Why do I need a Nitrox certification?

[eelnoraa]

The cert. is mainly there to make sure whoever is using Nitrox knows what they are doing. If you really understand everything about Nitrox (at least material taught in PADI's class) and follow the procedure, I guess the problem is not yours.

Here is my question. Did you analys your tank and log the result in the log book? Here, LDS don't ask for Nitrox card when they do the fill. But when I pick up, I analyse the tank, write down result in the log book together with your Nitrox card number. Then both you and the LDS will sign the log book. If they don't recognize you, they will ask for the card. If your dive shop let anyone walk away with Nitrox, looks like a law suit on its way.

 

[770link770]

Nobody is going to make you take the class and pay for a nitrox card. If you feel confident on your knowledge that you learned off the internet, and feel safe diving different mixes of nitrox then so be it. It would seem that you think you know it all already, so the only thing that you would get out of it would be the ability to get nitrox anywhere other than just dive shops that don't check cards.



Best of luck to you however, don't end up in the "accidents forum."

 

[JamesK]

In a legally sane world yes. People should take their own risks and live with the consequences. It cost be $150 to get the card, and for what?

You are absolutely right. You should be able to take your own risks and live/die with the consequences. That does not mean it is smart to do or make it safe. Just because I can learn to skydive by reading a book, does not mean it is the safe thing to do.


I am through with this though. I can't understand what is up with all these new divers lately.

 

[Bombay High]

In a legally sane world yes. People should take their own risks and live with the consequences. It cost be $150 to get the card, and for what?

Wow ! I have seen divers like you on charters. I even met one who informed me that you use nitrox to go deeper. Sounds like he came out of your school of diving.

Good luck ... there are too many electronic divers getting a reality check in the deep for me to count.

 

[chrpai]

I have a renegade side from time to time. For example, I don't think Nitrox should require 2 dives to get certified but hey, whatever, it was fun diving. I also once "taught" (not certify of course) a buddy how to dive nitrox and let him dive a tank. It was a total "trust me" (bad, I know..) dive for him because he was trusting that I tested and labeled the tank correctly. Still, it was a 40' max mud pit we were diving.

To me, Nitrox is understanding theory, being able to create a dive plan based on that thoery, being able to follow procedures to make sure you are diving the gas you think you are diving, and being aware of the risks and signs of risks that come with using Nitrox.

Certification or not, you better know all of that to do it safely. The C-CARD just tells the fill station that at one point in time you convinced someone you did. God help you if you don't now.

 

[Sitkadiver]

Flamers need not reply. Where I live the LDS's do not question anyone for c cards or Nitrox fills ever. I have a dive computer and use it. I have been using Nitrox for a couple years now and am just wondering why one would want/ need to get certified for reasons other than getting fills why on vacation and what not. Anything I am missing on this? Why is the certification a supposed requirment. In my experience I have only been asked for Nitrox cert proof when in very touristy areas.
I understand it's cheap to get the cert and all, but what valuable knowledge will a avid OW diver that never plans to do any type of technical diving gain from it?
Thanks in advance.

Technically, you do not need a certification card to dive at all. You could do what was done throughout the early days of diving and fill your tanks, buy your own compressor and not worry about it. There is no law anywhere in the land that would prevent someone from doing this.

However, if you provided air/gas or gear to someone other than yourself, you would then assume a certain degree of responsiblility for that person. Which is what your dive shop is doing.

I have several friends here in Alaska who live in rural areas and fill their own tanks, pump their own nixtrox and even a few who mix their own home brew He. Would I do what they do, sure, but only to a point. I fill my own tanks, but I don't make my own nitrox. I don't home brew my own tri-mix and I would never ask someone to do it for me.

If you want to dive nitrox, that's your own business and I won't fault you for it. However, getting a nitrox fill from an LDS who may not know your certification level is, in my opinion, a lie. You are putting that LDS at serious legal risk if anything ever happens to you. Just becuase you may not be one of the Sue-Happy-Fools we all hear about, doesn't mean your heirs will not seek compensation for your absence. Even if your gas mix has nothing to do with a potential accident, it will bring into question the competency of the LDS for any gear work or other training they may have provided to you.

It's your decision to dive Nixtrox without a certification, but I hope you're letting the dive shop know what they're doing for you. Your LDS owner might have a family, a kid in college, a mortgage and an ailing family member. Please don't screw them over just becuase you want to get your jolly's off on his/her mixed gas supply.

 

[eelnoraa]

There is always some difference between "You think you know" and "you acutally know".

 

[diverzach]

I have a renegade side from time to time. For example, I don't think Nitrox should require 2 dives to get certified but hey, whatever, it was fun diving. I also once "taught" (not certify of course) a buddy how to dive nitrox and let him dive a tank. It was a total "trust me" (bad, I know..) dive for him because he was trusting that I tested and labeled the tank correctly. Still, it was a 40' max mud pit we were diving.

To me, Nitrox is understanding theory, being able to create a dive plan based on that thoery, being able to follow procedures to make sure you are diving the gas you think you are diving, and being aware of the risks and signs of risks that come with using Nitrox.

Certification or not, you better know all of that to do it safely. The C-CARD just tells the fill station that at one point in time you convinced someone you did. God help you if you don't now.

My thoughts exactly. A card is a license to learn, just like in anything else. A card does not equal competency.

 

[jmneill]

I was hoping for responses that would be more specific of any realistic danger to me. I understand the basic depth limitations and such. The only mix I use is 32% and as a personal rule I never dive past 110 Ft. I have not studied it closely, but with the aforementioned what specific danger am I putting myself in over air? Also, as a side note, I would put myself in the conservative diver catagory believe it or not.

 

[ktomlinson]

Here it is a $99 class...frankly the one I took was pretty horrible and if I hadn't already taught myself about it before class I would have came away from the class knowing which rules I had to follow, but not knowing why.

There have been comments made about why new divers question the need for classes after OW or think that someone is trying to sell them a class they don't need. I'd guess it is because of the way that OW is sold...instead of looking at the classes as credits toward a degree, new divers may feel mislead when they learn that there is much more to diving than OW class teaches them.