jadairiii
Contributor
- Messages
- 1,154
- Reaction score
- 1,717
I think most new divers would be totally confused by nitrox if they learned as part of OW. .....
Oddly enough, GUE Rec 1 students dont seem to have an issue with it.
Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.
Benefits of registering include
I think most new divers would be totally confused by nitrox if they learned as part of OW. .....
In this scenario, I don't think they need to understand any of that. Unless they're using mixes richer than 40% or they brought a shovel, pp02 is a non-factor for those dives. All of those things might be good to know, but the knowledge isn't going to prevent an accident in the given scenario. OP said the dive company provides some sort of nitrox briefing. For divers who don't know how to dive on their own (according to OP they couldn't operate their computers) the additional information is just going to add confusion with no benefit.If we were to introduce EAN32 or 35 on two or three existing dives with a hard bottom at 70', what would be the key points divers need to understand?
First the OW topics:
- Nitrogen from your breathing gas dissolved into your tissue can lead to decompression sickness depending on its concentration in the gas, your depth, time, and ascent profile.
- The partial preasure of a gas depends on concentration and depth
Now the nitrox:
- Nitrox reduces dissolved nitrogen by replacing some nitrogen with oxygen in your breathing gas.
- For a given dive, this reduces the risk of decompression sickness.
- Oxygen partial pressures higher than 1.4 expose you to risk of convulsions underwater.
- For EAN32 that PPO2 occurs at 110', the MOD, for EAN35 at 98'.
- You must analyze your gas to verify O2 concentration, look up the associated MOD, and ensure you do not exceed it.
What is missing?
I've skipped pulmonary toxicity, extending bottom times, best mix, and history, but we're not yet issuing them a Nitrox card, just starting the Nitrox instruction.
One other point to note. Although Ocean Diver is a full diving qualification - basically PADI OW. Clubs ensure members at least progress through Sports Diver. Most clubs don't regard the Ocean Diver qualification as a sufficient level for club diving. Ocean divers are managed by the club, normally diving with very experienced Sports Divers, Dive Leaders (DM), or Instructors. Under controlled environments, Ocean Divers are encouraged to dive together.
If we were to introduce EAN32 or 35 on two or three existing dives with a hard bottom at 70' that we supervised, replicating the OP's circumstance, what would be the key points divers need to understand?
SDI teaches computer use. SDI requires a dive computer. SDI OW divers are only certified to dive with a computer.
An SDI instructor has the option to teach tables as well, if they want to go above and beyond the standards.
Are you sure? I am not a SDI instructor, but I thought SDI was the very first major agency to go to computer training for OW. They sure took a lot of heat on ScubaBoard for that about a decade or so ago.
My course intensively used tables, both OW and Nitrox. Computers were covered much less. Not everyone will buy or can afford a computer. You get the tables with the manual and course.