Ok firstly, why use Nitrox ? Well it's simple and if everyone took the time, as you have, to do some research and make the effort to understand it then everyone would be, without a doubt using it. In simple terms it almost eliminates, or at least drastically reduces the risks associated to nitrogen build up, during recreational diving.

When diving, using air you are introducing two main elements into your system, Oxygen and Nitrogen. Oxygen, is metabolised by your body to provide energy and keep you alive, in simple terms it just disappears. Nitrogen however is more of a problem as the human body can not metabolise nitrogen and stores it during a dive. Air is comprised mainly of nitrogen and your body therefore has a problem.

This stored nitrogen poses a problem, because when you ascend from your dive, all that stored nitrogen must come back out of those little hiding spaces and be breathed back out, the more that was stored the bigger the problem. So your problem is two fold, to stay away from the saturation levels, you must reduce your dive time, missing valuable adventuring experience, and secondly by breathing in so much nitrogen your body has more to breathe back out, increasing your risk levels as you ascend.

So yes, there are many potential problems to overcome, but here is your superman (excluding the pretty red pants), or should we say super-gas, Nitrox. It's correct name is enriched air nitrox (EAN), and this all but gives away its nature, because when we make nitrox this is exactly what we do, we enrich it. We have already stated that your body works best on and can metabolise oxygen, but suffers due to the high percentage of nitrogen found in air, so we simply take it out. You of course still need to breathe the same size lump of air so what we do is add pure oxygen to your scuba cylinder before filling it with air, and then simply top up the space as normal. In doing this the regular 21% oxygen and 79% nitrogen balance is altered, and dependant on the amount of oxygen added, it may shift to 32% or 36% oxygen, with the much reduced balance being nitrogen.

Ok that's the physics out of the way, and now you know why nitrox can benefit you so much, but how do you start using it? There are certain fundamental changes in both equipment and training that you must be made aware of before you switch from regular air and the IANTD Basic Nitrox Diver Course is here to do just that.

Your IANTD Basic Nitrox Diver Course is designed to provide you with the skills and knowledge you require to use a safer breathing gas for your recreational dives between 12m & 39m. Once you have completed your course, you will be qualified to use any mix of nitrox from 21% to 40% oxygen, either on standard air tables or using specific calculations to allow you to extend you dive time as required.

The course is a two day programme, consisting of one full day theory in the classroom where you will be introduced to the theories behind and techniques specific to enriched air diving along with reviewing your equipment configuration in relation to this. The second day is spent at an open water dive site for you to put everything into practice. In the practical portion you will complete two dives on a suitable nitrox mix giving you the opportunity to demonstrate your mastery of any required calculations and experience the benefits first hand.

Equipment requirement is minimal, in most cases no additional equipment is required and this is a great way for you to get the most out of every dive you will ever complete. So no excuses, give us a call right now!