Calling out the Nitrox Posers!

[wallacm]

i get headaches from regular air, thats why i always dive nitrox

 

[lamont]

personally, i get fills that are always 32% (unless they're helium), then i decide where to go diving (often days later).

sometimes its in the 100-120 fsw range for 30 mins where the nitrox helps. other times its a shallow dive nowhere near the NDLs for air. for my diving both 21% and 36% are annoying nitrox fills since they limit my diving. 32% works perfectly anywhere I don't need trimix.

yes, i do have the disposable income to 'waste' on nitrox on 25 fsw dives. no, i'm not trying to impress anyone with this. and my tanks don't have nitrox bumper stickers on them i'm not advertising the fact that i'm diving nitrox...

also, if someone is diving to 25 fsw with a tank that has a nitrox bumper stick on it, how do you know they're not diving "EAN21"?

 

[laivindil]

I once calculated the best mix to dive my grandparents 8ft swimming pool. I think it came out to something like 112%.

 

[rjack321]

Plenty of times I have dove nitrox on shallow and/or practice dives. It costs me about $1.50 per tank for nitrox. There's no reason not to dive it.

Dumping a single air fill because its the wrong mix would be a bigger waste.

No bumper stickers on my tanks either.

 

[CentralTxDiver]

I also say chill out man. Surely there is more out there that bothers you than this...world famine, aids, weapons of mass destruction, etc. Who cares what another diver is diving unless its obviously unsafe. All my tanks are marked for NITROX use and while it may only contain 21% O2 I'm not going to have a special set of tanks labled FOR AIR USE ONLY to please someone overly bothered by what I am diving. Besides if I want to dive 32% to 15' its my choice not yours. What's next: being bothered because someone dive's an Atomic T2 or a BP/W to 15' from the shore...give me a break.

Jim

 

[rjack321]

The days of nitrox being "special" are long gone anyway.

 

[Charlie99]

I did some fiddling with the simulator for my Oceanic dive computer and it seems to indicate that anything deeper than twelve FSW on air can eventually lead to DCS.

Interesting. Are you sure you didn't have some sort of extra conservatism factor cranked in? More typically the minimum bends depth is considered to be 20' - 25' range.

More specifically, the 480 minute compartment of the DSAT model upon which the Oceanic computers is based has an M-value of 43.4fsw. (43.3fsw N2 /0.79FN2) - 33 = 21.8', and another couple feet deeper if you correct for H2O and CO2 partial pressures.

 

[trigfunctions]

I think they look like idiots and are just trying to show off to non-nitrox divers and chicks on the beach.

Chicks on the beach dig Nitrox? I may put a sticker on my tank.

 

[Charlie99]

But it seems every time I am at some popular, shallow shore dive there is some buffoon there breathing nitrox.

Next time, just tell them that the really cool divers use trimix for that dive.

It's time to chill out a bit. There's no downside to using nitrox, and as others have noted, it is may be just more convenient for them to use a fill they already have around; or they may just have air in a tank that they also use for nitrox.

 

[Scububbs]

Personally I don't see that I'll ever have much use for Nitrox. Our LDS charges $25 for a 36% fill, and I can get far more diving out of the 5 tanks of regular air that would pay for. Most of our diving is in the 30-50 FSW range and Nitrox doesn't make sense for our purposes.