NITROX for any and all dives?

[MXGratefulDiver]

To say there is no advantage to nitrox is to say that it does not matter how close we come to NDL's. If it really does not matter how close we come to NDL's why not dive a liberal computer and ride the 1 minute mark all the way up? I don't think anybody believes that DCS is a light switch, full on or full off, do they? If I need to I will push NDL's, but I avoid it if I can. Nitrox changes dives that are close to NDL's into dives that are not close at all. Why is it so hard to believe that the body might feel better without that stress?

I exceed NDL's routinely ... usually without ever hitting 100 fsw. It's not rocket surgery ... you just come up slow and honor your obligation. And if you're planning a second dive, make sure your plans also include a healthy surface interval and lots of water ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Kimela]

@NWGratefulDiver (and others) - good to know I didn't fall prey to the placebo effect (re nitrox fixing dry mouth)!

 

[bladder]

. I've gone my entire life breathing air. It's time to fix that so we can all be better looking.

Speak for yourself dude. I can't possibly get any better looking and even if I could I'd be fending the women off in droves as I tried to make my way down the street.

 

[RIHappyDiver]

Speak for yourself dude. I can't possibly get any better looking and even if I could I'd be fending the women off in droves as I tried to make my way down the street.

Nitrox may not make you better looking but, evidently, SCUBA is an ego boost.

 

[BRT]

I exceed NDL's routinely ... usually without ever hitting 100 fsw. It's not rocket surgery ... you just come up slow and honor your obligation. And if you're planning a second dive, make sure your plans also include a healthy surface interval and lots of water ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

I don't think you routinely get out of the water when you are exceeding your NDL. I don't care if you were deep in decompression at some point in the dive. I suspect you don't leave the water the instant your decompression has cleared.

 

[txgoose]

The assumption of his test is that changing gas in the tanks is not noticeable. But the concept is flawed: it is diving several times a day, for several days, where the effect is typically felt. If I dive one tank of air, no big deal. I can't do a liveaboard on air, but no problem on Nitrox. He needs to design a test that does not violate the information already available. The proposed test is not testing the observed facts. If the reasons for the "benefit" is indeed subclinical DCS, then the proper tests would also involve measurement of sub-clinical DCS (e.g., microbubbles), in those who feel "benefit' and those who do not.

Regardless, switching gas mixtures in the middle of the day would likely negate everything. We can't get to your multiple day test if we can't first get to a complete single day.

 

[tursiops]

Regardless, switching gas mixtures in the middle of the day would likely negate everything. We can't get to your multiple day test if we can't first get to a complete single day.

Exactly.

 

[kelemvor]

I'll assume that was meant to be a joke, because promoting recreational trimix for anything other than profiles close to the edge of recreational depth limits would be foolish. Cost considerations aside (most folks wouldn't want to pay $60-$100 for a fill), helium will bend you MUCH quicker than nitrogen will ... so whenever you're breathing trimix you really need to pay attention to your ascent rate. Having watched what most recreational divers do once they've completed their safety stop I think promoting trimix at the recreational level really needs to come only with training and experience that the majority of recreational scuba divers are unlikely to have.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

Well... actually... There is an agency called Global Underwater Explorers (GUE) which does this very thing. They advocate helium for any dive deeper than 100 feet. Well within recreational depths.

 

[tursiops]

Well... actually... There is an agency called Global Underwater Explorers (GUE) which does this very thing. They advocate helium for any dive deeper than 100 feet. Well within recreational depths.

Well, yeah, but I've never been able to get GUE to pay for my helium. It's easy, of course, for them to recommend it....

 

[boulderjohn]

Well, yeah, but I've never been able to get GUE to pay for my helium. It's easy, of course, for them to recommend it....

UTD does the same thing. When I was a UTD student, we could not go below 100 feet without using trimix. It was quite expensive.

They also required Nitrox 32 for all dives above 100 feet. they were quite insistent on that. After I had been with them for awhile, they released a new set of videos with their instructors demonstrating a variety of skills. I learned from someone who was there that in order to defray costs for the project, they took whatever donations they could. A local dive shop donated all the gas for the dives, but that shop did not have the ability to make nitrox, so they were all breathing air when they made the videos. They somehow lived.