I checked on this for you. Sadly the Cozumel Tourist Association estimated the cost of your bar bill you insisted be included actually exceeds the GDP of the island, :shocked2: so they have decided to pass on your idea.
There goes my idea of combining the dive evaluation with a comprehensive objective margarita tasting at Wet Wendy's. Maybe if Undercurrent and Rodale's also chip in? This truly would be a great benefit to all Cozumel divers. I'll chat with the Presidente if Dave D. can give me the hotline's phone number, perhaps we could raise the marine park fee to afford my services. Or dive shops could simply bribe me to get good scores. Like just about everything in Mexico, I'm easily corruptable for the right price.
Ok, I get there are probably not that many diving with hangover studies. However for 'regular' divers you are saying their are no statistics to support that the the larger margin of safety you included between you and your no decompression limit increases, the safer you are? I mean I get that diving nitrox table with nitrox is relatively the same as diving air with air tables. And the DAN article I quoted seemed to be primarily saying if you dive nitrox on nitrox tables you DON'T increase your chances nor decrease your chances. That seems to be the focus of everything I could find to read.
Yeah, DAN rejected my application to volunteer for hangover studies. I figured the membership dues and insurance profits could easily support my bar tab, but I was foiled yet again.
Here's how it works: Assume that for every 10,000 recreational dives within the NDC limits, 6 people get bent. Supposedly, if you had all 10,000 divers using nitrox on air tables for the supposed "safety factor", exactly 6 people would still get bent. The 6 bent divers are a random anomaly that comes from imperfect understanding of decompression physiology: the tables (or dive computer algorithms) are almost perfect for almost everyone almost everytime, but occasionally something goes wrong. That "occasionally", at least according to statistics, won't be changed any by substituting nitrox on air tables.
Personally I believe that if you really did the studies with a large enough sample, there would be some variation. However, you're taking a teeny tiny risk and making it just a teeny tiny bit safer, so the impact really is negligible and that's why some people believe it to be a waste of money to dive nitrox on air tables. This only relates to "undeserved" hits, however, the ones that have people shaking their heads because they can't figure out what happened. Personally, however, I believe that the reduced nitrogen/extra oxygen helps to mitigate other factors like dehydration, hangover, etc. that might otherwise push someone into a "deserved" hit. It's entirely possible that I would have been bent many times in my diving history had I not decided to suck nitrox instead of air during the dive. Also, the higher ppO2 does wonders for clearing hangover headaches, so it's sometimes worth the extra price just for that.[/QUOTE]
Looking at this article:
Divers Alert Network : Alert Diver Articles which is basically about comparing diving EAN table versus Air tables, Dr. Peter Bennett says:
You should remember that if you do use EAN tables or computers, which compute more time at depth for the lower nitrogen in the nitrogen-oxygen mixture, if you breathe to the limits of the EAN — rather than the original air table — the risks will be the same. After all, decompression injury is a function of the tissue nitrogen tension before ascent, which will be the same.
Isn't he saying then if you dive air tables on both EAN and Air, EAN WILL be safer?
Yes, he is. The most recent DAN symposium had renowned speakers saying the same thing. Wienke says the same thing in his Basic Decompression Theory and Application. However, according to some statistics lovers who will get red in the face discussing the issue, they're all dead wrong. Or, as I believe, they're referring to my theory of mitigating other potentially causative factors.
On the other hand I have finally gotten to the point that I hit deco on a 100 AL Air. I finally gave up and went back to the AL 80 in Nitrox (to extend bottom time NOT to be safer...) and actually am keeping up with the girls.....
Congrads. My air consumption has actually regressed, so I love the bigger tanks available in Coz vs. most other places in the world (managed to get AL100s in Grand Cayman and Wakatobi, and 112s in Truk, but it's otherwise 80AL or smaller everywhere else I've been - except for Florida and California where there's a big local dive scene).
If you want to hit deco on air using an 80, simply go deeper and set your computer for maximum conservatism (BTW, don't run out of air trying this as that's potentially dangerous to your health). Or just get a Suunto. I can get my D9 into deco in the bathtub using a snorkel.