Nitrox diving is getting more and more popular among divers. For some the extended bottom times using Nitrox tables or Nitrox dive computers are an important factor, but most people get a Nitrox certification for the extra safety aspects of Nitrox scuba diving. If the safety issue is your main reason for diving with Nitrox, you don’t need a Nitrox dive computer, even the Nitrox dive tables are not necessary. Just dive Nitrox on air tables with the maximum depth that goes with your specific Nitrox mix.

What is Nitrox? You will probably know that air contains about 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen and 1% residual gasses. The more advanced Nitrox readers will know that the nitrogen component causes the decompression problems. Under the pressure of the water column above you nitrogen builds up in your tissues and may turn into tiny bubbles when you go up. No wonder some smart guy tried replacing part of the nitrogen with oxygen and guess what… the nitrogen buildup diminished. Nowadays, after more than 50 years of experience, we call any air mix with more than 21 % (up to 40%) oxygen “Enriched Air Nitrox”.

Less Nitrogen buildup means less chance of decompression problems. Using your air table on an average dive, 45 min. to 60 ft / 18m, you will find yourself ending up in pressure group S. When you use the Nitrox table for Nitrox 36 (36% oxygen, 63% nitrogen), you end up in pressure group K. A lot less nitrogen buildup! It will take you 16 minutes more bottom time to reach pressure group R. Now you can see the trade-off between extra safety and extra bottom time. When you scuba Nitrox on air tables you get less nitrogen buildup, extra safety. When you use Nitrox tables you can trade in the extra safety for extra bottom time and end up in the same pressure group.

The oxygen component affects your safe depths in nitrox diving. When diving air, the nitrogen component gets tricky (nitrogen narcosis) around 100 feet / 30 meters. The oxygen component in air does not limit your maximum diving depth of 130ft 40m. When you increase the oxygen percentage your maximum safe depth may be determined by the oxygen component. When you use the DSAT Equivalent Air Depth Table, you don’t need a Nitrox calculator to know that the popular Nitrox 32 limits the maximum safe diving depth to 110ft / 33m. The also popular Nitrox 36 limits your safe depth to 94ft, 28m. Exceeding the oxygen limits is far more hazardous than exceeding the nitrogen limits, but for most divers these depth limits are not an issue, they hardly ever go that deep anyway. At many places, in Bonaire for instance, the best part of the reef is between 15ft / 3m and 70-80ft / 21-24m, so why go deeper. Going deeper only empties your tank sooner.

Usually Nitrox is more expensive than air, on an average you pay twice as much. When you go to Bonaire you can get your NITROX UPGRADE FREE of charge. To enhance safety in diving, Bonaire Dive and Adventure (BD&A), a PADI 5-star Gold Palm dive facility located between the Sand Dollar Bonaire resort and the Den Laman resort, started its FREE NITROX policy in November 2004. BD&A got some favorable comments on Bonaire talk and soon got the best growth rates of Bonaire so some Bonaire resorts, like Plaza Resort Bonaire and Buddy Dive Bonaire followed suit with temporary offers of Free Nitrox. Other Bonaire hotels, like Habitat Bonaire and Divi Flamingo Beach Resort Bonaire are still charging the upgrades.

If you are not Nitrox certified yet, it will not take much of your time to get your first level certification. In a one hour course you learn all you need to know about diving with Nitrox 32, the why of a depth limit of 100 feet and how to use the Nitrox analyzer. Read more.

Bonaire diving is very popular because of the excellent shore diving possibilities. Read more. The average Bonaire dive is really easy and the reefs are spectacular. Finding the shore dive sites is also really easy. Get a free Bonaire map at your dive shop in Bonaire and see that all dive sites are listed on it. Beside the coastal roads there are yellow marker stones with the names of the dive sites written on them. Easy as it gets!

Book your Bonaire vacation at your local dive shop, or enter the 21st century and try the internet. As of December 15, Continental Airlines will have once a week flights to Bonaire directly from Houston to Bonaire. Other Bonaire flights on airlines like Air Jamaica or American Eagle have more stops. And yes, we have our own Bonaire Air. When you get hold of a flight to Aruba or Curacao with any airline you can continue flying Aruba Bonaire and Bonaire Curacao with Bonaire Excel, recently renamed to Bonaire Express. And then there is the small but very reliable Divi Air that flies Bonaire Curacao and vice versa.

Links:

Bonaire Dive and Adventure
Sand Dollar Bonaire
Den Laman
Continental Airlines
Air Jamaica
American Eagle
BonairExpress
Divi Air