Nitrox is enriched oxygen air that is now commonly offered at diving resorts and liveaboards worldwide. If you haven’t got certified as a Nitrox diver yet, here is why you should.
- Increased No Decompression Limits
More time. Nitrox is air enriched with more oxygen. More oxygen means less nitrogen, and it’s our body’s nitrogen loading that limits our time underwater. Nitrox does not allow you to go deeper, in fact, is has depth limits, but in the 20-30m depth range, you can significantly increase your bottom time on both single and repetitive dives. - Safer
Kind of. It’s not safer than air comparatively but as diving with Nitrox gives you greater no decompression limits, it does mean you are far less likely to push your limits. Consider that your air limit at 22m would be 37 minutes whereas with a Nitrox mix containing 36% oxygen (air is 21%) your limit would be 70 minutes. In this case, you can see that you would be more likely to have to end the dive due to low remaining air pressure than you would your no decompression limit. Some sight this as a secondary reason that using Nitrox is safer because it makes it harder to push the limits inadvertently. - Less Tired
While this reason is purely anecdotal, it seems that many divers report less fatigue with Nitrox versus air. If you think about it, your body is doing less work loading and unloading nitrogen, so it is certainly possible that this is more than a placebo effect. - Multiple Day Repetitive Dive Holidays
There’s a reason why many liveaboard operators and dive resorts offer Nitrox for free for those certified to use it. Over multiple days repetitive diving it makes sense to reduce the nitrogen load in your divers; after all happy, refreshed divers are good for business! - Pay Back
You can do your course in very little time and, if you wish, most of it can be done online at a time suitable to you. For sure there is a cost to the course, but if you take frequent dive holidays you will find it will pay for itself very quickly in increased dive time and with the free Nitrox you receive!
