Padi advanced open water /enriched air specialty diver combination

[bbdqsony]

I was wondering if I should go ahead and take this combo?

I mean Enriched Air course is 275 with 2 dives....

But with this combo is 350 for AOW plus 30= 380 for both...

Can you tell me what's the rough different bottom time between Air & Enriched Air?

I've already signed up for AOW but I'll call about Enriched Air as well if it's worth for that price.

Course Start April 9th... wish me luck

 

[AndyNZ]

Can you tell me what's the rough different bottom time between Air & Enriched Air?

It depends very much on the dive. Nitrox comes into it's own in the 18-30m range.

Off the top of my head, NDL for air at 30m is 20 minutes whilst for EAN32 it is 30 minutes, for example.

Whether you can get the value of nitrox (in terms of dive times) depends on your breathing rate - if you breathe a tank dry in 20 minutes at 30m, then it doesn't matter whether you have nitrox in your tank or not, your dive is still going to be 20 minutes.

It certainly seems to be good financial value - the additional increase in price ($30 as I read your post) appears to be less than what it costs a dive centre to issue the certification. For that, you will get a manual and hopefully some tuition. I doubt that you will actually do the dives on the course (as they are now optional for the PADI course) depending on how the instructor structures things.

 

[Crush]

Air is about 78% nitrogen and 21% oxygen. By definition, air qualifies as nitrox. When divers refer to nitrox, they usually mean enhanced air nitrox (EAN), which is normal air, to which extra oxygen has been added. Common mixes are EAN32 (32% oxygen, 68% nitrogen) and EAN36 (36% oxygen, 64% nitrogen).

From Wikipedia: Nitrox - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia :

In scuba diving, nitrox is normally differentiated and handled differently from air. The most common use of nitrox mixtures containing higher than normal levels of oxygen is in scuba, where the reduced percentage of nitrogen is advantageous in reducing nitrogen uptake in the body's tissues and so extending the possible dive time, and/or reducing the risk of decompression sickness (also known as the bends).​

There is more at that site if you want to check it out.

I can't comment on the price - I have no idea of what is a good deal in FL. However, taking it with AOW might save you some money.

 

[Diver0001]

Can you tell me what's the rough different bottom time between Air & Enriched Air?

That's a difficult question to answer directly, because it depends on a number of variables.

As a general statement, Nitrox will be most useful to you at depths deeper than about 60ft because for a lot of people that's about the depth where the NDL starts becoming the limiting factor in the dive instead of the amount of air in your tank.

Nitrox will give you longer NDL's but how much longer isn't a fixed amount. It depends on the depth.

I can give you a couple of examples (NB: don't use these numbers for planning your dives. or if you do at least verify them!).

Assuming you're diving on 32% instead of air (21%)

At 60ft the NDL for air is 55 minutes using the PADI RDP. On 32% it would be 80minutes.

At 100ft the NDL for air is 20 minutes. ON 32% it would be roughly 25 minutes using the table although in reality a computer would give a few more minutes (more like 30) because the table calculation includes a bigish rounding error at this depth

at 115ft, which is about the deepest you're supposed to dive using 32%, the NDL for air is 14 minutes but for EAN32 it would be 20 minutes.

Clearly, the shallower you are the more extra bottom time you get but unfortunately that's game of diminishing returns because at depths shallower than about 60ft you'll usually run out of air before you run out of NDL, so those longer NDL's don't help you at shallow depths.

I've already signed up for AOW but I'll call about Enriched Air as well if it's worth for that price.

I don't know if we can answer that for you. If you're making dives now that you need to shorten up because you're running out of NDL then you'd get some benefit from it. If your air consumption is still the limiting factor in your dives then you would be just as well off to delay it.

R..

 

[spectrum]

While you're at it for $30 it's a no brainer, take it and get the certification.

When NDL begins to be an issue in dive length it will come into play. Others have already painted that picture. There are other undocumented benefits to diving enriched air as well. Bottom line it that you will have the option of lessening your nitrogen loading. In many cases the biggest bang is in day after day repetitive diving, like a week on Bonaire. Combined with a dive computer nitrox will greatly extend you available dive time.

Most agencies no longer require any dives, just class & lab but this will get merged into your AOW dives so those dives are freebies. As a stand alone class $99 is the low end so $30 is a steal. Even if you don't use it in the short term you will get a little more insight into gas behavior. It also covers what to do if you or a buddy have an incident on enriched air so even as an air breathing buddy there is upside.

Pete

 

[Jim Lapenta]

Unless the 275 includes boat dives that is crazy. I'd go for the extra 30 deal. Still seems high though unless again those prices include boat fees. My AOW class (no boat dives) is 175 and includes 8 hours classroom and 6 dives. Nitrox which does require 2 dives is 125 and includes classroom and books. It would also require four days of diving to do both courses. I do not combine courses. Too much to go over as we still use tables, formulas, and emergency deco procedures in the nitrox class and all the material to cover in the AOW class.

 

[Tigerman]

Wether or not youre needing nitrox NOW, its pretty simple math.. $30 extra means you wont have to spend much more than those $30 later when/if youll be needing to do the nitrox course..

 

[Herk_Man]

Not wanting to start a fight here so I preface this with the fact that a lot of people don't notice a difference between diving air and nitrox. And there is no solid scientific proof of this. But a LOT of people, me and my family included, will tell you that diving Nitrox significantly decreases the amount of fatigue produced by diving. For me, that, more than the increased bottom times, makes it worth it. At $30, that's like stealing. I'd go for it.

 

[Protist]

Not wanting to start a fight here so I preface this with the fact that a lot of people don't notice a difference between diving air and nitrox. And there is no solid scientific proof of this. But a LOT of people, me and my family included, will tell you that diving Nitrox significantly decreases the amount of fatigue produced by diving. For me, that, more than the increased bottom times, makes it worth it. At $30, that's like stealing. I'd go for it.

Understanding there is no solid scientific studies proving this, I too feel a gross less amount of fatigue when diving Enriched air. So for now on, I will only dive enriched air. Even when doing a shallow 20 foot dive, ill use EAN X 36.

So I say go for it.

 

[mmerriman]

I feel no physical difference diving nitrox - but I do feel a big difference psychologically - the extra NDL safety margin removes a lot of stress. Your mileage may vary.