Nitrox Diving

Enriched air or Nitrox is an alternative breathing gas used by Recreational and Technical Divers, if you have not heard of the gas before you might be wondering what all of the fuss is about. Here are a few reasons why this might be the gas of choice for you.

Nitrox is air enriched with a higher Oxygen (O2) content, for recreational divers this can be anything from 22% to 40% O2 (as opposed to the regular 21% found in air). Technical divers typically use nitrox for decompression, blends of 50% O2 and higher are common.

By adding more O2 the percentage of Nitrogen in your gas blend is reduced, you might remember from your open water course that nitrogen absorbed by your body is what limits the amount of time you can spend underwater.

Here are some examples of how No Deco Limits (NDL), or the amount of time a diver may spend safely underwater, are affected by different breathing gases. Nitrox 32% and 36% are two very popular blends of Enriched Air so we will compare these to air.

Diver breathing gases are always clean, but Nitrox passes through additional filtration components of a compressor to filter out contaminates. Additionally the chemical used to filter these contaminates is of a much higher grade in O2 clean systems. In short, cleaner gas in your lungs.

For the same reason Nitrox permits longer dive times it can reduce the required time at the surface between dives, there is less Nitrogen in your body to off-gas.

Why? You guessed it, less nitrogen in your body means your second third or even fourth dive of the day can be much longer than would be possible with air, allowing you to get the most out of your dive trip.

Nitrogen build up in the body causes a diver to feel tired after diving, this can often be confused with exertion from exercise on the dive. Nitrox divers often comment on how much more energy they have for repetitive dives.

The Enriched Air Nitrox Training can be completed in a day, during the course your instructor will show you the equipment we use, such as designated Nitrox cylinders and Gas Analysers, discuss dive planning for Nitrox and dive computer use. At the end of the course you will have a certification recognized worldwide, allowing you to use the gas wherever you choose to dive.

Not convinced yet? No problem, one of our dive professionals can take you out for a supervised dive, after a detailed briefing, and you can try Nitrox without committing to a course. If you decide to continue we will credit this experience towards your training.