Helium Fraction and Standardized Gases

[danvolker]

Back in the late 90's, MANY tek divers would REFUSE to switch from deep air to helium, due to what were considered exhorbitant costs....this kept most of the tek world in deep air for quite some time....As GUE and a few other groups tried hard to get the larger population of tek and cave divers to use helium for deeper dives, a number of strategies became employed to make this price and use acceptable to the larger population of tek divers....
Ultimately the standardization of mixes used helped this alot...Today we can find diveshops that will have trimix banked at most common mixes, and divers can often form a "buying coop" to get helium t-bottles at great wholesale costs, and then work a deal with a good dive shop to bank and distribute this for them at low prices....The Pura Vida Dive Center on singer island is a good example of this.... So I can do a trimix dive for about $15 worth of trimix, and it's kind of a no-brainer for most divers that a deep dive is worth this

With Kevin's ideas, dive shops would have much larger time expenses, and far less likely to enjoy the trimix business without charging a premium for this...
And then of course there is the whole "why" issue....if in thousands of man hours of use, we have no issues with our standard mixes, then why try to fix something that is not broken, for 3 times the cost?

 

[Bombay High]

Thank you Dan.
That is the answer to the question that I have been asking.
I was wondering what the history of it evolution was.
I was never questioning its efficacy.

Back in the late 90's, MANY tek divers would REFUSE to switch from deep air to helium, due to what were considered exhorbitant costs....this kept most of the tek world in deep air for quite some time....As GUE and a few other groups tried hard to get the larger population of tek and cave divers to use helium for deeper dives, a number of strategies became employed to make this price and use acceptable to the larger population of tek divers....
Ultimately the standardization of mixes used helped this alot...Today we can find diveshops that will have trimix banked at most common mixes, and divers can often form a "buying coop" to get helium t-bottles at great wholesale costs, and then work a deal with a good dive shop to bank and distribute this for them at low prices....The Pura Vida Dive Center on singer island is a good example of this.... So I can do a trimix dive for about $15 worth of trimix, and it's kind of a no-brainer for most divers that a deep dive is worth this

With Kevin's ideas, dive shops would have much larger time expenses, and far less likely to enjoy the trimix business without charging a premium for this...
And then of course there is the whole "why" issue....if in thousands of man hours of use, we have no issues with our standard mixes, then why try to fix something that is not broken, for 3 times the cost?