Vortex 3-18-2012

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Welcome back, Mark! :wavey:

To clarify, consensus says narcosis is for sure (you're being affected) at 100', although the degree of narcosis is at some debate, depending on the diver and the conditions.
 
Can narcosis really be so severe that an experienced diver falls asleep and/or becomes so unhinged that he drowns? And this happened at 100ft? From my limited knowledge this seems very unlikely, no?

We had a case recently here where a very experienced deep air diver was swimming around a dive site at around 180 feet and had a blackout underwater (still breathing, still swimming, reg in mouth, but not able to process anything) and sucked his tanks nearly all the way down at depth. When he 'came to' he made a direct ascent to the surface, but the low backgas made his whole rig too light and while he managed to do some decompression stops on his deco mix, he blew off most of his deco. He's alive, but still recovering from some of the effects (some blindness may be permanent).

CO2 buildup makes a huge difference in the narcotic effects day-to-day, so this kind of incident is more likely with both increasing depth and increasing workload.

At 100 feet I'd be a little bit surprised, at 150' I'd find this plausible when combined with high workload (squirming through a restriction sounds like plausibly high enough workload to me, but I've never been to this cave, so can't say...).
 
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We had a case recently here where a very experienced deep air diver was swimming around a dive site at around 180 feet and had a blackout underwater (still breathing, still swimming, reg in mouth, but not able to process anything) and sucked his tanks nearly all the way down at depth. When he 'came to' he made a direct ascent to the surface, but the low backgas made his whole rig too light and while he managed to do some decompression stops on his deco mix, he blew off most of his deco. He's alive, but still recovering from some of the effects (some blindness may be permanent).

CO2 buildup makes a huge difference in the narcotic effects day-to-day, so this kind of incident is more likely with both increasing depth and increasing workload.

At 100 feet I'd be a little bit surprised, at 150' I'd find this plausible when combined with high workload (squirming through a restriction sounds like plausibly high enough workload to me, but I've never been to this cave, so can't say...).

don't mean to get off topic, but wouldn't a "very experienced" deep air diver know how to properly weight himself?? the idea of an "experienced" deep air diver is much like the idea of an "experienced" drunk driver to me... but there have been too many discussions on that topic already....

back on track...

as for CO2 build up, I can see this being a huge contributing factor. high workload, anxiety, and stress can cause serious CO2 retention, which will just magnify all symptoms of narcosis. wouldn't surprise me if while in a dark confined space (only assuming, as I am not a cave diver), these effects could totally incapacitate someone.


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don't mean to get off topic, but wouldn't a "very experienced" deep air diver know how to properly weight himself?? the idea of an "experienced" deep air diver is much like the idea of an "experienced" drunk driver to me... but there have been too many discussions on that topic already....

that's kind of the point. all the "tolerance" to nitrogen that he'd built up didn't help him out at all that day.

and lots of experienced tech divers are underweighted and don't know until they have a bad dive that drains all their tanks. quite a few stories of cave divers getting light on a bad dive and getting stuck on the ceiling just to complicate everything else...
 
that's kind of the point. all the "tolerance" to nitrogen that he'd built up didn't help him out at all that day.

and lots of experienced tech divers are underweighted and don't know until they have a bad dive that drains all their tanks. quite a few stories of cave divers getting light on a bad dive and getting stuck on the ceiling just to complicate everything else...

Thanks, Lamont, that is good to know.

Does this happen because people get so used to having that final 1/3rd at the exit? (Curious)
 
Probably.

Most cave dives I'm exiting on around half full tanks. That's about 9 pounds of gas still in the tanks.
I wear a v weight with my doubles. People look at me like I'm from outer space. I really think the avg tech diver is underweighted.

Thanks! That's good to know.
 
Probably.

Most cave dives I'm exiting on around half full tanks. That's about 9 pounds of gas still in the tanks.

but you're still negative at that point, correct?

why would someone plan to end a dive neutral with all their reserve left? or is it just laziness from not checking regularly?

about once a month or whenever i change exposure protection, I'll get in the water with about 200psi in my doubles and make sure I can hold a 10ft stop.
am I taking crazy pills, or do cave divers not do this??


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