PADI AOW w/ Nitrox specialty?

[Russoft]

Just looking for a bit of confirmation on this. AOW is made up of 5 dives: deep, navigation, and 3 "specialty" dives, some of which count towards further certification.

One exception to this is the Nitrox specialty, since the Enriched Air Diver course doesn't require dives to certify. So doing a Nitrox dive during AOW doesn't get you any closer to certifying to dive with EAN.

So why is a highly recommended dive shop (not sure I should name it) trying to convince me to do Nitrox as one of my specialty dives? Is Nitrox certification now included with AOW and I'm just not aware of it?

I pushed back and told the dives shop I wanted Night instead, unless they're willing to include EAN c-card for a small extra cost (a "package deal"). They replied saying:

Nitrox is now part of the 5 specialities so there is no added cost. When you do the deeper dives, Nitrox will give you more bottom time as it is enriched air so you get less nitrogen uptake in you system. We recommend it.
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What am I missing here? The PADI website has next to no information to guide me and the dive shop representative isn't being helpful in clearing the issue up. Is there anything at all to be learned or gained by taking Nitrox specialty with AOW?

 

[Viajobian]

If its included in the AOW cert at no extra cost, take it. It doesnt hurt to have another cert.

 

[Miyaru]

You won't get a Nitrox c-card by just doing a dive with nitrox in your tank. The dive itself is no different than any other dive. There is no different taste, your air consumption won't change. You have more bottom time.

However, understanding what the advantages are, is all theory. There are a few practical things to do like measuring the oxygen contents, but that's is done before the dive.

I'm teaching AOW this weekend, and offered my students to take an evening of theory prior to the course dives. They all want it and will be diving nitrox during the course. And yes, I charge extra since I'm not gonna pay for the registration fees myself.

 

[myshadeofred]

I agree, if EAN is free and a card comes with it, take it. I like the few extra minutes if I'm doing more than deep dive. I had to pay for mine.

 

[tursiops]

There are two real or simulated EANx dives for certification. The standards allow one of the two real EANx dives to be an Adventure Dive, thus one of the five in-water AOW dives, and allow the other EANx dive to be done concurrently with another Adventure Dive. So, by offering you EANx certification as part of your AOW, they are having to provide two cert cards, but only do four real training dives with you; the EANx Adventure dive is just a dive....no in-water training. Or, demand a real training dive (like the Night you want), but then pay separately for EANx....which is indeed good to have. I don't think the shop is scamming you, but they are being disingenuous by saying it is part of the AOW....

 

[Caveeagle]

I have found a couple instructors that will tie Nitrox in with OW training. I think this is great. In my area, >21% / Nitrox is so common, that it is actually unsafe (opinion) for a diver to just assume a rented or borrowed tank contains 21% just because it is not marked with a green label.

Divers should get in the practice of analyzing every tank for Po2%.

*I will concede that safety risk is minimized if you are diving shallow to the point where ~32% is safe, but if you are diving any depth at all, you should really know for sure what's in your tank..

 

[Clark Fletcher]

Enriched Air certification is not part of AOW and, to my knowledge never has been.

I'm guessing that the reason your shop wants to include it is that a Deep Adventure Dive IS required for AOW. And, unless you have an Enriched Air certification prior to your Deep Adventure Dive, your bottom time (depending on the depth) will be severely limited. Honestly, it's probably more of a matter of convenience for your dive instructor than anything. If your instructor is going to take you on a Deep Adventure Dive to 100 feet, and you aren't diving Nitrox, it's almost a waste of time. There really wouldn't even be enough time to test your susceptibility to narcosis at that depth.

Anyway, that's one of the reasons that I went ahead and did my Enriched Air certification concurrent with my Basic Open Water certification. I will tell you that some instructors are not willing to do that (even though it seems to be more common these days). I decided to do it because I knew up front that I wanted to do an AOW cert, and I didn't want a lack of a Nitrox cert to impede the Deep Adventure Dive (and subsequent Deep Diver certification). Fortunately, my instructor is one who's willing to do it concurrent with a Basic Open Water certification.

When I say that I did the Nitrox cert concurrent, my instructor made me complete all of the Open Water classroom and pool work before I began working on the Nitrox stuff. Then, my Nitrox dives were incorporated into my Open Water cert dives.

 

[Russoft]

I'm guessing that the reason your shop wants to include it is that a Deep Adventure Dive IS required for AOW. And, unless you have an Enriched Air certification prior to your Deep Adventure Dive, your bottom time (depending on the depth) will be severely limited. Honestly, it's probably more of a matter of convenience for your dive instructor than anything. If your instructor is going to take you on a Deep Adventure Dive to 100 feet, and you aren't diving Nitrox, it's almost a waste of time. There really wouldn't even be enough time to test your susceptibility to narcosis at that depth.

I think you're right, this is likely the motivation. Now I'm thinking maybe I should look into doing the Nitrox course before or with AOW (I wanted to do it anyway, but wasn't in a rush to do it since I don't generally dive deep enough to benefit from it).

In any case, I wish the dive shop was better at communicating.

 

[tursiops]

I think you're right, this is likely the motivation. Now I'm thinking maybe I should look into doing the Nitrox course before or with AOW (I wanted to do it anyway, but wasn't in a rush to do it since I don't generally dive deep enough to benefit from it).

In any case, I wish the dive shop was better at communicating.

Nitrox is about taking on less Nitrogen....no matter the depth. it is not a "deep" gas although its time-extension benefits tend to be strongest in the 60-100 foot range. Even if you don't extend your bottom time while using it, you still take on less nitrogen than during the same dive on air, and that means shorter surface intervals, longer repetitive dives, etc. It is well worth doing, and many places now offer a free nitrox upgrade as part of their dive packages.

 

[Russoft]

Nitrox is about taking on less Nitrogen....no matter the depth. it is not a "deep" gas although its time-extension benefits tend to be strongest in the 60-100 foot range. Even if you don't extend your bottom time while using it, you still take on less nitrogen than during the same dive on air, and that means shorter surface intervals, longer repetitive dives, etc. It is well worth doing, and many places now offer a free nitrox upgrade as part of their dive packages.

My air consumption isn't good enough to reap the benefits when diving 30 ft in the local quarries to pay for Nitrox.
Even when vacation diving, I don't get enough bottom time, based on air consumption, on the standard AL80 and am rarely doing more than two tanks a day.