 100 dives (about 60 for me and 25 for her).

Is it "worth" the trouble/expense to get this certification and pay the added $$ to dive Nitrox if we plan on diving an average of 4 dives per day?

My wife and I recently came off from a liveaboard in PNG. We dove nitrox the whole trip. We did always had 4 dives a day and and took 5 when it was offered. The reason for going to nitrox for us was one factor. 1. Saftey
You will possibly hear other reasons but this one reason should make it worthwhile. While on our liveaboard trip, I used a two computers. I have a air integrated computer that is for air only and then I wore a nitrox computer on my wrist. I will tell you that there was numerous times that I was bumping up against decompression diving with the air computer while the nitrox was showing plenty of time left at whatever diving depth we were at. Dives were typically an hour, they sometimes were longer (longest was 1:16 min) sometimes only 45 min., but almost always an hour. At 5 dives a day
and going to a depth average of 60 ft. ( One day we were at over 100ft.), one day most time spent was at 80ft. We did have a couple of divers that dove air only and sat out a couple of dives because of deco times. If your reason is to go on a liveaboard and do 3 sometimes 4 leisure dives a day, I say no problem, go with air. If your reason to go on a liveaboard is to see the different dive sites & experience what each area has to offer and maximize your ability to get your moneys worth (4 to 5 dives) by doing the dives offered, I suggest you go nitrox. Stay safe, nobody wants to take a helicopter ride to the chamber, tomorrow is another dive day and you want to dive...I think that's probably why you are going on a liveaboard!
I hope you have a blast,
caymaniac

 

[Damselfish]

Nitrox cert is good to have and is typically very useful on a liveaboard for whatever combination of longer NDLS, shorter surface/safety/feeling good works for you. And it's often a good deal to take the class on the boat and then dive Nitrox the rest of the week. (FWIW, you will probably find that most people on a boat like an Aggressor are diving Nitrox at this point.)

I too dove with an air and a Nitrox computer for awhile and was also often bumping against the NDLs on the air computer while there was plenty of time on the Nitrox computer.

 

[ChrisA]

Hello,

My wife and I are looking into booking a trip on the Cayman Aggressor. Neither of us are currently Nitrox certified. We both have less than 100 dives (about 60 for me and 25 for her).

Is it "worth" the trouble/expense to get this certification and pay the added $$ to dive Nitrox if we plan on diving an average of 4 dives per day?

The purpose of usig nitrox is to extend your NDL time. If you are a new or in-frequent diver you may many times run low on air before you reach the nitrogen limit. If this is the case then lenghtening your NDL is of little use. But on the other hand if you find yourselves comming up with more than 500 PSI in the tank then you could have stayed down longer with nitrox

That said, when doing repetitive dives NDL may be the limiting factor

One other thing, you do not have to do all the dives on nitrox. Examples (1) your first diveis to 70ft,
use nitrox, fthe second dive is to 35 feet, use air because you already have a long NDL at 35 ft and air will reduce your oxigen exposure. or (2) you are diving deep. Nitrox simply can not be used at deep depths. (depends on the mix but 100ft max depth is typical.)

Bottom line, unless you are using air very quickly nitrox will halp if you are doing many repetitive dives in the 60 to 80 feet level. If is not needed for shallow dives and absolutly can not be used for deep dives. Going to a live aboard is the classic best reson to use nitrox

 

[Shasta_man]

It's also an easy time to get your cert while on a liveaboard. You've got the dives to do it in and it's an easy class.

Hello,

My wife and I are looking into booking a trip on the Cayman Aggressor. Neither of us are currently Nitrox certified. We both have less than 100 dives (about 60 for me and 25 for her).

Is it "worth" the trouble/expense to get this certification and pay the added $$ to dive Nitrox if we plan on diving an average of 4 dives per day?

 

[wreckchick]

The purpose of usig nitrox is to extend your NDL time.

Actually, that's only one of the 3 reasons to use nitrox over air. The other two are to reduce surface interval or increase the margin of safety by diving a nitrox mix using air tables.

One other thing, you do not have to do all the dives on nitrox. Examples (1) your first diveis to 70ft,
use nitrox, fthe second dive is to 35 feet, use air because you already have a long NDL at 35 ft and air will reduce your oxigen exposure.

In recreational diving, the oxygen exposure issue is almost non-existent. OTUs are really only a problem with extended periods of time on very rich mixtures.

(2) you are diving deep. Nitrox simply can not be used at deep depths. (depends on the mix but 100ft max depth is typical.)

Well... I'm not sure what maximum partial pressure you're calculating, but 107' is the MOD for 32% at ppO2 of 1.4 which is a pretty standard mix. If you're using 30% or 28% you can get an MOD that's deeper, no problem.

In answer to the original question... there are a ton a great reasons to dive nitrox on a liveaboard and very reasons to stick with air. Considering it seems that the cost difference isn't that much, it's well worth the added expense and as someone else has already mentioned, you'll use it when you can after this trip as well so the cert will be worth having.

Rachel

 

[Esteban]

I very much appreciate the responses. Thanks!