hey all,

it's been awhile i haven't visited this forum. As usual, just wondering, if you are not diving a trimix, what is the most number of tanks you ever dived with when you do technical diving? May I also know the types of gas or the mixture of gases in each tank?

i am now doing my adv Nitrox/Deco procedure with Northland Dive since I visit them nearly every 3 weeks or 4 weeks when I am required by my office to go up to Whangarei to inspect my company's plantation investment.

Thanks all.....

I've heard about those northland plantations

Max for me is 4 bottles. 2 on the back and 2 slings. 2 x 12L of air, 11L nitrox & 3L O2 ; makes for a decent dive time, and not too cumbersome to move around with.

thanks for the info Flipper. for your 11l bottle, do you fill the nitrox mixture with +40 oxygen or between 21-40%?

3 for me.
I just dont really do any dives requiring 2 deco gases.
So I take either 40% or 100% as a deco gas.

I much prefer using 40% as a deco mix on most dives. The reason being you can get on it earlier which means you use less back gas which means you have more left over for the second dive and it usually means you do the same amount of deco (for the dives I do at least) well maybe just a little more.
It also costs less and you dont need to O2 clean everything.

Depends on the dive really. I don't O2 clean the 11L so usually fill it with 40%. I've also got a 6L bottle that's O2 clean, so can take up the nitrox % if required by the dive...

In your Adv. Nitrox / Deco Procedure course, you will get to use one deco bottle, AL80 with 40%. (you don't need to buy one for the course. Shane has plenty of them.)
I found that managing one deco bottle is enough task-load to make me miserable in the first few dives; I won't try two deco bottles without training.

To go beyond 40%, you need an oxygen-clean bottle and valve.
And Global is pretty much the only place I know of where you can get your >40% bottle filled.

Shane's also been know to help out on the odd occasion

I should have asked him.

For me it is 4 at the most. Two 12L's on the back, a 10L nitrox and a smaller 100% O2 tanks when I need it.

From the previous posts - it doesn't look like many people are following the "Standard Gas" procedure... hard to justify using 50% with NZ's crazy nitrox rules!

Are there many people diving using 50% at the moment?

What is the standard gas procedure?
50% is easy enough to come by but I dont see a huge improvement in using it over 40% considering the extra expense and hassle of O2 cleaning everything.

50% is the GUE standard deco gas at the tech 1 level.
I, too use either 40% or 100%. (I also take two computers and do what my VR3 tells me to ignoring 1 min stops per 3m. )

..they are certainly crazy, but not as crazy as some countries. Be glad we don't require differently threaded valves or have to be O2 clean for any mix over 23%....yet.