Nitrox Diving Cocos Island Costa Rica

Imagine that you are in Cocos Island ready to dive in one of the best locations on the planet. You strap on your computer and plan the best air dive possible. But after too short a time on the bottom, at around a hundred feet (±33 meters), you will have to ascend to shallower waters to avoid decompression.

Looking down while ascending, you see some others who began the dive with you but are still down there. They are wearing scuba tanks with a special green and yellow label: NITROX. What is Nitrox? It´s enriched air with a higher percentage of oxygen and a lower percentage of nitrogen than normal atmosphere. By reducing the amount of nitrogen in breathing gas, there is less to dissolve in our bloodstream for an equal time at a given depth. This translates into more bottom time with an additional benefit: a significant reduction of the effects of nitrogen narcosis.

Depending on the mixture, Nitrox can allow you as much as 50% more bottom time than air. Two more advantages are shorter surface intervals due to less outgassing required and, at the end of a busy diving day, you´ll feel less fatigued due the reduced physiological effort required to outgas.