What do veteran divers think about Air vs Nitrox

[djanni]

We always use Nitrox when it's available. It does cost considerably more per tank so maybe that's why some don't use it. Next weekend we're going to Pensecola and will be diving the Oriskany on Saturday.

We ordered EAN30 for the Oriskany and EAN36 for the other dives we're planning.

We are in the over 50 group so maybe that has something to do with it.

 

[HowardE]

I almost always dive nitrox.

But I don't know if I really qualify as a "veteran"

 

[The Chairman]

But I don't know if I really qualify as a "veteran"

Your brain shows permanent hyperbaric shrinkage, so you probably are a qualified diving veteran!

 

[divingjd]

I use it when I am on a trip, diving 3-5 dives a day for 5 or 6 days. I rarely use it to increase bottom times. I usually dive air tables (21% O2 setting on the computer) to add an extra margin of safety, which is particularly important when doing that much diving. Although there is no good empirical evidence, I am one of the people who believes that EANx also decreases fatigue. I don't use it at home in the Great Lakes, partly because a fair number of the wrecks are deep enough to push or exceed the MOD and partly because I do not keep a set of O2-clean tanks. Using EANx for Great Lakes diving would often mean dragging an extra tank or two along, so I have not gone to the bother and expense of keeping O2-clean tanks and dragging them around.

 

[Laser]

The signs may or may not be there with convulsions sometimes being the first sign. I have been told by a couple of divers who have dived VERY high PPO2's that the first sign they experienced was facial twitching.

I've heard this several times.

 

[TSandM]

I'm not a veteran diver, but I'm diving Nitrox all the time at home now. This is mainly for two reasons: One, I got a very good deal on it, so the cost is substantially lower (essentially the same as an air fill). Two, for the safety factor. The vast majority of my dives are nowhere near NDLs, so increasing bottom time isn't a real consideration, but since I'm in the "advanced age" group, I like the idea of the decreased nitrogen loading for any dive I do.

 

[Cacia]

I feel less tired when doing multilple dives on vacation.

At home, many of my dives exceed the MOD and the expense is a factor.

On dive packages, I always ask them to throw in Nitrox on a week's diving...and they do about 75% of the time. It's nice on vacation when you want to do a few dives and then go out, as opposed to what I do at home which is sleep two hours after two dives and a beer!

It is about $12 dollars a tank here. I used to get it free but now I would have to pay and that would bite into by PNG, camera fund. I could easily be spending 200 month on Nitrox and something would have to give.

 

[Charlie99]

There are only two real downsides to nitrox: cost and availability.

Cost may be a couple dollars, or maybe even $10 more than an air fill, but for most people that is just a small fraction of the cost of diving and doesn't affect the choice of whether or not to use nitrox.

Availability is the big issue with me. Some areas -- SE Florida, for example, nitrox is readily available. Other areas -- Maui, for example, it is more of a problem since most charter boats don't have it available.

It isn't just a coincidence, however, that SE Florida, with the square profile dives at 60 to 90' is where it is most useful; while many dives in Maui are multilevel wall dives where one can have a nice profile on air as you gradually ascend over many minutes.

Using nitrox does require that you be more aware of maximum depths and requires that you analyze gas and track O2 exposure. Most CNS oxtox incidents are caused by using a gas other than what the diver thought he was breathing --- either by inadvertentaly breathing a high %O2 deco mix while at depth, or by diving a mis-mixed/mis-labeled/mis-analyzed mix beyond the limits for what the mix really is. In other words, the real danger is from gross stupid mistakes, not from exceeding your planned depth by a few feet.

I definitely recommend that you get the nitrox certification. Even if you mostly continue to dive air, it is good to know about the dangers, limitations, and advantages of nitrox.

 

[mudchick]

The latest issue of Scuba Diving, which came in the mail yesterday, has an article on this very thing--benefits and myths of diving on nitrox. It debunks some of the advantageous myths such as feeling less tired using nitrox. According to a study cited in the article, feeling more energetic or less exhausted is a placebo effect. I've heard more than one diver here on the board and in real life say the feel much better after their dives using nitrox. I guess I won't really know til I try it myself.

At what point in a diver's education do board members suggest learning nitrox? I still feel relatively new at 40 logged dives and wonder if I should get more experience before learning to dive nitrox, but I am curious and interested in nitrox.

 

[MikeFerrara]

The latest issue of Scuba Diving, which came in the mail yesterday, has an article on this very thing--benefits and myths of diving on nitrox. It debunks some of the advantageous myths such as feeling less tired using nitrox. According to a study cited in the article, feeling more energetic or less exhausted is a placebo effect. I've heard more than one diver here on the board and in real life say the feel much better after their dives using nitrox. I guess I won't really know til I try it myself.

The article didn't present what I would consider a "study" and they didn't describe the dives. All I can add is that I've done teaching days that left me feeling like I had been run over by a truck and other where I employed other gasses and decompression techniques where I felt like a million bucks. No doubt there were too many variable to get a handle on but I defninately believe that you can feel decompression stress and using nitrox is one way to reduce that. Did he do the study with a bunch of instructors doing rediculously long days of teaching with undesireable profiles (you have to do all those ESA's and stuff with students you know)?

At what point in a diver's education do board members suggest learning nitrox? I still feel relatively new at 40 logged dives and wonder if I should get more experience before learning to dive nitrox, but I am curious and interested in nitrox.

My preference is to toss it right into OW training.