Nitrox for 20 dives in 5 days?

[tursiops]

This post quoted above is a great example of why you shouldn't believe everything you read on the internet.

LOL. Including your post!

Reduced fatigue from diving Nitrox has been determined to be nothing more than a myth by DAN and other legitimate respected scuba diving resources.

As far as free Nitrox? Never seen that anywhere.

Ask DAN: Can Diving with Nitrox Prevent Fatigue?

if you keep checking, you'll find that the studies quoted by DAN are crap studies; they have nothing to do with the "less fatigue" reports from divers. aside from a different definition of fatigue that what divers refer to, the studies look at single or very small numbers of dives, whereas most of the diver reports are of using Nitrox for a series of dives over multiple days.

And your disbelief in free Nitrox is easily refuted. Well, OK, YOU haven't seen it. which is not a very good argument....

 

[Divin'Papaw]

Getting nitrox certified is ALWAYS a good idea and very worth it. It should be part of OWD in my opinion. As to 20 dives over 5 days ... YES, use it!!

I dive nothing but nitrox. Straight up air is not an ideal breathing gas for any depth really. Mid-range dives (40'-90') very much benefit from nitrox and dives too deep for nitrox mean trimix is the ideal gas. Really shallow dives (<30') are where nitrox really doesn't help but I use it anyway. I get my nitrox via a 25-fill nitrox card so it is quite affordable. I put nothing but nitrox in my tanks so that is what I dive even on very shallow dives.

 

[EFX]

Most of the time I dive normoxic nitrox but I take a tank of Nx32 with me when I feel like doing 3 dives. Get the nitrox cert. I did a 3 tank dive charter drift diving over reefs that had an average depth of 75 ft. The dive op told us in order to do all three dives (two in the am and one early afternoon after a 60 min SI), we had to use Nx32. If you were diving air they would not let you do the third dive. So, you stayed on the boat. Nitrox gives you options and as others have said it is not expensive, relatively speaking.

 

[100days-a-year]

Nitrox and AOW give you the capability to a lot more. More time on the bottom or relatively safer. More areas within reach. Air has its place and always will but for a rec diver trying to maximize time in the water in moderate depths nitrox wins. It starts losing it's advantage once you start to go deeper but by then you'll be at the deep end of most non-technical certifications.

 

[dmaziuk]

I am heading to the Keys next month, hopefully, and we will be doing 20 dives over 5 days, mostly reef with 1 or 2 wrecks. As shallow as most of the diving is would you use nitrox? I ask cause we are not nitrox certified so we would need to take the class before our trip.

It really depends on your dives. If, like others say, your op limits total dive time to 45 minutes, then meh. If, OTOH, they limit SI to 40 minutes, I'd be much more concerned (and consider another op).

We often do 4 dives/day on Bonaire w/ ~1 hour runtime ea, an hour SI between tanks and a couple of hours for lunch between the morning and the evening 2-tank dips. If you can run that sort of schedule, nitrox won't make any difference over 5-6 days.

With shorter SIs and more square (wreck-type) profiles, it could.

 

[Caveeagle]

Do it! Also make sure you hade a good Nitrox capable computer.

I have been on a charter off west palm that required Nitrox so you were able to hang with the profiles most on the boat had.

I can’t recall the last time I dove air. (21%)

 

[Dubious]

If it's 10 bucks a tank (which is on the high side of price)

Wow, it is that cheap in Florida! $21.00 for banked 32% has kept us away from diving EANx locally.

 

[yle]

Example. There's a difference in spending 19 minutes vs 26 minutes on the Duane. Those 7 minutes might not sound like much but believe me, it's huge.

The benefit of nitrox also depends on the air consumption of the diver. Nitrox allowing 26 min while air allows only 19 min is irrelevant if the diver goes through their gas supply in 15 minutes. I've seen that quite often on both the Duane and Spiegel.

Not only does nitrox cost an extra $12 per dive, but it serves very little real benefit to divers with high consumption.

 

[yle]

I am heading to the Keys next month, hopefully, and we will be doing 20 dives over 5 days, mostly reef with 1 or 2 wrecks. As shallow as most of the diving is would you use nitrox? I ask cause we are not nitrox certified so we would need to take the class before our trip.

Outside of the cost, there is no downside to using nitrox. But there might be very little upside. The only real benefit (which is why I use it, as do many others replying here), is for deeper dives... but only if your air consumption is good enough to recognize the advantage. If you'll go through a tank of air in 15 minutes on your 100 ft wreck dive, you'll also go through your nitrox in 15 minutes. So the greater NDL afforded by the nitrox won't matter.

If you're not sure how your air consumption is, try your first deep dive on air and note how low your NDL gets on your computer. If you have to end the dive due to your air supply, and you still have plenty of NDL on your computer, that's a clear indication that nitrox wouldn't be able to give you any more.

However, the nitrox class is a good one to have. Once you're certified, you then at least have the option to use nitrox when it makes sense.

 

[yle]

Reduced fatigue from diving Nitrox has been determined to be nothing more than a myth by DAN and other legitimate respected scuba diving resources.

I'm a fan of science myself, and as such I'm not a fan of people misinterpreting science. But I'll assume you've made an honest mistake.

DAN reports scientific studies. What science can do is either find evidence to support a theory, or not find evidence to support a theory. Each tells us something.

But not finding evidence to support a theory does NOT mean that the theory is incorrect... it simply means it's not supported by scientific evidence. And not finding something doesn't mean it doesn't exist... it simply means it has not yet been found.

In this case, you seem to be confused that the inability for scientific studies to find a connection between nitrox use and divers feeling "less fatigued" means that such a connection does not exist (i.e. you claim it's a "myth".) That is a misinterpretation of the science.

The correct interpretation, instead is that there could be such a connection... it simply has not yet been found. And it could be that the connection affects some people more than it does others, because people are different. The significance of this difference is that when Kelevmor says "ever since I've started using nitrox, I feel less fatigued after diving", he is likely being completely honest. To suggest that he is lying, or that his experience is invalid, is offensive.

However, the suggestion that everyone should expect to feel less fatigued when using nitrox (I've personally never noticed a difference...) is not supported by any scientific studies, which simply means it might happen or it might not... but there's no valid reason that everyone should reliably expect it to happen.