h2operations
Master Diver
Posts: 107
Joined: Fri Jun 29, 2018 9:40 pm
First Name: Paul
Location: Coronado CA

Re: Online Nitrox Certification

Fri Feb 19, 2021 6:48 pm

That's actually funny. I have a friend who is a USAF TACP that moon lights as a diver for a water company in the finger lakes. I will ask what his special rating is and see what he says. LOL

https://www.padi.com/courses/altitude-diver
https://www.tdisdi.com/sdi/get-certifie ... ude-diver/

https://afspecialwarfare.com/afspecwar- ... naissance/

BigSwell
Master Diver
Posts: 128
Joined: Thu Apr 18, 2019 6:57 pm
First Name: Kevin
Location: Kalifornia

Re: Online Nitrox Certification

Wed Feb 24, 2021 2:30 pm

I hope your buddy has the PADI Zombie Diver cert. :roll: I think there is a GSA number for that course and apparently it's a kid-friendly cert as well.
http://zombieapocalypsediver.com/Welcome.html

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SurfLung
Master Diver
Posts: 1763
Joined: Sat Jan 01, 2011 2:03 pm
First Name: Eben
Location: Alexandria, MN
Contact: Website

Re: Online Nitrox Certification

Wed Feb 24, 2021 2:46 pm

Nitrox Checkout in Cozumel

Rich (50,001 Questions) and his wife Marie joined Me (SurfLung) and my wife Jill on a wonderful trip to Cozumel last week. We stayed at the fabulous Secrets Aura Cozumel resort all inclusive with airfare, hotel, food, and drink for one bargain price. Rich and I booked three 2-tank boat diving trips and got plenty of experience with my new Nitrox certification. Rich and I spent the mornings diving and the afternoons romancing our wives by the pool.

The diving was run by Dive House and they had several boat/crew options. We told them we wanted small groups and swim throughs. Raul obliged us by putting us on Dive House IV with Captain Rudolpho and Dive Master Victor. Wow did we have fun! Victor kept us no deeper than 80 feet with our Nitrox 32 tanks and led us through lots of Swim Thrus. We saw huge crabs, Angelfish the size of turkey platters, huge nurse sharks, eagle rays, sting rays, skates, HUGE Moray eels, spotted eels, lobsters, I could go on and on if I could remember them all. Visibility was too far to estimate. The water was simply beautiful... And warm. I dove with just a swimsuit, no wetsuit. Now THAT is the way to go once you have your weights figured right. Happily, we figured our salt water weights almost perfectly from having practiced in the freshwater pool here at home.

I dove my Argonaut Kraken double hose regulator with matching Kraken SPG and Safe Second. I used an Oxycheq 18 lb. BCD and the VDH DSV mouthpiece. Everything work just perfectly. Rich dove conventional with his ScubaPro stuff. Victor showed me how to use the oxygen checker and our oxygen percentages varied from 31.5-33.8... We rounded up to 32-34%... Noted it in the log and set the dive computers that way. Otherwise there was nothing different about Nitrox diving except that our bottom times were longer. Us old farts were actually the last to come up as we were so comfortable and effortless we just weren't breathing hard at all.

Nitrox Maximums vs. Minimums: We worked with two different max partial pressures. My SDA certification was for PP of 1.2 and the course gave a max depth of 100 feet on NItrox 32. Rich's PADI course used a PP of 1.4 and max depth of 110 ft with Nitrox 32. THEN, I set my ZOOP for 1.2 and 32% and it gave me a max depth of 87 feet. Then we had the day when our tanks measured 34% O2. The ZOOP set for PP 1.2 calculated the max depth for Nitrox 34 at 80 feet. It is of some concern (which is correct?) when we get different maximums from different sources. But we simply used the shallowest recommended maximum depth as our limit.

I was a long time coming around to the benefits of Nitrox in Scuba diving. But now I see how useful it can be and I think I'll try and incorporate it in more of my local Midwest diving. It might depend on convenience as we don't have a diveshop locally that fills Nitrox. We'll see...
SurfLung
The Freedom and Simplicity of Vintage Equipment and
Vintage Diving Technique are Why I Got Back Into Diving.

