Nitrox for 20 dives in 5 days?

[Kimela]

Yes to nitrox - if you don't use it now, you will in the future. Having said that, we dove with Rainbow Reef last month and had one dive that was 90 ft (the Spiegel), and another that was 77 ft, (a deep drift on Molasses). Other than that, here are the depths of my dives (FWIW): 40, 32, 28, 34, 23, 40, 30, 41, 43, and 51 ft! We knew, the day before, when our 'deep' dives were going to happen, so we could have opted for nitrox on just those dives. Most days we basically had no surface interval (19 minutes, 28 minutes, etc) as the dive crew didn't feel it was necessary with such shallow dives. We dove nitrox in the hopes it would help keep our energy level up (we're a little older - and yes, I understand there's no absolute proof this actually works, which is why I said 'in the hopes' it would help).

 

[kelemvor]

Do the nitrox. I've consistently noticed less fatigue using nitrox than a similar dive without nitrox. Also, less chance of a headache at the end of a dive day - which I got frequently before I switched.

Once you have the nitrox card, shops generally sell nitrox cheap or free. If it's 10 bucks a tank (which is on the high side of price) then you're looking at 200 bucks for the whole week. Probably a drop in the bucket. Flakeys is charging 75 bucks and rainbow is charging 85 (for 2 tankers) so you're looking at 750-850 for the dives (less because you probably got some package deal) and an extra 2 bills for the trox.

IMO it's a no-brainer.

The only thing you really need to deal with when diving nitrox (on no deco dives) is the MOD. They should change nitrox classes to a chapter or even just a page in open water class.. but that doesn't make extra money for instructors.

In the keys you could reasonably just use 28% and that would put your MOD on 130'@1.4ppo2. Safe for anything other than a tech dive. Most sites in the keys would require a large shovel to get that deep.

 

[gamon]

Do the nitrox. I've consistently noticed less fatigue using nitrox than a similar dive without nitrox. Also, less chance of a headache at the end of a dive day - which I got frequently before I switched.

Once you have the nitrox card, shops generally sell nitrox cheap or free.

This post quoted above is a great example of why you shouldn't believe everything you read on the internet.

Reduced fatigue from diving Nitrox has been determined to be nothing more than a myth by DAN and other legitimate respected scuba diving resources.

As far as free Nitrox? Never seen that anywhere.

Ask DAN: Can Diving with Nitrox Prevent Fatigue?

 

[kelemvor]

This post quoted above is a great example of why you shouldn't believe everything you read on the internet.

Reduced fatigue from diving Nitrox has been determined to be nothing more than a myth by DAN and other legitimate respected scuba diving resources.

As far as free Nitrox? Never seen that anywhere.

Ask DAN: Can Diving with Nitrox Prevent Fatigue?

If you read the study that that article was predicated on you will find that the study was very poorly designed. It was a study that was either designed by someone with a desired specific outcome or scientific incompetence. Seriously, go read the study details. Like everything in science, you need independent verification to generate a consensus. Alternatively, you can do one study tweaked a certain way and then publish the results you want to publish. There's not a lot of funding for this type of research so you can get along for years without being challenged.

Of course if you are doing dives that don't cause you to be fatigued on air.. you won't be LESS fatigued with nitrox. Which is the flaw in that study. Well, that and they didn't actually do dives - they used a chamber.

The difference in fatigue levels for me, and many others, is dramatic.

 

[myshadeofred]

If you are doing the Spiegel...get the NITROX...it's worth it and you're done. Once you take the course you will get a better understanding of the benefits...and trust me, you will want it on the Spiegel, without your second dive will be like 20 min total..ish.

 

[rjack321]

The safety margin is only there if you back off from NDLs and keep the longer SIs. There is no safety margin if you dive Nitrox to its allowable limits of longer NDLs and shorter SIs. The possible safety margin is obtained by lessening your N2 exposure.

If your 3rd and 4th dive of the day are on the shallow side (eg 50ft) you can bump into the NDLs on air but not get anywhere near the NDL for that kind of dive on 32%. So instead of packing on the nitrogen on a 4 dive day you end up not really adding to your exposure at all despite being a long day.
On a recreational vacation trip for 20 dives in 5 days I would dive nitrox every day

 

[David Novo]

As far as free Nitrox? Never seen that anywhere.

Check Emperor's website (Red Sea liveaboards).

On a recreational vacation trip for 20 dives in 5 days I would dive nitrox every day

+1

 

[rhwestfall]

I truly support you getting trained in EANx. That being said, you may not get too much "bang for the buck" out of it. From my experience using a "major charter operator" in the Keys, the shallow reef dives were time limited to 0:45. We were being forced out of the water with half a tank or more gas remaining.

Be forewarned, Just because you have more available NDT doesn't mean you will get to use it....

Again, there are great benefits, but don't go into it thinking the outcome will be magical....

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Absolutely get the nitrox cert and use it for your trip.
Why not man? It’s good stuff.
It depends on what people consider a “waste of money”. In my opinion this is not a waste of money at all.
Excellent!

 

[PBcatfish]

If you have time to get a nitrox cert before you go, it’s a nice option to have. While you are visiting the keys, you might decide that there is some 80-100’ deep dive that you want to do & get max bottom time on. For that, & heavy repetitive diving, nitrox is the way to go.

If you are just doing 30’ deep dives, then I would not bother getting a nitrox fill. I still do a lot of that & quite frankly, I don’t notice any difference just diving air at that depth. For shallow dives, it’s not worth the extra time for me to wait to get a partial pressure fill from my local shop. Air fills come out of the water tank faster & are a few bucks cheaper.

I have yet to dive nitrox in the keys. A little further north, where you need to go a little deeper to get to the good reefs, I use it frequently.

Should you dive nitrox rather than air? It depends where you are going to dive & what you want to do. Having an extra option is never a bad thing.