1st deep dive (Nitrogen Narcosis?)

[stakanak]

On my twelfth dive we went down to 98 feet to complete the deep dive portion of the AOW lessons. After five minutes on the bottom I began to hear fairly clear voices every couple of seconds (not regulator speak). As we only stayed at depth for 9 minutes before beginning our slow ascent to 15 feet, I could not tell if it dissipated because we were going shallow.
Does this sound like a nitrogen narcosis incident?

It was also our third dive of the day. Our instructor explained that the first dive could not be the deep dive according to PADI and as this was the trip which was planned for our deep dive, we would wait three hours to bleed the nitrogen from our previous two, and do it last. We all agreed as we started the dive in Group B, winding up in Group P post hence.
Was this a bad call?

 

[Diver0001]

Auditory hallucinations, especially hearing voices, are commonly associated with psychotic disorders. It's particularly common in people suffering from paranoid schizophrenia. If this is the only time you've had this then it might not be the case. However, I took rakpix's comment as a legitimate possible explanation.

About the link with nitrogen narcosis: It's certainly not unheard of for people to have auditory hallucinations as a result of nitrogen narcosis but

a) most reports of these kinds of hallucinations are reported by divers diving much deeper than 30 metres

b) most reports of auditory hallucinations that I've read about are "sounds" like pulsating "wha-wha-wha-wha" or "hissing" types of sounds. I don't recall anyone ever reporting hearing voices and I wouldn't expect it either because the narcotic effect of nitrogen is not psychoactive.

R..

 

[BDSC]

Auditory hallucinations, especially hearing voices, are commonly associated with psychotic disorders, it's particularly common in people suffering from paranoid schizophrenia. If this is the only time you've had this then it might not be the case. However, I took rakpix's comment as a legitimate possible explanation.

About the link with nitrogen narcosis: It's certainly not unheard of for people to have auditory hallucinations as a result of nitrogen narcosis but

a) most reports of these kinds of hallucinations are reported by divers diving much deeper than 30 metres

b) most reports of auditory hallucinations that I've read about are "sounds" like pulsating "wha-wha-wha-wha" or hissing types of sounds. I don't recall anyone every reporting hearing voices and I wouldn't expect it either because the narcotic effect of nitrogen is not psychoactive.

R..

Those were my thoughts exactly. I've never heard of anyone who has been on a dive who heard fairly clear voices for several minutes at a depth of 98ft or so. Not saying it's impossible because everyone is different but I would think it's highly unlikely this would occur due to NN.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

I would say yes you had some narcosis. What really concerns me though is that this was your third dive of the day. Accepted practice is to do the deep dive as the first dive of the day to minimize the chance of decompression problems. What were the profiles of the preceding dives and the beginning and ending group for them? What was his reason for doing a reverse profile? While it may indeed have been enough time it sets a bad example. And I do know that his statement that PADI says you cannot do the deep dive as the first dive is complete BS. You should have remembered from your OW course the advice not to do reverse profiles and questioned his choice. It sets a bad precedence in my mind with newer divers. Howw much time in class did you discuss the hazards associated with deep diving and the effects of narcosis?

 

[Diver0001]

.

And I do know that his statement that PADI says you cannot do the deep dive as the first dive is complete BS.

Actually, it's a rule.

You can't do the deep dive as the first dive of the *course*. You can, however, do the deep dive as the first dive of the *day* if you're conscientious and don't try to prop it in on day-1.

R..

 

[Jim Lapenta]

That is what I meant. Should have worded it different. I actually do the deep dive as the first dive of the day on the second day of my AOW course. The first three dives on day one are Advanced Skills, UW Navigation, and Night/Low Vis. This gives 12 hours min between the last dive and the deep dive as well as hopefully giving them the skills that are most useful on the deep. Buoyancy Control, Task Loading, Situational Awareness, and Good Buddy Skills for overall topics. The details are much more numerous and include gas managment, emergency deco procedures, trim, and proper descents and ascents that are covered in water and in the 8 hours of classroom for the AOW course I teach.

 

[Diver0001]

Yeah.

I've been doing 7 dives for AOW. I've been doubling up on navigation and deep because of our conditions. Viz is bad to horrible here so navigation is a big deal and needs more attention. Deep gets done twice because it's dark and cold on our deep dives and it tends to make a big impression on students. It's also good for the planning exercise.

So ordinarily I'll do day 1: theory + pool session with skills review and tuning. day2: PPB, Nav-1, optional; day 3: Nav-2, night; day4: deep-1, deep-2.

or some variation on that. The deep dives are usually both about 25 metres.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

I like the pool skills review. I do this though not as part of the course but before I'll let someone even start it if I have any questions as to their skill level. I sometimes require them to do a couple easy fun dives as well. If their buoyancy and trim are such that we'd need to spend a lot of time on that just to get them horizontal and in trim that needs to be addressed before starting the class. There are just too many new skills to waste time on things they should already know how to do or at least start to work on when they finish their OW course.

 

[svs]

On my twelfth dive we went down to 98 feet to complete the deep dive portion of the AOW lessons. After five minutes on the bottom I began to hear fairly clear voices every couple of seconds (not regulator speak). As we only stayed at depth for 9 minutes before beginning our slow ascent to 15 feet, I could not tell if it dissipated because we were going shallow.
Does this sound like a nitrogen narcosis incident?

It depends. If voice was saying: go deeper, then it’s narcosis. Was your hearing OK after the dive? Was equalization working OK during all 3 dives?

 

[Garrobo]

Did you try to answer the voices? Maybe they had something important to say to you.