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SurfLung
Master Diver
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Joined: Sat Jan 01, 2011 2:03 pm
First Name: Eben
Location: Alexandria, MN
Contact: Website

Re: Online Nitrox Certification

Wed Feb 24, 2021 3:11 pm

Got my Nitrox C-Card
Image
- I only had the temporary certificate when I got to Cozumel but I showed it to the divemaster and he accepted it without question. We dove with an outfit called Dive House. They are a 5-Star PADI affiliated resort.
- My certifying agency is Scuba Divers of America (SDA) and I noted that they certified me in compliance with some accepted industry standards. Then I looked up those standards and see that they were devised by PADI, and other famous agencies. I have read up on Nitrox in other publications and feel that the course offered by SDA is very good. I would recommend it highly to others.
https://wrstc.com/downloads/04%20-%20En ... cation.pdf
SurfLung
The Freedom and Simplicity of Vintage Equipment and
Vintage Diving Technique are Why I Got Back Into Diving.

swimjim
Master Diver
Posts: 1694
Joined: Thu Mar 23, 2006 12:28 am
First Name: Jim
Location: Belgium WI

Re: Online Nitrox Certification

Wed Feb 24, 2021 5:59 pm

Your serious look in the photo on the card got you in. You look like you hurt people and they didn't want to mess with you! :lol:

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luis
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Joined: Thu Jun 30, 2005 9:28 pm
First Name: Luis
Location: Maine

Re: Online Nitrox Certification

Thu Feb 25, 2021 7:44 pm

swimjim wrote:
Wed Feb 24, 2021 5:59 pm
Your serious look in the photo on the card got you in. You look like you hurt people and they didn't want to mess with you! :lol:

Yeah... Totally agree... :lol:




Added:

My next door neighbors (Paul and Cheryl) use the same Nitrox certification and they have never had any issue. Only once I have seen one resort operation make a comment about never hearing about it, but even then they accepted it.


Eben,
You would remember Paul and Cheryl from St. Kitts. They use that same certification on the live-a-board.
Luis

Buceador con escafandra autónoma clásica.

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SurfLung
Master Diver
Posts: 1763
Joined: Sat Jan 01, 2011 2:03 pm
First Name: Eben
Location: Alexandria, MN
Contact: Website

Re: Online Nitrox Certification

Tue Mar 02, 2021 10:02 am

Yes I remember Paul and Cheryl and the fabulous St. Kitts trip. I'm glad to hear the SDA certification is accepted widely.
SurfLung
The Freedom and Simplicity of Vintage Equipment and
Vintage Diving Technique are Why I Got Back Into Diving.

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rhwestfall
Master Diver
Posts: 631
Joined: Thu Jan 16, 2014 2:34 pm
First Name: Robert
Location: "La Grande Ile"

Re: Online Nitrox Certification

Thu Mar 04, 2021 8:10 pm

Eiben:

The pure math : MOD ={ [PPO2 / ( %O2/100 )] -1 } x 33
(33' for sea water, 34' for freshwater)

32% @ 1.2 gives a MOD of 90.8'
32% @ 1.4 gives a MOD 0f 111.4'

34% @ 1.2 gives a MOD of 83.5'
34% @ 1.4 gives a MOD of 102.9'

Why the computer gave you yet another is probably due to some user set conservatism factor.
Bob

No Longer Awaiting my Kraken.....

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ScubaLawyer
Master Diver
Posts: 1649
Joined: Thu Apr 08, 2010 11:25 am
First Name: Mark
Location: Laguna Beach, CA

Re: Online Nitrox Certification

Thu Mar 04, 2021 8:25 pm

rhwestfall wrote:
Thu Mar 04, 2021 8:10 pm
Eiben:

The pure math : MOD ={ [PPO2 / ( %O2/100 )] -1 } x 33
(33' for sea water, 34' for freshwater)

32% @ 1.2 gives a MOD of 90.8'
32% @ 1.4 gives a MOD 0f 111.4'

34% @ 1.2 gives a MOD of 83.5'
34% @ 1.4 gives a MOD of 102.9'

Why the computer gave you yet another is probably due to some user set conservatism factor.
My Galileo Luna re-sets itself to some conservative nitrox factor every time the surface interval is long enough to shut off the unit. I'll set it for zero safety factor when I start diving and if I forget to re-set it a week later when I go for another set of dives it will automatically set it for some factor like X 1 Billion. I exaggerate somewhat but I hate it when my computer starts telling me I've reached my MOD at 60 feet on a 32% mix. Rant over. :)
"The diver who collects specimens of underwater life has fun and becomes a keen underwater observer. .. seek slow-moving or attached organisms such as corals, starfish, or shelled creatures." (Golden Guide to Scuba Diving, 1968) :D

