dive shop wants advanced nitrox for mixes other than 32 or 36

[scubadada]

Lord I wish this was a joke but something tells me you're serious. Discover nitrox?


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You discover how much longer you can stay underwater and you buy the certification, duh.

 

[Centrals]

The dive shop has every right to set its own standard even illogical in this case.
Go somewhere else if you don't agree with it.
Freedom of choice.

 

[gcarter]

None of this is all that complicated to calculate for rec diving- I keep this cheat sheet in my log book binder, but the math is not that hard.

View attachment 169716

Edit: converting the formulas to metric use is pretty dead simple too.

Edit: I actually managed to learn that with PADI too!

Resurrecting to correct; it was pointed out to me that the snip I took of my spreadsheet showed some incorrect values due to column widths forcing rounding. This one displays the proper values.

 

[Six Feet Under]

IIRC - there used to be a Nitrox "Adventure Dive" version of the course that could be done as part of the AOW course. The card explicitly stated 32 and 36%. The adventure dive used only the first section of the Nitrox book.

For PADI?

Embarrassing...

 

[rickthompson]

Oh boy...what really bad is it's over a year later, and I know exactly what shop this thread is about....and they are still giving people a hard time about this lol.

They don't give me problems for myself (ANDP), but sometimes I'm picking up cylinders for other people and they ask why I'm diving with a bunch of recreational divers on 28%. Well, because that is the most appropriate mix for a dive to 130ft, the max depth of most AOW recreational divers.

At least they'll fill my doubles with giant nitrox stickers unlike Divers Direct. Refuse to fill any cylinder with nitrox without the huge bumper sticker and can't fill banded doubles because they don't fit in their mako containment chamber (and they refuse to just fill them with a whip outside). Meanwhile I can walk out of divers direct with a nitrox fill without personally analyzing or logging my analysis...

 

[kelemvor]

So a local shop in Miami now has a shop policy of wanting to see an advanced nitrox card for mixes other than 32 or 36. Their reasoning is that the regular nitrox courses only give you tables for those mixes so that's all you're qualified to use. My incredulous question of "so who teaches this advanced nitrox course" was met with the expected response of "we do". Either they are not aware that advanced nitrox is the title of courses usually found in tech training, or they're just trying to pad the bottom line. They are an SSI shop and from what I've seen, Advanced Nitrox is part of their XR course which is tech. If they keep trying to enforce this silly policy I'll have to find another shop to get my gas from.

What gives? Is this common?

Sounds like they're screwing customers out of nitrox course fees by not teaching the course properly. My daughter did the nitrox course with ssi, I've got their manual right here. On page 1-3 it says "While the two most commonly used nitrox mixtures in recreational diving are EAN32 and EAN36, this program will teach you the use of nitrox up to 40%".

The SSI manual/course is quite a bit more simplistic than the NAUI course I took. In the SSI Manual the calculations are there but only in the appendix with no real explanation. The manual tells you to use the nitrox I/II tables or the SSI EAD chart which covers... 32 and 36. The SSI Course was read the book, watch the dvd (I think there was a dvd), take the test, and review the test with the instructor.


On the other hand, many shops don't even sell nitrox. Some of those that do only sell what's available on tap. Maybe it's not that big of a deal?

 

[Lead_carrier]

....snip......... They don't give me problems for myself (ANDP), but sometimes I'm picking up cylinders for other people and they ask why I'm diving with a bunch of recreational divers on 28%. Well, because that is the most appropriate mix for a dive to 130ft, the max depth of most AOW recreational divers. ...........snip........

Tell them that you're diving with a bunch of recreational divers with 28% for the same reason that they dive with a bunch of recreational divers with 21%. See if they want an Advanced card for that mix..

 

[eponym]

Ask them if they teach the SSI Nitrox class.
Then ask them if they've read the book.
The SSI Nitrox class covers up to 40%. Not just 32 and 36.
They're being greedy.

Well, as long as this thread's been resurrected*, I'll try to clarify the OP's original issue.

It's an SSI shop. SSI used to have (maybe still does have) TWO recreational nitrox specialties!
"Nitrox I" was a quickie which only covered 32%.
"Nitrox II" was a more thorough course, covering all the principles, with tables for any mix up to 40% and EAD tables.
In ten years and 55 nitrox courses I only ever taught Nitrox II.
I have no clue why anyone would have taught Nitrox I; learning the full principles was never a problem for students.

So perhaps when the shop said "advanced nitrox" they meant SSI Nitrox II. And perhaps they do teach both and flots am (above) is correct.

* Note to Gcarter: don't feel bad. The plastic SSI Nitrox tables orginally had some incorrect values too! (They've since been crorrected).