Nitrox texts

[GoBlue!]

Quick question for those of you who are experienced in more than one agency. How would you compare the Nitrox & Advanced Nitrox texts from the various agencies (e.g., with regard to completeness, practicality, avoidance of factual error, etc.)? I realize that the instructor makes the course & that agencies differ re: what is included in each course, but can any recommendations be made for the texts themselves?

(Question was sparked by an instructor who told me he likes to use the NAUI text for basic Nitrox even when teaching for a different organization; I'm wondering if the rest of you have a favorite text for either teaching or your personal library).

Jim

 

[MikeFerrara]

Quick question for those of you who are experienced in more than one agency. How would you compare the Nitrox & Advanced Nitrox texts from the various agencies (e.g., with regard to completeness, practicality, avoidance of factual error, etc.)? I realize that the instructor makes the course & that agencies differ re: what is included in each course, but can any recommendations be made for the texts themselves?

(Question was sparked by an instructor who told me he likes to use the NAUI text for basic Nitrox even when teaching for a different organization; I'm wondering if the rest of you have a favorite text for either teaching or your personal library).

Jim

I haven't seen the NAUI text but I like the IANTD text ok. Same for the Advanced Nitrox.

 

[Drew Sailbum]

I wasn't thrilled with the IANTD Advanced Nitrox text. Put together a bit more haphazard than for my taste.

The old PADI nitrox text was a bit confusing in sections. Now they have seperate metric and imperial versions and those parts have improved somewhat. But they couldn't leave well enough alone and managed to make some other bits worse in the process of updating.

 

[MB]

The NAUI text is a pretty good book. (Note: I'm a NAUI instructor, and I teach nitrox so I have a predictable user bias.) There is enough content and information so give a new student a solid background. Its fairly well written, and breaks the course into digestible chucks (chapters). Some critism has been that there's too much info for a basic nitrox class. I think that's a market issue tho - if you want to teach a nitrox class in 2 hours, this book won't help. If you want to teach a more thorough class, this text gives the background.

I have the TDI and IANTD books and guides, and I've reviewed the YMCA, SSI and Padi materials. The YMCA text is similar to the NAUI text (at least one of the authors is the same) and like the NAUI text, its thorough. Its not as "pretty." I think the SSI and Padi materials are "pretty" but very lite. The TDI manual has enough background materials to suffice; it too is sort of basic, but has more info than the SSI and Padi materials. For a long time, IANTD was the standard, and that happened with some of the worst materials on the market. The student workbook was simply a set of powerpoint-type slides, with very little textual information. The irony was wonderful! Today, there are better learning materials.

 

[skyking]

My nitrox certification is through TDI. Used the PADI and TDI materials both in the course. What I found refreshing as an engineer is that the TDI text is presented in a straight-forward and logical manner, the math is clear and well derived, and there is no useless BS between the covers. The PADI book is not well presented and the math presentation in particular is very poor (little is derived and the formulas are not generally in an intuitive form), but it IS chock-full of gee whiz information, some of which is valuable and "should" be in the TDI book. I recommend reading the TDI book first, work the examples there, and scan/skim the PADI book for fill-in. If you are going to get your certification through PADI, then of course work the examples in the PADI book also - they are a bit more involved and are more like what's on the PADI exam. Don't have the experience to compare the others, but am very happy overall with the background provided by the PADI/TDI combination, even if it cost a little more to buy both.

 

[Don Burke]

How would you compare the Nitrox & Advanced Nitrox texts from the various agencies (e.g., with regard to completeness, practicality, avoidance of factual error, etc.)?

My Nitrox course was PADI and my Advanced Nitrox was TDI.

I wasn't impressed at all by PADI Nitrox. The text was pretty clunky and they attempted to stuff the imperial and metric courses into the same resources.

The TDI Advanced Nitrox text had some parables in it that were full of contradictions. They made me question the validity of the rest of the material in the book.

Perhaps both have been fixed by now. If they haven't been, I can't recommend either to anyone.

 

[s7595]

I am takeing the padi nitrox course , the only problem I have is at the back of the book there are to formulas and it took me a 30min to figure out the correct math ,once I did it was easy .you would think these educated people would write the formulas in plain english not everyone is a math professer