Posted by Steve on November 25, 2001 at 07:57:30:
In Reply to: Re: Nitrox should be part of OW Beause... posted by George Austin on November 23, 2001 at 17:41:25:
"Steve, simply stated..breathing compressed nitrogen is bad..breathing less compresed nitrogen is not as bad."
Breathing nitrogen isn't all that bad George(are you with the anti-air crowd? ;-) ), offgassing it too rapidly is. Nitrox does have a lower percentage of N2 but when using the increased bottom time you load more N2 into your slow tissue groups than you would with air. Again not really a problem if you offgas slowly.
"Mark my words..the industry will fold rec nitrox into their BOW certs."
I think that would be a mistake by complicating the basics that aren't necessary to dive.
"Thats about as simple a formula as you can think of. Its really nothing to argue about. Whats the resistance to nitrox anyway? Its just air. Only better."
I'm not resistant to nitrox, it has it's place in diving. You claim that nitrox is better than air but 36% at 120' isn't better is it? I can think of several scenarios where nitrox is much more dangerous than air. Like everything else it has pros and cons to it, nitrox is no panacea to diving as you seem to portray. I feel trimix will play more of a role in diving in the future than nitrox. You can keep PPO2 and N2 at lower levels while controlling the rapture of the deep. But again limited applications deeper than 130', some may argue 100'.
Steve