Gear choices for OW

[tbrown]

I don't think that saying PADI only embraced Nitrox to make money is enitirely fair. It took quite a bit of effort on the part of the various agencies to get NO2 mainstreamed. By mainstreamed I mean legal, not just pop in and get a tank. For instance it used to be forbidden to use Nitrox in Florida unless there was on site recompression chamber. Obviously shelling out $20-30 K for a portable chamber is not a piece of gear that I would like to aquire, and I don't think any of us have the means to lobby to get an exception to this rule for sport divers. Commercial intrests said sport divers should be banned from using mixed gas because there is no way a sport diver could get the training and practice the discipline to do it safely. And many parroted this response. It took quite a bit of muscle (and more than a few $) to make Nitrox into what it is today.