A question that I hear often is “Why should I bother learning about Nitrox? Is it really worth it?”. I used to ask that same question until it became obvious why. This happened on a boat trip I took out to Molokini (max depth 80 feet) and then the St. Anthony’s wreck (max depth 65 feet). After a good surface interval between dives, my nitrogen load was still pretty high when I started the second dive. What ended up happening is that I approached my no decompression limit but still had 1700 PSI!!! I had to start heading to the shallows and end the dive. If I was on Nitrox, I could have stayed down longer 🙁
My first concern with taking this course online is what if I don’t get it and no one is around to explain? Can I repeat the current lesson/chapter until I fully understand? I was surprised to find that the online course was thorough and not as complicated as I had imagined! You can certainly repeat sections that you don’t quite get. Everything that is spoken is also written on the page so you can listen and/or read the material. Most slides also have an additional multimedia piece (video of some sort – although some of them are kind of goofy). At the end of each chapter there is an assessment which you have to pass with 100% before continuing! You can keep retaking the assessment if needed (obviously I know from experience!!). The online course ends with a final exam. Then, the only thing left is the practical portion!
The whole course took me about 2 hours, but feel like it was a bit quicker for me since some of the information is covered in the Divemaster course (which I’m nearly done with – YES!)
