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

[boulderjohn]

IN the online courses I know of, you have to go to the site and and analyze a tank as a part of the class.

 

[Lorenzoid]

Because my wife would object if I spent our common vacation budget on dive trips. Ergo, local diving, and this kind of diving is the kind of diving we have about half of the year around here.

With proper gear, it ain't bad, but I prefer to get away from town and dive at a decent site. The sites around town are basically suited for quarry type dives, i.e. not much to see. Which basically means "not worth it"

I understand. I was just yanking your chain. As I said, I do understand boulderjohn's point that some people do their Nitrox classes in places where there is effectively no diving due to it being landlocked or freezing.

 

[Damselfish]

How can you learn to analyze tanks at your LDS from an online class? Some hands on time with an analyzer is probably a good idea. If you go in an LDS and ask how to use an analyzer with a cert card you will get some funny looks. Not to mention the price of the online class is ridiculous.

Because the class is not 100% on-line. You still have to physically go someplace and use an analyzer to complete the certification.

(And since there is more than one style of analyzer out there, I don't think most ops would think it too crazy if someone asks about one they haven't seen before. They can all have their little quirks sometimes.)

 

[Water Boy76]

Of course we did analyzing in the course I took. I have yet to find a shop where they don't analyze it for you while you observe. I imagine they want to do it themselves for liability. If I were to go to some far flung place and dive nitrox I would consider buying an analyzer.

It's the exact opposite in my area. They fill the tanks, then put them in front of the analyzer for you with some tape and a marker then go about their business. Works for me.

 

[scagrotto]

didn't increase my BT by one second because I hit my turn around pressure before the NDL.

Are you doing multiple dives on successive days, and do you have decent gas consumption?

Nitrox can allow you to ... come up a little faster

Are you one of those people who thinks there's an equivalent ascent rate to go along with equivalent air depth? There's not. How you got the N2 load you have has absolutely nothing to do with the physics and physiology of ascending.

why NOT jump in with the tank you've just analyzed, stuck a label on, and recorded in the dive shop logbook?

Because you're probably paying more to do that dive, and can do one on your own for less money. I'll also suggest that keeping track of your tank isn't an especially challenging skill, and most people probably don't need practice. If anybody does find it difficult enough to require practice under the watchful eyes of an instructor I'll humbly suggest that perhaps they're too not smart enough to be a diver. Then again the majority of nitrox dives are almost certainly done with the standard mix that's available, so one tank with a nitrox label is pretty much the same as another tank with a nitrox label. If it's not what it's supposed to be you shouldn't be carrying it anywhere.

 

[cocoajoe]

0-24 dives? You probably won't need it for a while because gas consumption will be the limiting factor not NDL. But what the hay go for it, you'll eventually use it. It does give you more time in intermediate depths.
Oh by the way, your instructor is full of it. Only dives with nitrox? Waste of money on shallow dives example: Reefs. And it has no bearing whether you get headaches or not.

 

[stuartv]

0-24 dives? You probably won't need it for a while because gas consumption will be the limiting factor not NDL.

Yeah... people told me that, too, but I got my Nitrox card immediately after finishing OW. I'm still at last than 50 dives and NDL on Nitrox has been my limiting factor for a little while now. Diving off the Outer Banks, to 100+ feet to see wrecks, and hitting a 25 minute NDL on EAN30 has happened to me several times now. Back on the boat with 900 - 1300 psi. It would REALLY suck if I were diving air....

 

[Damselfish]

Saying a new diver won't get any benefit from Nitrox is common. Sometimes it's true, but as with most things I don't think it makes sense to generalize too much. A new diver can quickly get to the point where air consumption has improved enough, and they happen to be doing dives or series of dives, where it does make a difference. Maybe they simply take that first trip to Bonaire where they can dive a lot and have a package with free Nitrox - so why not?

By the same token, for some long time divers it may not ever make sense, maybe they're someplace Nitrox is hard to get, expensive, and/or it's not much benefit for the profiles they happen to do. In any event, taking the class can help reinforce some theory learned in OW, so I don't think taking the class is ever a bad thing. Then you've got it if you need it.

 

[boulderjohn]

0-24 dives? You probably won't need it for a while because gas consumption will be the limiting factor not NDL. But what the hay go for it, you'll eventually use it. It does give you more time in intermediate depths.
Oh by the way, your instructor is full of it. Only dives with nitrox? Waste of money on shallow dives example: Reefs. And it has no bearing whether you get headaches or not.

I've got pretty good gas consumption, as I hope one would expect of someone of my experience. I have, however, had students equal or surpass me from the start.

In addition, divers in many areas have a wide variety of choices of tanks sizes. It is actually pretty easy for a new diver to exceed NDLs.

 

[RJP]

0-24 dives? You probably won't need it for a while because gas consumption will be the limiting factor not NDL.

When I did my OW check-out dives way back when my instructor (scubakevdm) suggested that I get nitrox certified ASAP. I knew he wasn't just trying to "sell con-ed" because I was going home to NJ the next day.

But with only four dives I had no context, so I asked why a new diver would want to get nitrox certified right off the bat. He pointed out that although we had good long bottom times I had ended each those four dives with 1,000-1,500psi remaining in my AL80.

"Am I doing something wrong?"