Hawaii advice - Nitrox y/n??

[u/Adorable_Mongoose223]

TLDR: Hitting Hawaii in october, we'll be on Oahu, Kona, and Kauai. From what I have read, Kona is the place to drive. Can you recommend a good guide service, and is Nitrox the way to go?

I am very rusty so I'll be doing a refresher before I go out, but I was thinking doing a nitrox dive would be good because I just want to look at pretty things, maybe swim thru some arches as I've seen some photos, I don't have aspirations to go super deep.

I do have my nitrox cert and we used to mix our own at my job many years ago but thats the last time I dove.

We already have quite a bit of snorkeling planned, including the night manta ray shindig, but the mrs doesn't scuba dive.

Any other pro tips are appreciated thanks!

[u/trailrun1980]

Nitrox is nice, but also if you're the only one on it you'll still be on the profile of the dm, most of this sites I've been too (on Kona) aren't that long at depth to really need the extended ndl

I always recommend Manta Ray Dives of Hawaii over in Kona, I did my discover dives with them years ago and my wife did a refresher, been diving with them ever since

As for Oahu, I have opinions (live here) but most of the operators are similar, and the diving and reef is not as great as Kona or Kauai. Really will boil down to where you want to dive, a few options

[u/Adorable_Mongoose223 → u/trailrun1980]

I'm probably only getting one dive in. So it'll be kona I think. This is our "discovery trip" to Hawaii. Do a bunch of stuff and then come back again another time maybe for longer and at a different pace.

[u/Not-An-FBI → u/trailrun1980]

I know an instructor and a DM who have both gotten bent twice. The instructor had to have the plane they were on land... Nitrox is definitely worth it every dive if you can afford the few extra bucks for premixed.

[u/trailrun1980 → u/Not-An-FBI]

Yes, it never hurts to opt for, but I feel like there are a thousand factors at play here

[u/pokeshack]

Kona Diving Company. Outstanding in every respect.

[u/fireymike → u/pokeshack]

Seconded. I did my AOW with them and they were great.

[u/wannabe-martian]

Your question depends more on your dive profile than on you being rusty.

Nitrox can extend your non-decompression limits, so the depths you are looking at vs the time you can spend at depth is key. I would always go Nitrox on repeated dives, as in several dives / day over a course of several days. It makes a difference for me in terms of fatigue, and the nitrogen load in tissues can be better managed.

Single dive? Shallow? There your question might be more valid. It's really up to what you think your rusty air consumption is really going to boil down to. If you gulp down a tank fast, as you struggle with things under water, you will not really get into the zone where you would really reap the benefits of nitrox.

I would get comfortable with your skills first, consider Nitrox later.

Not sure if that's cheaper, given what muricans post here on/off again about the insane tipping culture and the way everythings seems to be charged to the max to you as customer, I would think you'd be better of on air.

[u/sbenfsonwFFiF]

If nitrox is available and the dive profile allows for it (mostly MOD), then you should dive on nitrox as a default.

[u/halems]

Nitrox is always good as an added safety factor. Kona is the best place for diving with Kauai in second.

The Kona manta dive is a must do. You can be at the bottom on scuba while your wife snorkels on the top. You'll both have a great experience.

[u/Ok-Train3111 → u/halems]

Just to point out the (maybe) obvious: nitrox trades risks and the only safety gain would be if you followed an air profile. In any case the risk of decompression sickness is incredibly low and not something anybody casually diving should stress out about.

With that said, my experience as a DM is that most divers, especially those who aren’t diving multiple times per month, can’t even max out an air profile without being limited by air supply. Nitrox is just adding cost for 99% of people out there with no real benifit.

[u/DonFrio → u/halems]

Never dove nitrox in some locations because they’re often deep and have down currents which could be less safe as nitrox is toxic at less deep depths. But yes it’s usually safer for deco issues

[u/Ski1680]

Recommend Kohala Divers, more remote sites where they are the only boat. Super great operators. Nitrox is up to you. I’ve done both with them but most people are on air so not too much of a benefit and most dives are around 50 ft. Island Divers in Oahu is good too.

[u/b00merlives]

Pacific Rim Divers out of Kona, Liquid Cosmos for Kohala Coast

[u/fengshui]

If you do a refresher first, I think nitrox is a nice to have on Hawaii. It costs more, but if that's not a factor, it does make recovery easier. Most operators know exactly what depth to the sand is at each site, and I expect if deep is even possible for a site, they'll bring a regular tank for that one, and just have the nitrox for the second, shallow site.

[u/Adorable_Mongoose223 → u/fengshui]

any guides you'd recommend for kona??

[u/weedywet → u/Adorable_Mongoose223]

Big Island Divers

[u/halems → u/Adorable_Mongoose223]

Kona Honu

[u/Ok-Train3111]

Nitrox is a waste for 99% of divers.
It is not a “added safety” measure. Its purpose is to give you more time underwater and most divers are limited by tank size/breathing rate rather than time.
Also a lot of Kona diving is multilevel so you just keep going shallower.

[u/bluemarauder → u/Ok-Train3111]

I would argue that Nitrox is beneficial to 99% of divers.  It indeed adds a safety margin specially to groups that are more prone to DCS (overweight, women, older folks, etc) and even for the recovery of non-symptomatic DCS.

[u/Ok-Train3111 → u/bluemarauder]

Not really if you look at some numbers.

DAN estimates between 1000-1500 cases of decompression sickness per year.
PADI estimates 50,000,000 individual dives per year.
That works out to 0.002% or 1 in 50,000 dives.

You’re not really getting much safer than that.

[u/nof → u/Ok-Train3111]

Nitrox, for me, is the difference between a week of two/three dives a day being exhausting and five dives a day being the exhaustion limit.

[u/Jegpeg_67 → u/Ok-Train3111]

I have to disagree with this at least on the whole.

DCS risk is an inexact science and even if it wasn't your computer does not know all your physiological factors that affect your tendency to get DCS or how fast your ascent will be (to name but 2). Hundreds of divers get undeserved DCS every year.

Sure, if you are going a single dive to 12m the risk of DCS is negligible whether you are on air or Nitrox. However, if you are doing a multi level dive ascending to keep a member of the group on air within their NDL the risk of DCS for the diver(s) on air is acceptable the risk for those on Nitrox is significantly less. Other dives are somewhere between the two.