IANTD EAN vs PADI EAN courses

[Remy B.]

I'm about to do a Nitrox course with PADI, unfortunately it appears there is no Advance EAN teaching here on the Island, I have set both of my DC to 1.5 PPO a notch above the coservative 1.4 PPO, looking at IANTD courses the EAN course is set to allow divers to reach 39m depth, but it doesn't mention the amount of exposure of PPO, in their Advance EAN course they mention 1.5 PPO and 42m Depth and state that you need to have taken the EAN and Deep Specialty with them it doesn't say "equivalent".

My question is that looking at both of my DC, with the 1.4 PPO you can't reach 39m with 32% EAN, with 1.5 PPO my DC's allows me 35.5m Depth, is IANTD using other non conventional mixes ( 32 and 36% ) to reach 39m depth with as well 1.5 PPO exposure for there EAN course ???

IANTD, will not allow me to take "Advance EAN" with them if I don't take thier EAN and Deep speciality courses or will they accept Deep Speciality and EAN with other Agencies ( since there is no mention of "Equivalent" courses ) ???

Any one that had taken the IANTD and PADI as well ???, it seems that they are very different since their depth's limitations of each agency course programs are not the same, any hints on this ???

 

[Tony387]

IMO, at this stage of your diving career, you're "putting the cart before the horse," so to speak....just learn to dive and have fun.

 

[hroark2112]

There is no reason to set your PO2 alarm to 1.5, nor is there any reason to plan to exceed 1.4 during the working part of a dive.

Dive the appropriate mix for the depth you're planning to hit.

 

[Freewillow]

You obvioulsly have not taken a nitrox course if you set your PPO2 @1.5 without really knowing why. And you are right, IANTD will not take you for an advanced Nitrox with your level of inexperience

 

[scoobydrew]

I am a PADI instructor so can tell you all about the PADI course, I have not sat in on an IANTD course but think I may have some clues. The PADI courses use a maximum PPO2 of 1.4 but publish details for 1.6 for contingency i.e. if you accidentally exceed the 1.4 limit. PADI courses introduce the use of dive planning to a ppo2 of 1.6 on their tech courses for decompression stops when the diver is under little exertion. A recreational PADI nitrox course will teach you to set your computer to a max of 1.4 so that the computer will alert you if you get close to that limit.

You say that the IANTD course will enable you to go to 39M but you do not mention on what blend, looking at their website I see no mention of 39 meters or a ppo2 of 1.5 Their course will certify you the same as PADI which is to go to 40M with appropriate training and to use up to 40% nitrox at the appropriate depth.

Many dive centres offer 32% as a standard but that does not mean it is the only blend you will use as a nitrox diver. If say you wanted to go to 40M using your PADI cert, provided you have deep diver training then using the T formula (look it up) all you have to do is divide the max ppo2 by the depth in atmospheres giving you the highest blend i.e. 1.4 divided by 5 = .28 so 28% is the max (for example - still not advised to plan to hit limits)

It may be the case that IANTD have different usage on the 1.4/1.6 limit. NOAA base their limits on 1.6 but the recreational industry widely agree upon 1.4 as a limit.

Get your manual in advance and do as much reading as possible then go to the class prepared with questions.

Sorry I can't help with more specific comparisons between IANTD & PADI

 

[Freewillow]

IANTD, as far as I remember: PP02: 1,6 for deco. Diving plan PP02: 1,5 for very easy conditions, otherwise: 1,4.

 

[John_ZAR]

I did the PADI Nitrox course and then did IANTD advanced Nitrox but this was a number of years back in the good old days when a PADI adv cert was good for 40m . IANTD is 1.4 PPO2, you have TOD & MOD, TOD is your target operating depth, which is a PPO2 of 1.4 and MOD is your maximum operating depth, which is a PPO2 of 1.6. You dive to your TOD.

The IANTD advanced EANx enabled us to go beyond 40% nitrox for deco purposes.

 

[Subcooled]

Adding oxygen to air either gives you a little bit more bottom time (something like 10 extra minutes at 100ft), or lessens your nitrogen loading and chance of decompression illness on a long diving holiday. If you get too much oxygen, then you get sudden unconsciousness underwater and you die. So put that maximum oxygen partial pressure back to 1.4. It is a safe dose. There are better ways to go deep. And return.

Nitrox (especially 32%) is a wonderfull breathing gas for all diving down to 100ft and you will benefit a lot from it.

After the nitrox certification you should take a deep diving class, such as PADI Deep Diver.
28% nitrox is safe to 40m but you will be slow and confused because of all the nitrogen. You will thus need a lot of experience at these depths.

Later you can proceed through the decompression diving courses PADI Tec40, Tec45, Tec50.

An alternative route is through a deep diving course (PADI, SSI, others) or equivalent and then IANTD recreational trimix and advanced recreational trimix. The recreational trimix courses allow you perform limited decompression dives using trimix (helium). 45m on air/nitrox is not fun anymore.

You could take a nitrox class as soon as you have the AOWD done, and a deep diving class as soon as you have solid buoyancy control and feel confident and relaxed at 30m/100ft depth. The decompression courses and helium courses become more serious and you should have done a lot of dives before that.

 

[C Dub]

I'm starting IANTD Adv Nitrox and Deco Procedures in a couple of weeks. The instructor was fine with me having PADI AOW, Rescue, Deep, and Nitrox as prereq's.

 

[Pullnglide]

There is no reason to set your PO2 alarm to 1.5, nor is there any reason to plan to exceed 1.4 during the working part of a dive.

Dive the appropriate mix for the depth you're planning to hit.

+1!!

As others have stated and imo you should stay at 1.4 or below, period!
If you go the tec route you will do 1.6ppo2 at rest in deco