Posted by northcoast diver on February 18, 2005 at 10:52:10:
In Reply to: Re: best mix posted by Chuck Tribolet on February 17, 2005 at 19:52:27:
There is no good excuse for diving a bad mix. There are reasons, but no good excuse.
Your reasons are that you are too lazy to learn what the best mix is, and too lazy to obtain the best mix and dive with it. Those are reasons, not excuses.
The best mix for single tank diving, with the right sized tank matched to your RMV/SCR for NDL diving, which for most people is an 80 cu ft, is air for 65 ft or shallower, and EAN 35 for 70 ft to 100 ft. (Your pretty mousie girlfriend would probably do well with smaller tanks, like 65s or 55s, to keep her within her NDLs).
If you want to dive deeper than 100 ft, the best mix for 100 ft to 200 ft is TMX 20/40 (with twin tanks, and EAN 50 and 100% O2 for deco). But this is only in response to your apparent objections earlier to the NACD cavern limits of 100 ft applied to open water diving.
Those are the best mixes. I doubt that you will ever diver deeper than 200 ft, so I will stop there. However there is another best mix for 200 to 250, and another best mix for 250 to 300. And deeper than 300 ft nonprofession divers should probably not go. But you will probably not ever even get close to that Chuck.
For every depth, there is a best mix. And for diving NDL with that best mix, there is a best tank size. And with all of those features, you do not need a dive computer, ever. An SPG and a digital depth gauge yes. A dive computer no.
You should be able to understand this, Chuck. All you need to do is try.