PADI Enriched Air Certification.... a little fishy.

[Cap335]

I teach the nitrox course still using the tables as well as the computer but this will not be possible for ever as I believe that PADI will soon retract the tables alltogether. The next course I have scheduled is with 2 students that do not have computers but want to get nitrox certified. There is nothing to stop them going out and getting their tanks filled and going on an unguided dive but if they do not have computers and the tables were not in their course then where would this leave them?

You could still teach the EAD, MOD, Best Mix & partial pressure formulas and give them a copy of the NOAA Oxygen Exposure table and it wouldn't matter that a dive agency didn't supply tables.

[LavaSurfer]

I just signed up for the PADI Nitrox class. The literature included tables, an equivalent air depth chart and an instruction book for the tables. Even if that material is not fully covered in class, I will study it enough to be comfortable using the tables if I ever need to.

One of the best statements in this whole thread.
Nitrox isn't rocket science, I teach it, it is pretty easy stuff and seriously, if you have the book, the dvd and tables, you can teach it to yourself competently in about 4 hours if you were lucky enough to have a course and competent instructor that taught you tables in the beginning when you got your OpenWater. there are a few interesting concepts like partial pressure but I feel a good table instructor would have already at least introduced you to the idea of Partial pressure in your open water course.

Good on you for taking the initiative to actually read the book, you moved into the top 95th percentile. Most will never read it.

[billgraham]

You could still teach the EAD, MOD, Best Mix & partial pressure formulas and give them a copy of the NOAA Oxygen Exposure table and it wouldn't matter that a dive agency didn't supply tables.

Ta Daaaa! This is the second thread I have seen asking this question. Here we go again, no tables, nothing but a calculator. You're doing a dive to 115 feet. What's the mix (assuming a PPO2 of 1.4), and what's your maximum oxygen exposure time? If you can't do this, the class was not adequate.

[olphart]

Ta Daaaa! This is the second thread I have seen asking this question. Here we go again, no tables, nothing but a calculator. You're doing a dive to 115 feet. What's the mix (assuming a PPO2 of 1.4), and what's your maximum oxygen exposure time? If you can't do this, the class was not adequate.

Well, PADI Nitrox sure won't do that for you!
That sounds like what you get from the IANTD course I took.... well actually, went through the manual myself, learned to do all the cipherin' and such; was ready to write the exam, but that never happened, (long story), ended up getting a PADI nitrox cert and thinking, "Where's the beef??"
Unfortunately I've felt that way about a number of my PADI courses. Gonna let my DM teaching status lapse, take the SDI Solo course, (not so much to dive solo, more for the training), and just go divin'.

[RJP]

Gonna let my DM teaching status lapse, take the SDI Solo course, (not so much to dive solo, more for the training), and just go divin'.

I'll hijack your hijack...

There's very little "training" in the SDI Solo Diving course, if any. It's really designed to verify that you know what you're doing.

[billgraham]

*yawns and waits for someone who has taken the padi eanx course to answer.

[supergaijin]

Ta Daaaa! This is the second thread I have seen asking this question. Here we go again, no tables, nothing but a calculator. You're doing a dive to 115 feet. What's the mix (assuming a PPO2 of 1.4), and what's your maximum oxygen exposure time? If you can't do this, the class was not adequate.

There's really no need IMO to be able to do on the spot calculations for the Lorraine-Smith 02 exposure clock. Why? Because recreational divers aren't doing Nitrox dives often enough or long enough to be considered a problem and thus they aren't hammered home in a recreational Nitrox course.

Using Nitrox is as easy or as difficult as you want to make it.

[LavaSurfer]

*yawns and waits for someone who has taken the padi eanx course to answer.

Really billgraham, Impressive contribution...

If you feel the answer to the OP was not given, then you you should learn how to read.
The answer was given in the very second post but to apease you,

PADI allows instructors to teach two way, Tables, or Computer. Honestly I have not taught computer so I cannot speak to that but I can tell you that if a course is taught using tables, you cover

• Table use which usually means an entire course on tables since I rarely see any one that remembers how to use them. My students or anyone else's, Tables just aren't used by most in diving. I am not saying I agree or like that fact, but it is very accurate to say most divers never look at their tables after the get certified. They buy a computer or blindly play follow the leader.
• Equivalent air depth table use to convert Nitrox/Eanx to air so the air rdp can be used.
• Oxygen exposure tables and how to calculate and total your ox clock
• pre calculated ean32 and ean36 table usage
• switching gas mixes between dives using tables and also EAD tables then calculating ox clock
• formulas and use to calculate accurate PPO2 at any depth for any Eanx mix
• formulas to calculate accurate EAD
• Formulas for exact Maximum and contingency depth calculations
• practical applications: Analyzing tanks, checking cylinders markings, identifying O2 Clean, inspections, tank markings and logging mixes.
• Checking tanks to verify contents then creating a sticker to mark tank since many places I have been use a piece of masking tape.
• Risks and how to avoid them (General statement)
• and all the other academia that goes along not limited to this list.

Clear enough?
So billgraham, maybe you can take the course and offer a valuable opinion...

[billgraham]

It takes longer to convince people why you don't need to actually learn it than it does to learn it. I don't get the reasoning, that's all.

---------- Post added ----------

Really billgraham, Impressive contribution...

If you feel the answer to the OP was not given, then you you should learn how to read.
The answer was given in the very second post but to apease you,

PADI allows instructors to teach two way, Tables, or Computer. Honestly I have not taught computer so I cannot speak to that but I can tell you that if a course is taught using tables, you cover

• Table use which usually means an entire course on tables since I rarely see any one that remembers how to use them. My students or anyone else's, Tables just aren't used by most in diving. I am not saying I agree or like that fact, but it is very accurate to say most divers never look at their tables after the get certified. They buy a computer or blindly play follow the leader.
• Equivalent air depth table use to convert Nitrox/Eanx to air so the air rdp can be used.
• Oxygen exposure tables and how to calculate and total your ox clock
• pre calculated ean32 and ean36 table usage
• switching gas mixes between dives using tables and also EAD tables then calculating ox clock
• formulas and use to calculate accurate PPO2 at any depth for any Eanx mix
• formulas to calculate accurate EAD
• Formulas for exact Maximum and contingency depth calculations
• practical applications: Analyzing tanks, checking cylinders markings, identifying O2 Clean, inspections, tank markings and logging mixes.
• Checking tanks to verify contents then creating a sticker to mark tank since many places I have been use a piece of masking tape.
• Risks and how to avoid them (General statement)
• and all the other academia that goes along not limited to this list.

Clear enough?
So billgraham, maybe you can take the course and offer a valuable opinion...

I have taken it. And advanced nitrox, normoxic trimix, advanced trimix, CCR . . .My comments are based on what I've learned in those courses. Yes, I understand this is only Nitrox, but why not learn it so that you can go on and learn something else next? Otherwise, you'll have to start from scratch. The argument seems to be "well no one will do any of that anyway, they are just going to do the same dives forever" which is clearly not the case.

[olphart]

Hijack?? Sorry I didn't know that's what I was doing...gotta bone up on what hijacking is.
I suppose you're right about the training, though I think my instructor is gonna work me over pretty good. Anyway, for me a lot of the training comes before the course. Going through the manual, I notice that there are things I'd better practice, and get back into a little better shape before I embarrass myself.

I'll hijack your hijack...

There's very little "training" in the SDI Solo Diving course, if any. It's really designed to verify that you know what you're doing.