Finally dove the Duane

[freedive]

I finally got the chance to dive my first shipwreck for my AOW classes and what a great dive this was !!!!!!!!!!
The day was absolutely perfect, totally flat seas, plenty of sunshine, no current to speak of, vis at 60'+. What more could I want? How about a little unexpected treat from my instructor........32% nitrox Can you say bottom time
The views of the wreck were absolutely breath taking we did some very light penetrations and swim throughs some of the cabins which were great and saw a huge 8' Moray. My most memorable view though came at the beginning of the dive after descending to the bow and swimming across the deck, the structure with the tall crows nest came into view WOW.

Max depth was 109' TBT 45 min and I'm totally hooked on Nitrox after using it for the first time. Not only did it extend my bottom time plenty but it was very easy breathing and I felt great after surfacing. We have the Spiegel Grove booked for my next wreck dive, can you guess what I want to be breathing?

Juan

 

[ReefGuy]

I love the duane. It's one of my favorite dives! Much better than the Spiegel Grove (which I have more dives on).

Are you Nitrox certified?

 

[freedive]

Are you Nitrox certified?[/QUOTE]

No so it was a real special treat. My max time at that depth would have only been 9 min on 21%

 

[simbrooks]

Just a word of warning, have you researched into nitrox, its pro's and con's? At 109ft, you were pretty much on the recommended limit of PPO2 = 1.4, but still of the contingency of 1.6. Has your instructor taken you through any training for using nitrox? I would suggest the course, as would many others - just dont go diving it on your instructors say so without any training beforehand as a trust me dive. What depth could you have gone to on the Duane? I havent dove that one yet, but the max you might have gone to on that mix would be deeper than you dove - but you have to be aware of the risks before you use it.

Havent dove in the keys yet, i think you south FL people have an advantage on me there in terms of distance!

 

[ReefGuy]

I don't think he was doing you a favor. At the depths you're talking about you are over 1.4 ppo2 (1.4 = 107mod). 1.6 is max. When you take Nitrox to depth this becomes a real issue, like convulsions and death. You will also run into this if you dive 32% on the Grove.

You're taking a risk you probably don't fully understand yet. Please reconsider doing nitrox again until you are certified.

 

[ReefGuy]

I don't think he was doing you a favor. At the depths you're talking about you are over 1.4 ppo2 (1.4 = 107mod). 1.6 is max. When you take Nitrox to depth this becomes a real issue, like convulsions and death. You will also run into this if you dive 32% on the Grove.

You're taking a risk you probably don't fully understand yet. Please reconsider doing nitrox again until you are certified.

Simbrooks, the bottom for the dwain is, I think, in the neighborhood of 125-130'

 

[Damselfish]

I was going to give the benefit of the doubt and ask if perhaps you were doing Nitrox as part of your AOW, which some people do.

If this instructor gave you Nitrox with no training and you did this dive without having any idea that you were right at the commonly accepted limit for EAN32 - I'd be wondering what else he's showing you that you should question? Did he at least tell you not to go below that depth?

 

[RiverRat]

I finally got the chance to dive my first shipwreck for my AOW classes and what a great dive this was !!!!!!!!!!

Glad to hear you had a blast! I'll be going out with the LDS to NC in August for my first wreck dives (unless I do one before then) on the Schurze (maybe spelt wrong) and U- 352, 852? I forget. Some good wrecks for my level of exp.

Definately get the Nitrox class in NOW! Unless you maybe did it already like I did? I took the class and then did 2 of my AOW dives on Nitrox, PADI lets you "combine" the dives now for cert. At 109' you were close to the MOD of 111' at 1.4 ata on a 32 mix.

 

[H2Andy]

Are you Nitrox certified?

No so it was a real special treat. My max time at that depth would have only been 9 min on 21%

one of the reasons to become Nitrox certified is to understand
the risks that come along with that extended bottom time.

oxygen becomes toxic at depth. the more oxygen you
have in your mixture, the quicker (i.e. shallower) oxygen becomes toxic. should you suffer an oxygen toxicity seizure, you will drown.

you were very close to danger territory. what worries me is that it sounds like you didn't make a knowing choice to go there but that someone made it for you.

 

[Scubaguy62]

I finally got the chance to dive my first shipwreck for my AOW classes and what a great dive this was !!!!!!!!!!
The day was absolutely perfect, totally flat seas, plenty of sunshine, no current to speak of, vis at 60'+. What more could I want? How about a little unexpected treat from my instructor........32% nitrox Can you say bottom time
The views of the wreck were absolutely breath taking we did some very light penetrations and swim throughs some of the cabins which were great and saw a huge 8' Moray. My most memorable view though came at the beginning of the dive after descending to the bow and swimming across the deck, the structure with the tall crows nest came into view WOW.

Max depth was 109' TBT 45 min and I'm totally hooked on Nitrox after using it for the first time. Not only did it extend my bottom time plenty but it was very easy breathing and I felt great after surfacing. We have the Spiegel Grove booked for my next wreck dive, can you guess what I want to be breathing?

Juan

Juan, congrats on your dive on the Duane. I can tell you that the Spiegel Grove is likely to not be as easy of a dive as the Duane was, and with that in mind, let me also join in and give you another angle of caution when diving nitrox without proper training. I'm going to presume your instructor briefed you on the use of nitrox, and the consequences of exceeding the recommended MOD for the mix, the PPO2 for the dive, and the saturation table. I'm also going to presume you did not spend 45 mins at 109 fsw and that you dove with a computer. If all of these circumstances apply, disregard the rest of this post, but if one or more apply, please read on...

If your instructor did not brief you on the benefits and cautions of diving on nitrox, FIND ANOTHER INSTRUCTOR PDQ (pretty damn quick). If you spent all 45 mins at 109, or there abouts, the NDL at 110', according to the PADI 32% dive table, is 25 mins. You can see that if you dove without a computer, you almost certainly entered a deco situation. If you did dive with a computer, was it a nitrox computer, and if so, was it set for 32%? How much of a SI did you have, and how deep was your second dive? We are taught in EANx certification class that the minimum SI when diving nitrox is 1hr.

Consider this, let's say you don't get your nitrox cert for another few months, but in the interim you get your AOW and decide to go and dive the Duane with your buddy, because you're not nitrox certified, the dive operator will not (or at least should not) provide it for you, so you'll have to dive on 21%; presumably this was your first deep dive, and it was done on 32%, which tends to retard the effects of nitrogen narcosis; now you're diving the same wreck, on 21%, will you recognize how N2 narcosis affects you, and will you know how to react when you experience it? None of us is saying don't dive nitrox, what we are saying is don't dive nitrox, especially on deep dives, unless you're properly trained. Just my $.02.

Semper safe,

Rick