Nitrox Certification

[mattspiral8]

Hi guys, I just got my OW certification about a month ago. planning to go for a trip to Bonaire. I am trying to get as many dives under my belt during by week long trip there. after much reading, I have learned that having a nitrox certification would help a lot with shortening breaks in between dives thus having more time to go to more dives!
Do you guys know if I can do the Nitrox certification online without going to a dive shop, like coming in to do an exam. I think dives aren't required anymore? not really sure.

 

[HKGuns]

You will need a dive shop as there is a hands on portion with measuring the percent O2 in your tanks.

My recommendation would be to do the advanced course and more air dives before worrying about Nitrox.

 

[Searcaigh]

I have learned that having a nitrox certification would help a lot with shortening breaks in between dives

You still have a lot to learn.

Do you guys know if I can do the Nitrox certification online without going to a dive shop, like coming in to do an exam.

While you don't need to do any dives and the course can be mainly done online, you still have to show that you can analyse tanks and calculate MOD and NDL.

I highly recommend using Nitrox, but you really need to understand the basics first. Best to find a good instructor first.

 

[Damselfish]

If you are someplace it is a pain to get to a dive shop to do the small amount that needs to be done in person, you could look into doing it on vaca. Some places will offer the nitrox course for a better price and give you a good deal on Nitrox for the week to go with it. Or if you do the course online I think you pick a shop so you could possibly pick the shop where you're traveling and complete there. Not sure.

Watch out for scam courses that say you can do it completely online. There's an outfit called "Scuba Divers of America" which will do that but the cert will not be generally accepted.

 

[Ukmc]

I agree with the above comments. NitrOx will add a safety margin. However, starting out, I would not push past 3 dives a day. Trying to push it and rack extra dives in, will get you progressively more tired physically after 2-3 dives and that can impair you ability to learn and enjoy it. Do NitrOx at your local dive shop. You will learn a bunch about nitrogen loading and off loading and MOD. Will make you a better diver but I wouldn’t push it with a number of dives when you just start out.

 

[MrBigfins]

First thing is to change your mindset on the benefits of nitrox. You don't want to think of it as allowing you to shorten surface intervals and dive more in a day. The benefit is 1 of 2 things, you can extend ndl on a dive by less nitrogen loading and maintain the same safe surface intervals (1 hour min) or you can add a safety buffer by diving the same profile as air and loading less nitrogen (while still maintaining a min 1 hr surface interval) thus reducing the chance of dcs.

Onto the nitrox course advice, it is about 2 hours of class and about an hour of hands on time. Take the class the first day you arrive on vacation, this allows you time to ask your instructor questions and he should spend a good amount of time helping you know the settings on your personal dive computer pertaining to nitrox functions. This also tends to be the cheaper option as most certification agencies charge a ridiculous premium for online course portions. Best of luck and don't push your limits. The ocean will always be there to dive another day, if you push your limits then you may not be there to dive another day.

 

[markmud]

Hi guys, I just got my OW certification about a month ago. planning to go for a trip to Bonaire. I am trying to get as many dives under my belt during by week long trip there. after much reading, I have learned that having a nitrox certification would help a lot with shortening breaks in between dives thus having more time to go to more dives!
Do you guys know if I can do the Nitrox certification online without going to a dive shop, like coming in to do an exam. I think dives aren't required anymore? not really sure.

Hi mattspiral8,

Welcome to Scubaboard.

If I did not know any better, I'd say you are trolling us. What you wrote sounds like a recipe for disaster--your disaster.

By using EANx to shorten your SI (surface interval) you are in essence "riding your NDL" albeit, by different means. Riding your NDL is not a good idea. In our sport, a term has been coined that describes a situation where a diver follows all known protocols to avoid DCS, and gets bent anyway. I don't like the term, because it blame-shifts to some unknown demon. If you get bent, it is for a reason. We may not know what the reason is or what the triggers were for that event, but there is a reason.

My point is this: riding NDL, by any means puts you closer to a hit whose origins may be in the unknown margins.

My advice:
Book some boat dives and stay with the DM. Like glue. Dive the DM's profile. Don't look at the pretty fishes or the coral. Watch and learn from the DM. Watch his/her trim. Study their breathing habits. Notice the number of times they use their BCD inflator (probably 0 times). Really good divers don't use their BCDs while recreational diving down to 100 fsw; they use it as a redundant system.

Most newbs are over-weighted, out-of-trim, and using there BCD when they should not be.

Your OW cert is a learner's permit. Your instructor taught you the basics. Now you need to learn to dive without a nanny watching and instructing you. There is a difference.

You will need the AOW cert anyway. Get your Nitrox cert while doing that. The most important thing you need to perfect is your buoyancy, your trim, and your gas consumption. They are all related. Do a buoyancy course.

Nitrox was called "voodoo gas" by cert agencies years ago. Because they were worried about divers exceeding a PPO² for any mix as that has real life-an-death consequences, and quickly. Most newbs don't understand how easy it is to end up at 100 or 120 fsw. I have learned to be situationally aware. I dive IFR. No VFR for me (I know, aeronautical terms on a diving forum?).

Please don't become a statistic.

Take it slow.

markm

 

[Brett Hatch]

Hi @mattspiral8, welcome! I just spent a week in Bonaire myself (Feb 8-16) and had a really great time. The island is incredible, and I'm certain you will enjoy it immensely.

I agree with every sentence of @markmud 's post above. I won't belabor those points, just have a couple things to add:
1: If you are staying in OW cert depth range (0-60fsw / 0-18msw), then there not a large difference in bottom time between air and 32% nitrox (this is the most common nitrox mix).
2: If you're diving in a group with a DM and they are doing their job, then they will take depth and bottom time limitations of the group into account. Like staying above 60', and well within air NDL.
3: Most of the neat life on the reefs of Bonaire is shallow, like 10 - 60 feet.

Together these points imply that 1) you won't miss much if you dive on air that week, and 2) there's not much of a point of taking the nitrox course without the AOW course (which increases your depth limit to 100fsw / 30msw). With all that in mind, AOW and nitrox courses will help you improve your diving skills, your fun, and your ability to keep yourself safe.

How soon is your trip? If you have time to squeeze in an AOW class and nitrox class locally, great! If that is logistically infeasible, then you can look into taking them in Bonaire. AOW class is a couple days and involves 5 dives; nitrox is a couple hours and usually involves zero.

 

[EFX]

While you don't need to do any dives and the course can be mainly done online, you still have to show that you can analyse tanks and calculate MOD and NDL.

I learned how to calculate MOD in the Nitrox course but never learned how to calculate NDL? How do you calculate NDL?

 

[WarrenZ]

I learned how to calculate MOD in the Nitrox course but never learned how to calculate NDL? How do you calculate NDL?

Old school divers would figure it out with something called a dive table. Now it's done by setting your computer and watching that.

Look up ratio deco or deco on the fly if you want to get into giving yourself a headache while diving.