Nitrox certification

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My 13 year old son is finishing up his jr open water and the lds is offering his nitrox certification for $75. Will this be beneficial for him since his depth limit is 60, or something we should wait to do until he has his open water cert? LDS Is recommending it, but not pushing it, so I have not asked them many questions. They have been great to work with but want to get others thoughts, to make sure it is not just a sales pitch.

1 - He already has his Open Water Certification. The Jr automatically is removed (you will need to purchase get updated cards if you want) when he reaches 15. By 13, there are no other "limits" placed by the agency other then diving with an adult when compared to a standard OW cert.
2 - The Jr Nitrox becomes Nitrox at that age also.
3 - The depth limits are only recommended at age 13. Based on yours and his maturity, skills and experiences, only the standard scuba recreational limits apply, although boats can set different standards. You are the main judge of both of your skill sets. I have seen many youth divers have better skill sets then the adults on the boat. At 13, my daughter was Jr rescue with Jr Nitrox doing 120' dives regularly enough. My wife and I were very skilled and she came up to speed rapidly from her OW at 11. She is now 17 and a Semi-Closed Rebreather diver and planning to start full CCR training this year.

As others have said, drill safety into his mindset from the beginning. Always analyze your tanks, both air and nitrox. My daughter from 11 on always had to do all of her tasks, from setting up the gear to getting it back to the car. She always wore 80cf tanks even though she weighted 90# wet. Youth are quite capable divers.
 
My 13 year old daughter did her Nitrox course last summer.
She did find the tables very challenging and we had to spend some extra time on the dive planning part of the course material. If I had to do it again, I probably would have had her wait a bit longer.
The other thing that I took some extra time showing her how to use my O2 analyzer, since it was a bit different than any of the units that they were going to be demonstrating at the LDS as part of the course. Since she will be using the unit at home, she had to be familiar with it as well.

at 13, had she taken algebra 1 yet? I think that should really be the kicker since nitrox is all about understanding relationships between the equations. It's actually a really good real-world use of algebra if they start asking why they need to know how to do it
 
at 13, had she taken algebra 1 yet? I think that should really be the kicker since nitrox is all about understanding relationships between the equations. It's actually a really good real-world use of algebra if they start asking why they need to know how to do it

Started algebra in Grade 8 this year... a few months after she did the Nitrox course. Come to think about it, she was still 12 at the time of the Nitrox course-- a couple of months before her birthday.
 
Started algebra in Grade 8 this year... a few months after she did the Nitrox course. Come to think about it, she was still 12 at the time of the Nitrox course-- a couple of months before her birthday.

that combined with the fact that most instructors have no idea how to actually teach nitrox in something other than rote memorization is probably why she didn't understand it
 
that combined with the fact that most instructors have no idea how to actually teach nitrox in something other than rote memorization is probably why she didn't understand it

I do not think that she has used Nitrox since she finished the course. We are off to Cozumel on March 11, with Nitrox as an option. Sounds like a good opportunity to pull out her training material and tables now that she should be able to make the algebra connections! She will hate me for it, but it will be good for her!
 
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Get it. The price is half the going rate around here. The class may be quite good or quite horrible but the info is easy to understand and having a reason to be exposed to "starting to think about gas" it is in my mind good for any diver. My son was 15 when he did it and we went to Bonaire right after and sure could use the extra time Nitrox bought (especially later in the day) us during multiple dives each day... but even w/o that, it helped him to have a reason think about diving a little more other than just being a guided consumer... And that's a good thing...
 
that's a good price and he'll want it sooner or later. it will still increase bottom time or add a safety cushion (it does not do both).
hopefully the instructor will teach the actual physics and physiology of nitrox as that is the important stuff.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/

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