You've used nitrox as a bottom gas and called it a day. Advanced Nitrox is something different — high-percentage mixes, oxygen toxicity management, and learning to use the stuff properly rather than just dialling EAN32 in and forgetting about it.
Right, so you've got your basic nitrox card and you've been using EAN32 or EAN36 for a while. Good. Now let's make it actually useful. Advanced Nitrox takes you from "nitrox as a conservative bottom gas" to "nitrox as a decompression tool" — which is where it becomes genuinely interesting.
We're talking about mixes up to 100% oxygen. You'll learn what your CNS oxygen clock actually means, how to track it across multiple dives, and why the partial pressure limits exist rather than just memorising numbers. You'll understand how to use high-oxygen mixes to shorten decompression obligations — or to give yourself a bigger margin on no-deco dives. Both are valid, depending on what you're trying to achieve.
Malta is a brilliant place to run this course. The Um El Faroud sits at 36 metres on the seabed with her stern going to about 43m — right in the sweet spot for Advanced Nitrox training. The MV Karwela is another classic: 43m on the keel, decent decompression potential if you push the bottom time, and enough inside to make equipment management interesting. We use real dive sites with actual purpose, not training pools and imaginary scenarios.
I'm also pretty direct about something here: Advanced Nitrox and Decompression Procedures together is the most efficient way to enter technical diving, and most people who enquire end up doing them back-to-back as a 5–6 day programme. If that's the direction you're heading, say so when you enquire and we'll plan it properly.
What this course won't do is make you a decompression diver — that's the next step. But it absolutely will give you the gas knowledge, CNS tracking skills, and oxygen management discipline that makes decompression diving safe rather than reckless. The foundation matters.
Often run back-to-back with Decompression Procedures as a 5–6 day combined programme — the most efficient path into technical diving. Strongly recommended if you're serious about progressing to trimix.
Advanced Nitrox is the direct prerequisite for Decompression Procedures, which in turn opens the door to Trimix and everything below 40 metres with intent. On its own, it makes you a significantly better diver — you'll understand your gas in a way most recreational divers never do, and you'll use Malta's sites more intelligently for it.