Almost every diver knows that the air we breathe is made up
mostly of nitrogen. That is the reason why scuba diving can be so dangerous. Under water, the pressures are so great
they compress nitrogen and you breathe a lot more of it into your system. At depth, your blood can contain more
dissolved nitrogen than at lower pressures. So as you rise from the depths, the higher density of nitrogen bubbles
expands quickly and can cause serious damage to your body. This is called the bends.
Divers know this, but many amateurs don’t know what alternatives there are to regular air. So, in the interest of
learning a bit more about diving gases, I am posting
this primer.
Regular Air or Nitrox? What about trimix? You want to know what you’re doing when you experiment with these different
gases. Each serves a different purpose and you’d never want to just go nitrox willy-nilly without doing so for a
reason. So take a look, and consider maybe even getting that next cert level when
you have the time.