Nitrox - Is it "worth it"?

[100days-a-year]

For the life of me, I cannot see how riding the NDL and shortening the SI can maintain the minute DCS advantage nitrox has.

It's certainly worth it to me, but I don't think it's for everyone.

 

[Lorenzoid]

There have been three studies, none of them show any real difference. The only way to tell would be a double-blind study involving hundreds, if not thousands of participants. Unless someone wants to foot the bill for that study, it's not going to happen.

Another difficulty with these tests is measuring fatigue. There are ways it has been made as objective as possible in these studies, but it’s never going to be precise.

 

[Ben_3]

Yes Nitrox is worth it!! It’s not all that popular around my place as it’s 8$ more per fill. A regular air fill gose for 10$. Most dive op I visited on vacation offered free nitrox for those certified. If you should dive nitrox that all depends on the dives your planning to do. I go for nitrox everytime I can.

 

[DiveProKoko]

Original poster here! Man, I knew I'd get some awesome responses to my question! Thank you! You guys are fantastic and there is a lot of knowledge here! After reading the pros and cons of it all, it seems like the "cons" are few and it won't hurt to get the certification. I know I mentioned the money thing in my post. Cost isn't prohibitive for us, we just want to realize value. Nitrox is included at no extra charge in our air package booked with VIP Diving in Bonaire. My dive buddy is my wife, pretty much 100% of the time, so we'll get it done together before our trip. I'm lucky in that I married a woman who loves diving, hockey and baseball....and she can cook! Haha! We could be doing a liveaboard at some point in the future too, so it seems there may be an advantage to diving Nitrox there as well. Our LDS is headed to Raja Ampat late next year, I think? Anyway, thanks again for all the advice/input/opinions, etc. It really helped!

 

[DiveProKoko]

5) do you like yellow and green stripey things?

As a Bears fan, most definitely NOT! Haha! It's gonna kill me to have that trash on my tanks!

 

[greeniguana]

If I'm not mistaken, there are (were) some charter boats in the keys that either required EANx to go on the deeper wrecks, or limited you to 2 dives on a 3 tank trip if you used plain air.

These boats usually have more dive spot options, so they are less likely to dump you on the shallow reefs where there are already 5 boats tied up.

 

[kelemvor]

As a Bears fan, most definitely NOT! Haha! It's gonna kill me to have that trash on my tanks!

Blue painters tape with a black sharpie is the most common way to identify nitrox tanks in my experience. Skip the yellow/green sticker if it bothers you.

 

[Ana]

I keep hearing about fatigue after diving and makes me wonder about what are you people doing on your dives.

I come back to the surface hungry sometimes, specially if I saw scorpionfish, lobster, grouper or other delicious stuff. Other times I come up buzzing with excitement because I saw something very cool. But even a so-so dive recharges me, I get fatigue with the nonsense I have to deal with topside until the next dive.... fatigue diving? nope. Doesn't matter if diving air or nitrox.

I like nitrox for multi-dive days. My regular weekends are just one dive on Saturday another Sunday (as long as the seas are not too rough) for that one dive a day I think nitrox is a waste. 60 feet for 60 minutes is a good rule of thumb for me. If a whale shark comes by late in the dive, I'll push the envelope and live with the consequences.

Now for lobster min-season or any other multi-dive day events I'll dive nitrox for the benefits of longer NDL's .

 

[kelemvor]

I keep hearing about fatigue after diving and makes me wonder about what are you people doing on your dives.

I come back to the surface hungry sometimes, specially if I saw scorpionfish, lobster, grouper or other delicious stuff. Other times I come up buzzing with excitement because I saw something very cool. But even a so-so dive recharges me, I get fatigue with the nonsense I have to deal with topside until the next dive.... fatigue diving? nope. Doesn't matter if diving air or nitrox.

I like nitrox for multi-dive days. My regular weekends are just one dive on Saturday another Sunday (as long as the seas are not too rough) for that one dive a day I think nitrox is a waste. 60 feet for 60 minutes is a good rule of thumb for me. If a whale shark comes by late in the dive, I'll push the envelope and live with the consequences.

Now for lobster min-season or any other multi-dive day events I'll dive nitrox for the benefits of longer NDL's .

After two tanks on air I'm usually fairly tired. If it's a long boat ride, I might nap on the return trip. If I'm out somewhere, it'll be back to the room for a lunchtime nap. When diving nitrox, I just don't feel the need. It's not like I'm going to fall over, but I might be a little sleepy or worn out. It's a mild feeling. I didn't notice it all that much until I started diving nitrox and realized that it wasn't happening. Prior to that, I just assumed I was tired from hauling big scuba tanks around, donnng wetsuits, and swimming for two hours.

It's not an amazing night and day thing.. very slight. But it is there. Maybe it's placebo effect. I personally don't believe it is, but even if it is I still would dive nitrox. The placebo effect is very real, after all.

There have been a few studies on the matter but they're pretty badly flawed. The problem is that nobody's really making a ton of money on nitrox so there's no private funding for studies on the subject. What studies have been done don't center on "average recreational divers" and subjective fatigue.

 

[scubadada]

Someone needs to post a summary. Here's what I see as the benefits:

1. Reduces sub-clinical DCS symptoms (e.g. post-dive fatigue).
2. Increases NDL time.
3. Reduces minimum surface interval. (some operators won't require an hour long SI if you're on nitrox!)
4. Reduces DCS risk.
5. Nitrox stickers (some people like the appearance)...

For me, it's 2 and 3 only, that's enough