PADI EAN/Nitrox Course Book changes over the years?

[Rred]

Just wondering, since there are so many different "editions" (dated by year, not by any other apparent versioning) for the PADI EAN course book, does anyone know if PADI has actually been making changes in the course material, or the tables they're using? Moving from 1.6 to 1.4 as the preferred default maybe? Or does the book just keep getting re-dated every time it is republished?

 

[maj2]

I have not done a page-by-page comparison, but have my book (course taken in 2007) and my daughters (course taken 2016). Both PADI.

My book was 105 pages, and my daughters was 40 pages, but that is something of an unfair comparison.

Most of the content was very similar as I recall. My 2007 book and my daughter's 2016 book both used 1.4 for maximum oxygen partial pressure, and 1.6 for contingency.

The biggest change was the dropping of the material on using tables in favour of computers. That and a smaller font probably account for most of the reduced page count.

 

[Rred]

Wow, down to 40 pages, that's well over a buck per page now.(G)

At that rate they could put the material up on pay-per-view online and just save the rest of the trees entirely.

 

[diver257a]

Just wondering,... does anyone know if PADI has actually been making changes in the course material, or the tables they're using? ... Moving from 1.6 to 1.4 as the preferred default maybe? ...

Hi Rred,

I have two comments

Firstly, I have a copy of probably the first edition of the PADI Enriched Air manual which I purchased in either 1997 and 1998. While I do not have immediate access to it (i.e. it is in a storage warehouse with some other possessions), I do remember that it was a combined metric/imperial version, that it was table-based (i.e. RDP/The Wheel with some brief advice about using computers) and required the use of calculations (by the way, I found that some of the calculations in the manual were incorrect) and that the PO2 was 1.4.

Secondly, I do not think the Enriched Air tables have been changed since their initial publication, however I do remember that there was a recall in the recent past of one of the tables because it contained errors. I think there were some incorrect numbers in the surface interval table which suggests that the tables may have been reprinted.

 

[Efka76]

I just took a look at my PADI electronic book on PADI website. I took EAN course in February 2018. Book is dated 2010. I suppose that this is a newest book (version 1.01 revision 12/11). This book contains 40 pages.

 

[boulderjohn]

I am on the road and do not have access to my materials. The PADI nitrox course and book I used for my course nearly 20 years ago were decidedly different from what is done today in terms of content covered. Those changes reflect changes in thinking about nitrox and diving in general. As a current nitrox instructor, I know that there have been no changes in the tables themselves, and they still use the same partial pressure standards.

My final exam consisted of 50 questions, and they involved a lot of math. You had to use (but not memorize) all sorts of equations for MOD, equivalent air depth, etc. I remember distinctly that I got one wrong, question #31. I don't recall the content, but I remember the number because I took the course at Cayman Brac and the instructor made a big joke about my missing question #31, as if it were a mark of shame. (The joke was that apparently it was more common for people taking the course to barely get enough right to pass.)

So what happened after that? I recently saw an email from someone at PADI headquarters who was answering a different question, but what I read there applies to this question. What follows comes both from that email and from my own observations.

1. I became as obvious to them as it did to me when I took the course that pulmonary oxygen toxicity was simply not a threat to recreational divers. You had to be doing some really unusual diving to make it happen, even according to the knowledge available then.
2. Research indicated that recreational divers using the 1.4 standard could pretty much dive all day without consequences.
3. They realized that pretty much nobody was using the tables anymore.
4. Anyone getting nitrox can refer to a table for MOD. They aren't sitting down and deriving it mathematically every time they get a fill.
5. In short, they realized that nitrox is not the big bad boogeyman everyone used to think it was.

And so we have two camps--1) the old school people who believe everyone should still take the old style high octane class, and 2) the people who think it will only take a few minutes to add what people need to know about nitrox to the OW class and make it part of beginning certification. The second group thinks having a separate class that teaches so very little of importance is a "money grab."

The current class is right between those two extremes.

 

[Superlyte27]

I imagine it's changed quite a bit over the years. When I took Nitrox in '95 or '96 from IANTD, PADI was still claiming Nitrox was going to kill everyone. Of course, they later found out how to make money with it, and here we are today.

 

[caydiver]

I think things do change for many reasons. Whether it is new knowledge, computers whatever. When we did Nitrox years ago it was more comprehensive than it seems to be now but at that time with no computers it probably had to be. Some goals seem easier to achieve these days whether that makes skill sets better or even compatible I cannot say. Like anything else there are some people who are naturally really good divers from their newbie days and some who are crap divers with years of experience behind them. Same as driving, cooking, etc.