Specialty Courses

[MA.25]

Which specialty should I do first

Navigation or Nitrox?

What are the advantages for both, which will be more useful

 

[ajduplessis]

I believe navigation basics should have been covered in your OW course. Navigation is a good skill to have and could be used is all types of diving. It is also a good thing to know where you are heading. I would recommend AOW in conjunction with Nitrox if you are planning on exceeding 18m (recreational open water limit). Navigation is once again covered in the AOW course.

 

[Damselfish]

I think Navigation would be good for pretty much every new diver to take, especially if you feel "navigationally challenged" or have trouble using a compass. Although, one nav dive is is required in AOW so if you're planning on doing that anytime soon you could wait and see if that is sufficient. (I don't know what they cover in that now, as I did AOW a long time ago and we spent a lot of time and more than one dive on it.)

You will gain some knowledge in the Nitrox class which never hurts and it's definitely good to have, but if you are still running out of gas well before you run out of NDL it's not going to get you any more bottom time. And some people don't use Nitrox because of availability, cost, or because it's not much of an advantage for the dives they do.

 

[Sas]

What type of diving do you want to do? How do you feel each course is relevant to this? It really depends on this as to what is best.

If it were me I would not bother taking Navigation at all (get a compass and teach yourself or get an experienced diver to show you, it really doesn't need a specialty course imho) and I would do Nitrox, just so I had a nitrox card to show places that might ask when I get fills. If your dive count is accurate you may not realise the benefits of nitrox just yet (longer bottom times if you are not being limited by air) though. But anyway, that is just me. I just don't feel like navigation offers much benefit beyond what one can teach themselves quite quickly.

 

[GeneV]

I'd go with Navigation. Not sure what kind of condition you dive in but here in the Great White North, diving local lakes, you're lucky if viz 10-20ft, and that's a good day. With sand or weed covered bottoms there arn't a lot of landmarks, or is that watermarks, so being able to navigate with a compass is really important.
As for Nitrox, it's nice to have, but what are you trying to accomplish, more bottom time, higher safety margin?
Instead of Nitrox, why not get AOW and then Rescue Diver.

 

[H2O 70]

What do your buddies dive? If everyone you dive with is diving Nitrox...take Nitrox. If Nitrox isn't something they use on every dive...take navigation.

Navigation is an uber useful skill, you will never go wrong taking that with a good instructor and it will be useful just about anywhere in the world.

Nitrox is a good certification as well. Depending upon what is done locally, it could have a lot of use or it could be absolutely minimal.

 

[ssidiv3r]

As already stated, it's a good idea for every diver to know how to navigate during the dive instead of having to pop back to the surface to find out where you are. Depending on what sort of diving you plan on doing, maybe the next step should be an AOW. Most Adv. classes include Navigation as one of the specialties.

 

[Rhone Man]

I think Navigation is a bit of a waste of a course, done alone. If you do Search & Recovery, you cover everything that you do in navigation, but also get a chance to work with lift bags and get some experience with task loading. Plus it is more fun.

Nitrox, clearly a good idea at some stage, but if you are not diving somewhere where you will use it, maybe it can get parked for now? If you abide my the OW recommended depth limit of 60 feet, Nitrox is not much value to you anyhow.

 

[TMHeimer]

As stated, it depends on what kind of diving you'll do. If you're doing charters you probably just need to know how to re-locate the anchor line (compass may not help on an iron wreck anyway). You can probably just ask someone how to navigate a square, triangle, etc. without the course. Nitrox, on the other hand, extends your bottom time and is handy if those you're with are diving Nitrox.

 

[liuk3]

I assume that if you are asking about navigation, then you could use the extra practice. If this is the case, then I would definitely recommend taking the navigation class first. It is an extremely important skill if you would like to become a safe self-sufficient diver without the need to be lead around on a dive. I think navigation skills are invaluable, and people often underestimate it's importance. To relay a story, in one of my technical dive classes, one of my classmates (who was supposed to be a PADI certified scuba instructor) was asking my instructor how to use a compass. I remember thinking WTF? A dive instructor that doesn't know how to navigate? The classmate had a lot of problems in diving, but I think that he was so used to either not having to navigate or diving locations where he didn't have to navigate that he never learned how to properly use the compass. Take the navigation class unless you have a buddy who can help you learn to navigate and let you practice.