What's the deal with the "Advanced Nitrox" certification?

[Jimmer]

I couldn't find an instructor in Toronto who would teach the class. Most of the shops up here either teach TDI or DSAT. There's one place in St. Catherines (about an hour away) that does Naui Intro to Tech, I should ask them if they do Recreational Helitrox.

I'm taking Naui Tech1 from Matt in St Catherines in April. That includes Adv. EANx, Deco procedures, and heliotrox. I'm sure he'd teach the heliotrox on it's own as well.

 

[nereas]

I thank you for your thoughtful suggestion. Up here in Ontario, single tanks are looked upon as training wheels, suitable for learning buoyancy while you are still diving a dry suit. So everybody goes to doubles and then to Tech 1 as fast as their natural ability and appetite for training will take them. So this isn't the first time I've heard this advice.

However... I am resisting the urge to screw around with doubles and deco. I am trying to explore the limits of single tank, no penetration diving at the moment. My wife is not interested in technical diving, and I don't want to go anywhere she can't follow. So my quixotic quest is to try to become really, really good at no-deco diving. That's obviously 99.5% fundamentals, but I am interested in exploring the other 0.5%, thus my questions about Advanced Nitrox and Recreational Trimix.

The main application of single tank diving is to warm water tropical trips.

On those trips, you will normally be using an 80 or 100 cu ft aluminum tank from the boat, sometimes with nitrox if you can get it. In some places like Mexico it is hard to get. In most other places you can get nitrox anywhere.

The best approach is to have a SS backplate and 2 full service 2nd stages, one on a long hose. If anyone asks you why the long hose, just say that you hope to rent a DPV somewhere! That's the best excuse.

A travel weight belt consisting of pouches works best for such trips, since the boat will provide the weights, and their belts will be ratty and too long or too short.

The best wing for that would be an 18, 30, or 40 lbs single-tank oval wing. Since you are locally a cold-water diver, I would recommend the 40 lb-er. It is also nice to ride high in the water with a 40 lb wing while you wait for the chase boat to come pick you up because you were blown down current from the boat on a reef dive in the tropics. Fiji is famous for this.

For all NDL diving, it is better to treat each dive as if it were a deco dive. For this, you would always first stop during your egression at 1/2 of your MOD, for 1 minute. Then from that point on, you would egress 10 ft at a time (or 3 metres) and stop for 1 min at a time, until you reach the surface. If you do this, on all your NDL dives, you should never need to visit a recompression chambre.

Now you know everything there is to know about single-tank NDL diving.

So go out and buy your twin LP 80s or twin LP 72s. They work great for all kinds of beach and boat diving. I promise you that you will never go back to single tanks again, except for the tropical trips.

 

[shoredivr]

Up here in Ontario, single tanks are looked upon as training wheels, suitable for learning buoyancy while you are still diving a dry suit. So everybody goes to doubles and then to Tech 1 as fast as their natural ability and appetite for training will take them. So this isn't the first time I've heard this advice.

Say, Reg, that's a pretty broad brush you're painting with there

Get on a charter boat in Tobermory or Brockville and you'll see plenty of single tank divers.

Of course, you'll also see some doubles divers who are not tech trained, they just like the redundancy, and some doubles divers who are tech trained.....

 

[Blackwood]

I completely agree with Blackwood on all this.

Had to happen eventually

 

[nereas]

Had to happen eventually

You're too funny! I am actually starting to like you.

 

[Marvel]

That's a good idea. I currently leave my house at 5:30PM to get to class at 8 PM. Class ends at 11PM and I get home to pass out at 1:30 AM. It helps that I pick up 3 buddies along the way for the drive. This has been a very good team building experience and it should carry well beyond the surface to the actual diving.

Reg: Do you have any regular buddies up there to do this training with? I think that's key for this type of diving. Build the team by going diving and then get the training to extend that diving. That's worked very well for me and the more challenging dives tend to work out pretty well.

I can't imagine living all the way up there and getting into diving. We are a little spoiled here in South Florida.

My buddy...

I'm taking the class simply because I get narced easily at ~100 or more & I just plain don't like it. My usage of Helitrox will probably be pretty sporadic & therefore I'm not too concerned about the cost of an occasional fill. I have no intention of pursuing deco & tech diving at this time but I am not closed to the idea. I do have to say.. it's been great getting to know the other guys in the class & learn more about the concept of team diving!

