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.
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.
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.
In the Enriched Air Diver course, you can learn about planning enriched air dives and using your dive computer. If you are thinking about purchasing your first dive computer, check out our help pages or come in to talk with us about your dive profile so we can offer suggestions that will best fit your lifestyle.
The course consists of one night of class, no pool work or dives.
We offer this course once every month but we can schedule one that fits your schedule. Call or come to get started today!
Diving with enriched air, nitrox, benefits all types of diving, but it goes especially well with these specialties:
For more information about this or other PADI courses have a chat with one of the American Divers International Team members.