Benefits Of Nitrox Diving

Benefits of Nitrox Diving

The air we breathe daily contains nitrox so everyone has breathed nitrox. Nitrox is a mixture of oxygen and nitrogen but basically it can by any mixture of oxygen and nitrogen at different ratios. When it comes to diving, the nitrox used for that purpose depends on how long you spend under water and nitrox used for diving has more oxygen than the type of air found on the earth’s surface. Nitrox diving has various benefits some of which are mentioned below;

1. Longer NDL
Because a diver works on an equivalent air depth (EAD) the no decompression limit (NDL) for the actual depth on nitrox is what applies to a divers EAD. This will consequently become shallower than the actual depth and therefore the NDL will be prolonged than if the diver was using air.

2. Uninterrupted dives
With nitrox, a diver has longer dives with shorter subsequent surface intervals because of the low residual nitrogen which follows a dive. A surface interval followed by the EAD and not actual depth. Because of the standard air surface intervals, this can be used for safety padding purposes.

3. Safe
Using nitrox during decompression is better than air as it provides rapid off-gassing. It can be used to reduce the duration of decompression penalty by using a nitrox decompression schedule. It could also be used for padding for purposes of increasing safety through following the air decompression schedule. It is similar to using pure oxygen when decompressing. It provides the alternative to pure oxygen on the surface in some situations where it is better to use a mixture of air that has more percentage of the oxygen.

With nitrox diving, there are guidelines which should be followed to enjoy the above described benefits, failure to which you may never come up from your dive. Guidelines should be followed to the letter.

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