 

[Reg Braithwaite]

Those were my thoughts exactly. If your goal is to be a crack sport diver who is experienced in various environments within the sport range, perhaps fit in a Fundies or Intro to Tech course, but otherwise just dive your butt off.

I'm hoping to do Fundies next June with Dan MacKay.

 

[Reg Braithwaite]

Say, Reg, that's a pretty broad brush you're painting with there

Get on a charter boat in Tobermory or Brockville and you'll see plenty of single tank divers.

Of course, you'll also see some doubles divers who are not tech trained, they just like the redundancy, and some doubles divers who are tech trained.....

Well, most of my few dives have been on charters in Tobermory and Brockville, and when I filter out the people who are on a week-end trip with their LDS or taking their AOW, Deep Diver, or Drift Diver specialities...

The remaining folks, the ones who just get in the car and go dive, I would say the majority of those seem to dive doubles. So yes, I am only speaking of a subset of the divers I have met, the ones that are not going along with whatever their LDS is organizing. So obviously it is a little skewed.

Of course I could still be wrong about that. No problemo! It wasn't a critical point.

 

[Reg Braithwaite]

I'm taking Naui Tech1 from Matt in St Catherines in April. That includes Adv. EANx, Deco procedures, and heliotrox. I'm sure he'd teach the heliotrox on it's own as well.

Thanks, I've already traded emails with Matt, I will see what he says, he may prefer that I (a) wait until I have more experience, (b) take Rec. Helitrox in conjunction with or following Deep Diver, or (c) take NAUI Intro to Tech first.

My bet is that he will either send me away until I have another season under my belt or demand that I do a checkout dive for him before making a specific plan of action.

 

[Reg Braithwaite]

The main application of single tank diving is to warm water tropical trips.

Seriously? SERIOUSLY?? Ok, look, if you like wrecks and you want to do some penetration, a single tanks is right out. But there are plenty of things to dive in Ontario that are well within the range of a steel 95 or 119, and that's not even considering a 130.

We have these things called Y valves and H valves if you are concerned about free flows and have a lightening quick ability to shut down a valve. And this other thing we call a dive buddy.

I'm thinking the most popular application of steel doubles is for divers who do not care to fiddle with their kit on a no-deco two tank charter dive and want to offset the weight of their bulky undergarments.

Maybe not the "main" application for some definition of "main," but boy have I seen a lot of people diving doubles on no-penetration wrecks in 40'-90' of water.

The best approach is to have a SS backplate and 2 full service 2nd stages, one on a long hose. If anyone asks you why the long hose, just say that you hope to rent a DPV somewhere! That's the best excuse.

As it happens I do own a SS BP and dive it with a 40# wing, although my choice of diving a wing was originally motivated by the ease of achieving horizontal trim.

A travel weight belt consisting of pouches works best for such trips, since the boat will provide the weights, and their belts will be ratty and too long or too short.

Well, I own some detachable weight pockets for my harness, however my experience is that with a 3 mil wet suit and AL80 tank (as would be appropriate for a tropical trip), I do not need any weight of any description to dive the rig and I can swim it up just fine.

And for diving with mid-Summer undergarments, a steel tank balances everything out just fine. And for the heavy Michelin Man undergarments, I have a 12# STA. I don't know much about diving, but if I had to guess I would guess that I will never wear weight with a single tank.

For all NDL diving, it is better to treat each dive as if it were a deco dive. For this, you would always first stop during your egression at 1/2 of your MOD, for 1 minute. Then from that point on, you would egress 10 ft at a time (or 3 metres) and stop for 1 min at a time, until you reach the surface. If you do this, on all your NDL dives, you should never need to visit a recompression chambre.

Now you know everything there is to know about single-tank NDL diving.

Maybe true, maybe not true, but I have a feeling that I would not be satisfied simply being told how to plan any dive and that I need to understand why a certain shape is better than another and whether 1/2 of the MOD is really the place to start one minute ascents and whether that plan changes when diving trimix.

Right off the top of my head I wonder why one person might say 1/2 MOD and another might say 80% of ATAs.

So go out and buy your twin LP 80s or twin LP 72s. They work great for all kinds of beach and boat diving. I promise you that you will never go back to single tanks again, except for the tropical trips.

How do you know I would settle for doubles instead of investing in a rebreather?