The PADI Enriched Air Diver course is PADI’s most popular specialty scuba diving course, and it’s easy to see why. Scuba diving with Enriched Air Nitrox gives you more no decompression dive time. This means more time underwater, especially on repetitive scuba dives.

Breathe less nitrogen when you dive
The primary benefit of using enriched air while diving is that you are exposed to less nitrogen when you go diving. The higher the percentage of oxygen in the cylinder means you will be breathing less nitrogen. You can use this benefit to your advantage in a couple of ways; one option is to extend your no stop time during your dives, so you get longer dive times, especially when completing repetitive dives. Alternatively, you might prefer to continue to dive within the no-stop limits for air, but use the reduced intake of nitrogen to increase your personal safety margin while diving.

Longer bottom times 
Typically when using enriched air divers will get mixes that are either 32% or 36% oxygen, and this makes enriched air ideal for diving at shallower depths. For example, when diving with air to 60 ft using the Recreational Dive Planner, you would have a maximum no stop limit of 56 minutes on a single dive. For the same depth, but using a 32% mix of enriched air, you would have a no-stop limit of 95 minutes at 60ft. Potentially this means that you would have up to an additional 39 minutes of dive time on this profile compared with air, though don’t forget to check your gauges as you will still be breathing through the gas in your cylinder at the same rate.

Prerequisites

• Download the required PADI Medical Form*

Your Next Adventure
Diving with enriched air, nitrox, benefits all types of diving, but it goes especially well with these specialties:

PADI Wreck Diver course – Popular wrecks tend to be deeper, so enriched air nitrox maximizes your exploration time.
PADI Deep Diver course – The deeper you dive, the shorter your no stop time – but enriched air nitrox increases it, giving your more time at depth
PADI Digital Underwater Photographer – Photographers usually like to make several dives so they can get lots of pictures. Enriched air nitrox reduces the amount of residual nitrogen you accumulate, allowing repetitive dives to be longer.
PADI Master Scuba Diver The PADI Enriched Air Diver course counts toward your Master Scuba Diver rating -- the highest non-professional rating in recreational diving.
For more information about this or other PADI courses have a chat with one of the American Divers International Team members.