Nitrox for 20 dives in 5 days?

[stuartv]

The benefit of nitrox also depends on the air consumption of the diver. Nitrox allowing 26 min while air allows only 19 min is irrelevant if the diver goes through their gas supply in 15 minutes. I've seen that quite often on both the Duane and Spiegel.

Not only does nitrox cost an extra $12 per dive, but it serves very little real benefit to divers with high consumption.

That's what bigger cylinders are for. I think that everywhere I have gone diving on open circuit, I was able to at least get an AL100, and several places have had steel 100s and 120s available. That includes Cozumel and even a Blackbeard's cruise in the Bahamas.

 

[drk5036]

If you can, diving nitrox is nearly always beneficial. Even if you aren't getting close to your NDLs, sometimes people take "unwarranted" hits, and diving Nitrox just gives you an extra safety factor.

I've been to three places that offered nitrox for free. Twice in Sri Lanka, and once in Thailand.

And I've never felt any difference between nitrox and regular air, so I also tend to think people who say they feel an "enormous" difference are on the beneficial side of the placebo effect.

 

[tarponchik]

The benefit of nitrox also depends on the air consumption of the diver. Nitrox allowing 26 min while air allows only 19 min is irrelevant if the diver goes through their gas supply in 15 minutes. I've seen that quite often on both the Duane and Spiegel.

Not only does nitrox cost an extra $12 per dive, but it serves very little real benefit to divers with high consumption.

It also depends on the policy the boat operates. If their rule is "everyone down, everyone up", NITROX becomes a total waste of your money, since there always is at least one air hog per group. However, FL is pretty liberal, from my experience. On one dive I surfaced about 12 min after the last diver before me and no questions were asked.

 

[stuartv]

FL is pretty liberal

That is a VERY broad stroke of the brush...

 

[tursiops]

And I've never felt any difference between nitrox and regular air, so I also tend to think people who say they feel an "enormous" difference are on the beneficial side of the placebo effect.

Does cilantro taste bitter to you, or not? Your personal experience is completely irrelevant as to whether cilantro tastes bitter to me.

 

[drk5036]

Does cilantro taste bitter to you, or not? Your personal experience is completely irrelevant as to whether cilantro tastes bitter to me.

I think that this example is different. It’s well known taste buds of different people can react to chemical compounds differently.

I think a better comparison is people saying they don’t suffer from narcosis because they have a lot of practice, which has been proven to not be true. How the body reacts to nitrogen and oxygen is much more specific than your example.

But I’m not certain, there hasn’t been a lot of studies I’m pretty sure it has nothing to do with the extra oxygen, or we’d all be breathing pure oxygen on the surface for fun. It could be due to less decompression stress, but if it makes such a huge difference for you, extending your safety stops would be a better recommendation and give the same effect as using nitrox.

 

[MaxE]

I would check on getting the certification while you are down there. When I was looking to get certified I looked at the local shops to me and is was kinda pricy, I then checked in the keys because I was going to be close by. To get certified in the Keys with a 2 dive boat trip was much cheaper in the keys than just the cert at home.

 

[Mason Gierke]

Guess I was asking cause I'm being cheap. Everything we do is x3, wife and daughter also dive. Already signed up for AOW, but we are going to add the Nitrox class just to get it done.

 

[tarponchik]

I think that this example is different. It’s well known taste buds of different people can react to chemical compounds differently.

I think a better comparison is people saying they don’t suffer from narcosis because they have a lot of practice, which has been proven to not be true. How the body reacts to nitrogen and oxygen is much more specific than your example.

But I’m not certain, there hasn’t been a lot of studies I’m pretty sure it has nothing to do with the extra oxygen, or we’d all be breathing pure oxygen on the surface for fun. It could be due to less decompression stress, but if it makes such a huge difference for you, extending your safety stops would be a better recommendation and give the same effect as using nitrox.

This was just a flawed argument. The tastes of sweet and bitter come from specific receptors in our mouth and can be individual due to genetic variability between people. The most famous example here is phenylthiocarbamide (PTC) which reportedly tastes bitter for about 70% individuals but is completely tasteless for the remaining 30%. This, however, does not work for the tastes of sour and salty; these tastes have 100% correlations with the pH or salt concentration, respectively. Thus, when it comes to taste, some things are individual, some are universal. So the next time someone argues that " Your personal experience is completely irrelevant as to whether cilantro tastes bitter to me" you can reply that your personal experience with cranberries or lime is absolutely relevant as to whether cranberries or lime taste sour to them.

As for the O2 question, I personally do not feel any difference between air and Nitrox. However, I am a guy in a reasonably good shape for my age, and not everyone is. I know that breathing O2 helps people move at high altitudes, and I can imagine that if someone is a fat blob completely out of shape he may feel at sea level the same way I feel at 14,000 ft and may benefit from breathing Nitrox. So, although no studies have demonstrated any statistically significant beneficial effects of Nitrox in scuba diving except increasing maximum bottom time, when someone claims he feels better breathing Nitrox, I won't argue that this is just placebo effect. I'd say "Good for you" but feel kinda sorry for them.

 

[tursiops]

I think that this example is different. It’s well known taste buds of different people can react to chemical compounds differently.

I think a better comparison is people saying they don’t suffer from narcosis because they have a lot of practice, which has been proven to not be true. How the body reacts to nitrogen and oxygen is much more specific than your example.

But I’m not certain, there hasn’t been a lot of studies I’m pretty sure it has nothing to do with the extra oxygen, or we’d all be breathing pure oxygen on the surface for fun. It could be due to less decompression stress, but if it makes such a huge difference for you, extending your safety stops would be a better recommendation and give the same effect as using nitrox.

OK, I'll say it this way:
"Your personal experience is completely irrelevant to me."
Your point about reduced decompression stress is valid.
You keep diving air. I'll keep diving Nitrox.