Should Nitrox Certification require dives....

[trevinkorea]

A person who only has 20 dives has to - if rental, deal with unfamiliar gear, watch their bouyancy, keeping their MOD in mind - closely watch their depth, follow the DM, is there a current, watch their buddy, watch their gas consumption, do what diving is all about - looking at stuff. Do they know the dive site? Which way back to the boat?

As a novice diver should the words Oxygen toxicity be rattling around in their heads when they have all these other things to think about?

Truthfully now, would you want them as your dive buddy?

Honestly, yes. I don't care how many dives someone has or doesn't have as long as there attitude is in check.

Everyone has to start off at 0 and I've found that novice divers sometimes make better buddies than complacent experts. If I had to choose between an expert and a novice with no other factors involved I would choose the expert.

Nitrox is not really something that is going to terrify a novice diver or cause complications provided they have been trained properly. If they are nervous about the nitrox then a good instructor should not have certified them in the first place.

I also agree with jonnythan, nitrox is a great candidate for inclusion in OW. It is not really that theoretical and it doesn't affect other underwater skills. The only real difference is in the pre-dive planning.

I really got to get off this thread. It has been arguing the same points back and forth several times over already but all good arguements. It's definately been interesting so far.

 

[Don Burke]

LOGGED dives so the instructor can see what they have done.
But they have 200+ times used their bouyancy and other in water skills. Even if they did the same dive site over and over they have to feel better about their in water comfort level to add eanx to their diving.

I do not think so. I have seen many bottom crawlers who call themselves divers.

Logs are too easily filled out. I would not trust someone's skills unless I saw him dive.

 

[Don Burke]

hhmmm...really? For one week or so down south a year... I would think getting his butt on a couple of dives and then he'd be more worried about drinks and some bikini clad butts, but I can see your point if he dives at home every so often and uses nitrox there also.

That is far too broad a brush for my taste.

 

[scubatwinned]

Just because there can be a diver with 20 dives that has no buoyancy control whatsoever doesn't mean that we need to protect divers from nitrox until they have 200 dives. That can take years at a typical pace of a diver.

I think it should be taught in OW class. 200 dives is a ridiculous amount to require for nitrox.

So the flailer gets nitrox certed At OW level because he can and we read about him in an accident report?? Or we set a level of (supposed) competency at a certain # of dives.

200 was just a # I threw out to see what others thought... - higher or lower?? It seems you think lower while others think that 200 dives proves nothing...

Maybe as Don says a diver can be tested before the course that has fewer dives and shows himself ready/able then one can fast track in...

 

[scubatwinned]

I do not think so. I have seen many bottom crawlers who call themselves divers.

Logs are too easily fille\0\0
?um\0\0\0\0uXp?t trust someone's skills unless I saw him dive.

I agree. I have seen tech instructors that couldn't dive their way out of a wet paper bag. But the way the system works now says that a diver can get the next cert after so many dives.

 

[scubatwinned]

Nitrox is not really something that is going to terrify a novice diver or cause complications provided they have been trained properly. If they are nervous about the nitrox then a good instructor should not have certified them in the first place.

Pretty big if or in this case provided...

As Don has pointed out not all folks take to the skills at the same speed, also as someone at the beginning of this thread said they were certed by an instructor that had NO idea of how nitrox was mixed or how ox-toxicity came about in a diver(not sure about the second bit read it last night). So yes it would be great if all instructors were good or had a conscious but we know different in the real world they are not all good/conscientious.

I started reading through this and then jumped to the end and after all the posts I'm sure you are right about arguing over and over the same things see ya on another thread.

 

[Don Burke]

I agree. I have seen tech instructors that couldn't dive their way out of a wet paper bag. But the way the system works now says that a diver can get the next cert after so many dives.

This thread is about nitrox certification, which does not require a certain number of dives as a prerequisite.

Setting a number of dives in the hope that it will assure competence is not a good plan.

If you want competence, test for it.

 

[scubatwinned]

This thread is about nitrox certification, which does not require a certain number of dives as a prerequisite.

Setting a number of dives in the hope that it will assure competence is not a good plan.

If you want competence, test for it.

Ya figure...

And pray to god the OW level student doesn't get the instructor that certed Jonnythan on page 2 of this thread...

 

[JoanneR]

Why all the opposition to a nitrox course requiring dives? If we like diving as much as we all like talking about diving, why wouldn't we take any opportunity we had to get in the water and go diving?

 

[Don Burke]

Ya figure...

And pray to god the OW level student doesn't get the instructor that certed Jonnythan on page 2 of this thread...

With that instructor, it would make no difference what the student walked in with.