Diving Nitrox to increase safety AND bottom time!
- Thread starter TheDeuce
- Start date
Please register or login
Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.
Benefits of registering include
- Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
- A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
- You can make this box go away
Hey just because some agencies set the bar low in certain areas (all are guilty of something...) doesn't mean the instructors or dive shops should follow suit. I usually role this into another class that requires diving. Knock 2 birds out with 1 stone.
There is no "practical experience" required to dive Nitrox, though. That's the point. The only difference is in planning and gas analysis of the tank. Every online course I researched (4 of them) all required a practical gas analysis at a shop to finalize the certification, with or without a dive requirement. I ended up taking the TDI course to get a better theoretical background (all the others teach computers and TDI teaches tables) but still had to go into my local shop to analyze a tank before I got my card.
Practically speaking, the only difference is the gas analysis when you get your fill and understanding MOD. Understanding MOD is strictly a theoretical thing and diving won't make any difference unless you tox, in which case, I would say you probably didn't understand it. The air tastes the same, it feels the same, it smells the same. You can't tell any difference while you are diving.
Hence my statement about "while you are diving". I can't speak to the lower fatigue, though that's why I got my Nitrox cert, because I haven't dived enough on Nitrox at depths or temps "extreme" enough to tell a difference. I tend to believe it will reduce fatigue after a dive, but that has no bearing on how it feels during a dive.
DaleC
Contributor
Statements like this is why I've come to be so detached from the formal instruction model of learning. Professionals making decisions based upon whimsy. Why not teach students all the facts and let them decide how they will use the gas.
EAN reduces the amount of N you uptake. That is a fact. This can either be used to extend BT (which negates the DCS safety buffer) or to provide a DCS safety buffer. That is a fact.
or as a hybrid of the two as the OP stated, though I've never heard of anyone locally doing that.
One might argue on an average dive day that buffer is theoretical but there are circumstances when it does come into play. I use EAN whenever I either want to extend bottom time on certain dives (wrecks mostly) or reduce the amount of N loading while not extending BT (for me due to DCS risk from repetitive diving or post dive altitude adjustments).
It may not be how you dive but should a formal course only teach your perspective or the facts.
There are safety issues surrounding EAN but almost all of them have to do with diver error, not the gas itself. A properly trained, attentive diver can use EAN to either extend BT or add a DCS safety buffer to the dive, just like using the conservative setting on your computer.
Lamont did beat me to the punch in bringing up some other factors that need to be considered when using EAN though, like hypothermia. I generally use air these days because I see most everything I need to each dive with air NDL's and can only do about an hour in a wetsuit at 45F.
Well if my theory holds true then it does have a bearing on how you feel at-least on that second dive, less tired. That is of course, a feeling is it not? I think it has more bearing then you actually know now and even less after you dive Nitrox 250+ days a year... Relevant yes, but really this debate has be done on a daily basis since it was endorsed for recreational use back in 1992... Its like arguing about how wet your going to get out side based on the rate of rain droplets counted by 2 people with different methods... Its a mute point, go dive and have some fun!
Similar threads