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Herman
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Posts: 1315
Joined: Thu Oct 25, 2007 1:45 pm
Location: Raleigh NC

Re: Online Nitrox Certification

Fri Mar 05, 2021 7:50 am

My Suunto sets itself to max conservative as well, if you don't reset it after a while. Since I rarely dive nitrox to the NDL's, I just leave my computer on air and keep the mods and O2 tox in mind.
Herman

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couv
Master Diver
Posts: 453
Joined: Tue Jul 18, 2006 10:26 pm

Re: Online Nitrox Certification

Fri Mar 05, 2021 9:54 am

I have an Oceanic that also defaults to 50% 10 minutes after the dive. However, that function can (and has been) turned off so that the last FO2 entered is used until changed. Perhaps the computers you guys have also allow turning that function off.
A sincere THANK YOU to all at VDH who make this wonderful resource available and to all the thoughtful contributors.

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rhwestfall
Master Diver
Posts: 631
Joined: Thu Jan 16, 2014 2:34 pm
First Name: Robert
Location: "La Grande Ile"

Re: Online Nitrox Certification

Sat Mar 06, 2021 10:59 am

Yeah, some of the older PDCs have some interesting software quirks you need to pay attention to. It is probably humorous as heck to see me splashing with a double hose (most often a pimped out old set of cans), and wearing a Shearwater computer.....
Bob

No Longer Awaiting my Kraken.....

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luis
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Joined: Thu Jun 30, 2005 9:28 pm
First Name: Luis
Location: Maine

Re: Online Nitrox Certification

Sat Mar 06, 2021 12:27 pm

A few years ago I bought Shearwater Perdix computers for Christine and myself. They are one piece of modern dive technology that I am extremely pleased with. Shearwater just does a great job.

They are fairly easy to understand and the diver has control of the alarms (easy to shot off) and controlling the settings is also very easy.

They also have an easy to read display and they can be seen at night without pressing any buttons or holding a light at them.

This is one computer that can be used by any level of dive skills, from air all the way to tri-mix.

The data is very easy to download to my home computer to view graphs and manipulate graphs after the dives.

The computers are also very easy to upgrade the software so I consider them a good investment into the future. Shearwater is a great company in supporting their old computers.
Luis

Buceador con escafandra autónoma clásica.

h2operations
Master Diver
Posts: 107
Joined: Fri Jun 29, 2018 9:40 pm
First Name: Paul
Location: Coronado CA

Re: Online Nitrox Certification

Sat Mar 06, 2021 3:55 pm

Re: Online Nitrox Certification

Kevin

"Wed Feb 24, 2021 2:30 pm
I hope your buddy has the PADI Zombie Diver cert. :roll: I think there is a GSA number for that course and apparently it's a kid-friendly cert as well.
http://zombieapocalypsediver.com/Welcome.html "

Zombie Course> I think a bunch of us already took this but did not pay to get the C-Card........

swimjim
Master Diver
Posts: 1694
Joined: Thu Mar 23, 2006 12:28 am
First Name: Jim
Location: Belgium WI

Re: Online Nitrox Certification

Sat Mar 06, 2021 5:37 pm

luis wrote:
Sat Mar 06, 2021 12:27 pm
A few years ago I bought Shearwater Perdix computers for Christine and myself. They are one piece of modern dive technology that I am extremely pleased with. Shearwater just does a great job.

They are fairly easy to understand and the diver has control of the alarms (easy to shot off) and controlling the settings is also very easy.

They also have an easy to read display and they can be seen at night without pressing any buttons or holding a light at them.

This is one computer that can be used by any level of dive skills, from air all the way to tri-mix.

The data is very easy to download to my home computer to view graphs and manipulate graphs after the dives.

The computers are also very easy to upgrade the software so I consider them a good investment into the future. Shearwater is a great company in supporting their old computers.
I also use a Perdix. Another really nice feature is that it uses a AA battery! Battery low, just go to the local minimart and your good to go.

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