This question has my google-fu stumped! Three gas nitrox?

[HamTrainChickenLaser]

OK first of all, this is the image that started me thinking:

What is "3 gas nitrox"? I hear folks say that if you want to get into technical diving then get a Teric, but for most recreational diving the Tern is fine. I just don't understand where technical diving and recreational diving split- is it only technical diving if I am going deeper than 130'? Or wreck penetration is also tec?

OC is open circuit- like normal scuba, and CC is a rebreather, true? So "OC TEC: Trimix enabled" and "3 gas Nitrox" are completely different from each other? One source that I found with google seemed to indicate that 3 gas Nitrox is "trimix" but that seems wrong.

 

[MB NZ]

I would read that as three different nitrox mixes on the same dive. i.e. 32%, 50% and 80%.

 

[Zane]

 

[HamTrainChickenLaser]

View attachment 896853

Thank you so much for that Zane!!!!! Read the manual? Who ever would have thought?? LOL!!!!!

 

[inquis]

I just don't understand where technical diving and recreational diving split- is it only technical diving if I am going deeper than 130'? Or wreck penetration is also tec?

In my view:

• Deeper than 130 ft (usually requiring trimix to mitigate narcosis, though some still do it on air).
• Staying beyond NDL (mandatory deco stops), typically involving richer O2 gas than the bottom gas. Improper switching has played a role in numerous fatalities.
• Hard overhead (e.g., cave or wreck penetration beyond a swim through where the exit is visible).
• Any combination of these.

The Tern would be fine for the NDL or overhead type of technical dives. It would not handle trimix.

 

[Subcooled]

I would read that as three different nitrox mixes on the same dive. i.e. 32%, 50% and 80%.

Diving Nitrox 32 and then doing decompression stops on Nitrox 50 and later on Nitrox 80 (or pure oxygen) is a very valid gas plan especially for long duration dives to 100 feet. I have done dives like these.

 

[MB NZ]

Diving Nitrox 32 and then doing decompression stops on Nitrox 50 and later on Nitrox 80 (or pure oxygen) is a very valid gas plan especially for long duration dives to 100 feet. I have done dives like these.

Yes, I've done a few dives like that in the distant past, but using 100% O2. I elected to give 80% as an example because I didn't want to get in to a ScubaBoard argument about whether 100% O2 was nitrox

 

[Subcooled]

Yes, I've done a few dives like that in the distant past, but using 100% O2. I elected to give 80% as an example because I didn't want to get in to a ScubaBoard argument about whether 100% O2 was nitrox

A clever choise.
The all know that pure oxygen is just 1% argon.

 

[broncobowsher]

A clever choise.
The all know that pure oxygen is just 1% argon.

No, air is 1% Argon
Pure Oxygen is 100% Oxygen.
Some Oxygen generators will make 95% O2 with 5% Argon. (what you get when you remove Nitrogen from air)