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Mermaids Dive center will have you diving Nitrox
if this is an area of diving that interests you. There are some great dive sites
in Thailand that use Nitrox well including, Pattaya, Ao Nang, Krabi, Similans
and some other parts of the Gulf of Thailand.
"What is Nitrox
diving exactly?" is a question that I pose to a few people. Generally
I get the answer - "it's what you use if you want to go deep".
Wrong,
sorry but that's not what Nitrox is all about.
Nitrox (Nitrogen
- Oxygen mix) is
about longer diving (bottom time) NOT deeper diving. Let me give you an
example.
The air that you and I
are breathing now (as long as you are not reading this underwater!) is a basic
mixture of 21% Oxygen
and 79% Nitrogen. Nitrox is a mix of oxygen and Nitrogen that is not the usual air
content. If you
are to breathe normal air (with 79% Nitrogen) at a depth of 10 meters now you
are breathing the equivalent of 158% Nitrogen (because now you are under 2
atmospheres of pressure, 1 from the surface and 1 atmosphere from the 10 meters
of water pressure, hence twice the amount). You can see now easily how the
Nitrogen content builds up in our systems very quickly. Nitrox usually is
a blend of gas where LESS
Nitrogen is used and
MORE
Oxygen is used.
As you know Nitrogen absorption is the main contributing factor of 'decompression sickness' or 'the
bends', this is why we can only stay down for a limited period of time (No
Decompression Limit) like you learned in your 'PADI Open Water Course'.
Simply by reducing the
amount of Nitrogen and increasing the amount of Oxygen in a blend allows you to
stay down longer as you are absorbing less Nitrogen during the dive.
It is for longer diving
(a longer NDL) not for deeper diving!
The Nitrox course is
informative and fun. How many times have you done a dive to 25-30 meters,
really enjoyed it but had to come up due to running out of 'safe' bottom time? Using a specific blend (Nitrox) of air will allow you to enjoy 'THAT DIVE' for a
longer period safely.
The Hardeep shipwreck
locally (Samesan) is a great example of this. The ship wreck lies in 26 meters
of water. Check this out.
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