Enriched air course PADI

[Bob DBF]

My buddy and I took the PADI Nitrox course about eight or ten years ago. It was a private class, at our location. Books, card, and instruction for $100 each. The class went on longer than I needed it to because my buddy had been diving an Orca Edge since it came out, and had to relearn working tables. I never heard about a video, but it was a while back.

I picked up my first computer, Nitrox compatible, shortly thereafter, he still dives the Edge.

Class price is like buying lobster, what the market will bear, shop around. And don't overlook the fact that the cost may not be directionally proportional to the quality of the course, so look into both.


Bob

 

[Russoft]

I'm doing the PADI Nitrox course right now with my wife. The current version includes a DVD which is basically a narration of the book with bad acting. I found the DVD useless. I was disappointed at how simplistic the book was - basically referring you to your computer to determine MOD for any given gas mix. I realized quickly, however, that the course really isn't for me and is instead for someone like my wife. For me, the math and science is basic so I want to learn all of it. I spend my free time on SB and elsewhere learning diving physics. For my wife, the math and science is challenging and she'd rather be diving and photographing fish than learning equations. As long as she knows how to analyze the gas and set her computer, she's happy. We haven't done the gas analysis or exam, but so far I feel that the course at least equips the "average" diver with the knowledge and skills required to dive Nitrox. I understand the ridicule leveled against the course, but it's all coming from the sort of people who would spend time on a diving forum (I'm the only one out of the five divers in my family, for example). For us, I guess there's TDI Advanced Nitrox.

Oh, because other prospective students may care to know: We are paying $100 each for Nitrox as an add-on to our AOW cert. That excludes the course material (purchased for $45 on Amazon). We could have done eLearning, but that's an additional $160/diver which seems rather ridiculous.

 

[RainPilot]

It's been my experience that assuming that SB users reflect the "average" diver is a big mistake.

What we are is the "average diver who has enough of a diving addiction that they spend free time talking about it".

I really believe that the Venn diagram overlap is waaaaay smaller than we think.

 

[RayfromTX]

It's been my experience that assuming that SB users reflect the "average" diver is a big mistake.

What we are is the "average diver who has enough of a diving addiction that they spend free time talking about it".

I really believe that the Venn diagram overlap is waaaaay smaller than we think.

You are referring to regular scubaboard users. I would say that most of the people that visit scubaboard do so for a short period of time to get specific information that they're searching for on line.

 

[RainPilot]

You are referring to regular scubaboard users. I would say that most of the people that visit scubaboard do so for a short period of time to get specific information that they're searching for on line.

Indeed.

Note the guests.

 

[RayfromTX]

and even of the members, many are lurkers and short timers.

 

[soggybadger]

Why would anyone need to dive for gas theory? By the time you are in the water it's too late if your mix is wrongly analysed and no amount of diving is going to help you. Btw I have just done the course in two hours.

 

[oldschoolto]

Because they have to make it look like a big deal... It took me all of 20 minutes sitting at the dinner table to teach my wife.. My son took less then 15 minutes to understand it.. Then 2 minutes with the analyzer to check tanks.. $20 bucks is more than it's worth..

Jim...

 

[boulderjohn]

Because they have to make it look like a big deal... It took me all on 20 minutes sitting at the dinner table to teach my wife.. My son took less then 15 minutes to understand it.. Then 2 minutes with the analyzer to check tanks.. $20 bucks is more than it's worth..

That is arguably correct.

What we are seeing is the transition from the old world of nitrox instruction to the new. Here is the sequence:

1. In 1985, the International Association of Nitrox and and Technical Divers (IANTD) was formed to teach this dangerous and exciting system of diving.
2. In 1988 another agency was formed for this purpose, American Nitrox Divers, Inc (ANDI).
3. Not much later, diving nitrox was still considered to be so very dangerous that nothing promoting it or teaching it was allowed at DEMA. Mainstream agencies like PADI would not teach it at all--too dangerous.
4. PADI began teaching it, and that is when I got certified. My final exam had 50 questions, with tons of math. We had to solve all sorts of problems to show that we had what it takes to dive with this oh-so-dangerous gas mixture. Two dives were required.
5. Dive operations in Cozumel began to offer it, but very tentatively. The ones I sued would only allow it on one dive of the two tank dive. The first time I used it (EANx 32) there, the DM refused to allow me to use it on the first dive, which was scheduled to about 80 feet. "Too dangerous!" he said resolutely.
6. By the time I started teaching the nitrox class, the exam had dropped to only 25 questions, and most of the math was gone. They stopped having you do some of the really complex calculations on multiple dive sequences to determine whether your greatest thread was DCS or pulmonary oxygen toxicity.
7. Today you can get nitrox certification along with your OW certification. The old idea that it was so dangerous that you had to be trained by a special dedicated agency is long in the past.

So, the problem is that we now realize it is not all that much of a big deal, but we still have some long term holdover of thought from that long gone era.

 

[HantsDiver]

Dive operations in Cozumel began to offer it, but very tentatively. The ones I sued would only allow it on one dive of the two tank dive. The first time I used it (EANx 32) there, the DM refused to allow me to use it on the first dive, which was scheduled to about 80 feet. "Too dangerous!" he said resolutely.

Typical litigation crazy American.