Diving with Enriched Air

08 May Diving with Enriched Air

At Joe’s Gone Diving all our divemasters and dive instructors dive on enriched air on their dives on Bali, whenever possible and conditions permitting. Diving on enriched air continues to increase in popularity. Find out more about what the fuss is all about in this blog. 

What is Enriched air?

Enriched air nitrox is a mixture of oxygen and nitrogen used as a breathing gas in scuba diving. The name “Enriched Air” EAN’x or EAN signifies that the mixture has a higher percentage of oxygen than normal.

You may recall from your PADI Open Water diver course that air consist of approximately 79% Nitrogen and 21% of oxygen. Enriched Air has been enriched with oxygen (had oxygen added). So it has more than 21% oxygen.

Why divers dive with Enriched Air Nitrox?

The primary benefit of using of Enriched Air Nitrox is that it exposes you to less nitrogen than when you dive with normal air. This provides you some advantages:

• it extends your allowable bottom time
• it reduces any need to push (near) the air no decompression limit
• it reduces your overall nitrogen load on multiple dives and makes your dive much more fun

Getting started prerequisites

To get Enriched Air Nitrox you must be certified as a PADI Open Water Diver or have a qualifying certification from another training organisation and be at least 15 years of age.

Becoming a PADI Enriched Air Diver

You learn how to plan your dives accounting for oxygen exposure and how to use an Enriched Air dive computer and table for planning dive within no stop limits and oxygen exposure limits. As a PADI Enriched Air diver, you’ll be certified to dive independently using Enriched Air Nitrox with up to 40% of oxygen to extend your dive time beyond the no stop limits you have with air.

You can take the PADI Enriched Air dive or nitrox course on Bali with Joe’s Gone Diving. It takes only 1/2 day and doesn’t require any diving. So a great course to take on the day you are flying out!