Should you have to dive with Nitrox before getting Nitrox certified?

[beachbummer28]

We just recently got OW certified and our instructor was very pro-Nitrox. He only dives with Nitrox and encouraged us to go through the PADI enriched air certification next. My main reason for wanting to do so is that I get headaches and feel kind of crappy after diving too long - kind of like how I feel after being stuck in an airplane for too long - and the instructor suggested that that probably wouldn't happen with Nitrox. I've read through the approximate 10,000 threads on scubaboard regarding the pros and cons of Nitrox and it's all clear as mud .

My main question is this - should there be dives required to get Nitrox certified? PADI doesn't require any dives at all and I could literally go sign up for their eLearning course right now, get Nitrox certified, and start diving with it tomorrow. That seems a little odd but the instructor said that dives aren't really necessary to understand the Nitrox differences. I know other organizations besides PADI do require Nitrox dives with the training course, and I'm wondering if I should go a non-PADI route on this one.

 

[Storker]

Diving on nitrox is no different from diving on air, if you don't consider the MOD.

I got my nitrox cert from PADI, and while I basically wasn't taught anything in the theory class that I didn't already know after reading the material, it was nice to get a hands-on experience with an analyzer, and the discussions with the instructor were nice for increasing my understanding and ironing out a few wrinkles in the course material. A dive would of course be nice, but definitely not required (IMO).

 

[CuracaoJ]

Padi changed that a few years back. I personally still do a dive or two, but really the dive doesn't teach anything assuming you can already breath from a reg, so I wouldn't worry to much. More important is to find a good instructor and don't fret about agency.

 

[TMHeimer]

I may have been one of the last to be required by PADI to do the dives. We had to give the instructor our dive plan using the nitrox tables of course. But the instructor was not with me and the buddy on those 2 dives, so I'm not sure how any of that differs from just not doing the dives at all. That we reported back to the instructor that we did the dives and lived?

 

[ontdiver]

I agree with CuracaoJ: "get a good instructor and don't fret about the agency". Once you start reaping the benefits of longer bottom time and less nitrogen loading, you will appreciate the importance of the Nitrox C card. And, of course, make sure you get a good dive computer....

 

[MaxBottomtime]

If you get headaches from diving you are either skip breathing or ascending too fast. Try to concentrate on breathing normally, don't feel you have to swim everywhere and slow your ascent by half. Spend time looking around slowly before moving on. If you feel you are breathing hard you are swimming too fast. Take at least five minutes to ascend from sixty feet and rest during your safety stop. The headaches will disappear no matter what you are breathing.

 

[kwinter]

I think I've posted my opinion about this before. Diving with nitrox is very different than diving with air. On air you learn to breathe in and out. On nitrox it's the other way around.

 

[Matao87]

Holy cow, the PADI online Nitrox class is $240! My LDS offers it for $99...

 

[ktomlinson]

New divers can also get headaches from biting too hard in the regulator mouthpiece. Try to notice if you are actually biting, because really it should just hang in there with minimal biting pressure. I've heard nitrox makes folks feel better or makes them not have a headache, but I can't help but chalk that up as belief based on anecdotal evidence. Diving a nitrox mix should be no different than diving air at a shallower depth.

 

[hroark2112]

The two biggest things you learn in the basic Nitrox course are maximum depth and how to analyze your tanks. You should also learn how to properly set your computer for the nitrox mix you're diving.

You don't need to do dives to learn this, but who doesn't like to get some extra dives in??