Coldiver1:
Great info! I have known about Nitrox, Heliox ect. because in the late 80's I was a commercial diver in California and North Carolina and had a few chances to dive these mixes under "working" conditions. Although I didn't get a chance to mix the gas-or understand the concept fully, basically I was a working "monkey" on the end of a surface supplied hose. The reason why I put this to the Board was that I wanted a well rounded opinion relating to Sport Diving gases before I approached my LDS with my notions. I wasn't really sure if I needed to go in this direction. As an old guy I have felt the fatigue a lot more and I know that even though I am in decent physical shape I am a lot more susceptible to diving illnesses. (and by the way, "Geezer Gas" is exactly what I am looking for!) Plus I have been hesitant to buying a load of new gear because I wasn't sure if it would make a difference or not. (I'm 50 years old and bought my first home computer last March!!!!) Now is Eanx the same as Nitrox? Eanx "enriched air" is a greater percentage of O2 with a lesser percentage of Nitrogen am I correct? Thanks to all of you that posted responses. This will be of great help to me when it comes time to make the commitment.
Nitrox is a good course to take. PADI no longer requires dives to be done for the card. It's all mental work anyway. The diving part of it doesn't involve anything other than a dive. Kind of like the Altitude specialty, only for some reason they still require dives for altitude. As a DM, you should at the least be familiar with nitrox. I'm not sure where you DM, but if any of the divers you are DMing are diving nitrox, you need to be familiar with it.
The 2 most common mixes of nitrox are 32% and 36%, 32 being the more popular of the 2. 32 allows you to dive to a max depth of 110 and extend your bottom time, air permitting. Or you can dive the air tables and decrease your decompression risk. Depending on the kind of diving I'm doing, I may reduce the setting a couple/few points just to be more conservative.
There's no definitive studies about whether geezer gas does make you feel better and more energetic, but I know that it does make me feel better. And when I'm breathing 100% at 20' for several minutes, I feel even better. That's enough for me.
You don't need to buy new gear for recreational levels of nitrox (up to 40%). All the gear you have is compatible. If you have titanium regs (I doubt that based on your post), then there is some controversy about the use of titanium and nitrox. I have some that I got a really great deal on and dive 32% with them on a regular basis. No problems.
Even if you own tanks, if your LDS fills from premixed banks, then they don't even need to be specially cleaned. Only if they are doing partial pressure blending do you need to have the tanks oxygen cleaned. It's not difficult to do and shouldn't be very expensive for aluminum tanks, but some LDSs take advantage of those who don't know any better.
Where are you in Nevada? I come up to Lakes Mohave and Mead on a regular basis and am planning a trip to Tahoe in 2007.
Almost forgot, look at the DiveRite Duo or Tusa IQ700. They're the same computer with a different name stamped on it. Tusa does sell for a little less and includes a display guard and 2 year warranty. Big display, big buttons that are easy to depress with gloves on, you can program nitrox into it and if you ever decide to go beyond that and do some basic decompression diving, you can program a decompression gas into it as well. It's also not too liberal.