Enriched Air (EANx/Nitrox) Courses

Porthkerris Divers offers Enriched Air Courses with PADI and IANTD. Nitrox courses are one of the most popular courses taken by qualified SCUBA divers.

Diving with Enriched Air (Nitrox) lets you safely extend your no-stop time beyond the no-decompression limits for air. Diving with Enriched Air means more time underwater or increases your physiological safety margin if dived as air.

You need to be certified as an Enriched Air (Nitrox) Diver to obtain a Nitrox fill for your cylinder.

Whether you are an underwater photographer, wreck diver, on vacation in some tropical paradise or just out for a leisurely day of diving at your local dive site, the Enriched Air Diver course helps you get more out of diving by giving you more time underwater.

PADI Enriched Air Nitrox (EANx) Course
This course is designed to qualify recreational divers to use Enriched Air (Nitrox) for no-stop recreational diving. It addresses the use of Enriched Air (EANx) with 22% to 40% oxygen content with an emphasis on the most common mixes of 32% and 36%. It is preferable, but not necessary, to carry out open water dives to qualify.

To take part in the course you must be a PADI Open Water Diver (or qualifying certification from another training organization) and aged at least 15 years.

You will learn to analyze cylinder contents, plan enriched air dives using tables and dive computers and safely increase your no-stop time.

IANTD Enriched Air Nitrox (EANx) Course
This course is designed to provide Recreational Divers with a safer breathing medium than air.

It covers dives in the 12 to 39 metres depth ranges and the use of EANx (Nitrox) mixes in the range of 21% to 40% oxygen (O2), with the emphasis on using EANx 32 & 36. It is not necessary to carry out dives to receive qualification as an IANTD EANx Diver, but is it highly recommended that all divers perform two dives on an EANx mixture of between 24 and 40% oxygen.

You must be a qualified Open Water Diver from any diving agency recognised in the UK. You must be a minimum of 15 years of age with parent or guardian authorisation, or a minimum of 12 years of age for Junior Diver qualification, or a minimum of 18 years of age without guardian approval.

You can carry out the IANTD EANx Diver course on its own or, providing you hold the necessary prerequisites, you can combine it with the Advanced EANx course.

IANTD Advanced Enriched Air Nitrox (EANx) Course
Learn how to plan your air usage and decompression schedule safely and the fundamentals of safety and decompression stops. This course provides an introduction into technical diving and is designed to extend a diver’s knowledge, further develops diving skills and provide a greater understanding of the Nitrox diving concept.

You are taught the use of EANx mixtures from 21% to a maximum of 40% oxygen (O2) for diving. EANx mixtures in the range of 41% to a maximum of 50% oxygen are used to teach the fundamentals of safety and decompression stops. The programme must include a minimum of 120 minutes of OW bottom time completed within 4 dives, 2 of which must be to depths between 30m and 42m.

You must be qualified as an IANTD EANx Diver and IANTD Deep Diver with proof of a minimum of 25 logged dives, or have sufficient experience to satisfy the instructor that you have the ability and knowledge to continue into this level of training. You must be a minimum of 15 years of age with a parent or guardian authorisation, or a minimum of 18 years of age without guardian approval.