Our friend nitrox

Namaste friends,

Today I've been kinda in a bad mood. I'm starting to get really antsy about leaving and staying in the countryside with not much to do is just suffocating me right now. Well this weekend is Midsummer night's Eve which means partying, staying up until the morning, sauna and having fun with some friends! It'll make things better(:

One of the things I've been reading about lately is diving with nitrox and what the difference is compared to diving with air. I'll be taking the nitrox course, which is basically just learning the theory about the physiological effects and how to program your dive computer. It's no specialty course so there are no dives to conclude, but according to their website, Blue Season Bali will give me free nitrox fills for the rest of the dives that I take with them! 

What is nitrox?

So, basically nitrox (when we're talking about scuba diving) means enriched air. Normal air has 21% of oxygen and 78% nitrogen and 1% other gasses, whereas nitrox has more oxygen than in normal air. There are different levels of richness, so the nitrox might be 32% or 40% or something else, but usually recreational divers use nitrox with oxygen levels up to around 40%. 

What's different from regular air?

The nitrogen levels in normal air limits bottom time, amount of dives one can do in a day and makes the surfice time in between longer. The higher level of oxygen in the enriched air gives a diver more no-decompression dive time, which is awesome: more time underwater is always welcome. Using nitrox is especially useful with repetitive dives, because it requires a shorter surface interval. Doesn't sound too bad to me! Also using a gas mixture with less nitrogen we naturally lower the risk of decompression sickness. Some people say you won't feel the nitrogen narcosis as much when you dive with nitrox, but  the scientists say oxygen can also work as a narcotic in great pressure, so the narcosis in great depths is probably going to be about the same. 

So in a nutshell: Less nitrogen/more oxygen in the gas mixture one is breathing = more bottom time and shorter surface intervals

Why use nitrox?

If you're on a diving holiday and dive for let's say 6-7 days, 2-3 dives a day, the benefits of diving with nitrox are quite significant! One might need to pay a little extra for nitrox fills but I definitely think it's worth it. Also when doing deep dives to 30m or so, the bottom time is very short when you dive with regular air... sucks to just get down to the wreck or the sharks or what ever you're going to see and then have to start going back up after just a really short time.

I was diving in the Philippines last winter and I was envious of the divers with nitrox when they could stay down there with the Thresher sharks, as us "air heads" had to come up already... so I'm definitely doing the nitrox course the first thing when I get to Bali so I'll have as much dive time as possible. 

Nitrox and dive computer:

I got the Suunto D4i because it's small, quite affordable and has the gas change possibility, which means it has a separate nitrox mode. And my white version is super cute too(: 

So Suunto D4i also has the possibility to be synced with (purchase separately) a wireless read-out of your tank pressure and air time. I don't have it and won't be purchasing it any time soon, just don't really need it, I can check my air from my gauge. 

Suunto D4i in a nutshell: 

- full continuous decompression algorithm

- three dive modes: air, nitrox and free

- built-in dive planner 

- detailed graphical logs and dive data on your computer (DM4 with Movescount software)

- different color options (black, red, blue, purple, yellow, pink and white)

I've been trying to learn how to use this thing and it doesn't seen too complicated. I didn't want to get one of the bigger models like Vyper etc and then I found this one on sale for 375eur. It makes me so much more confident when I know what my personal bottom time is and I can see the exact depth all the time etc. I don't know about you guys, but I definitely think getting a good, easy to use, reliable diving computer makes diving just that much safer and more fun!(: