When the protagonists first flood the submersible....when they first get exposed to 400 foot deep levels of narcosis.....This hits you SUDDENLY.
When I began my deep diving back in the early nineties, I had been doing 140 to 160 foot stuff for a decade or more...as if it was nothing.....then hooked up with some famous deep divers that brought me on a 260 foot wreck dive, and let me use some of their old gear--the doubles, etc....
I remember falling heavy, like a sky diver---we had to do this to reach the wreck in the big current----- we had to fall fast....(around 150 feet per minute or faster).
So suddenly the bottom loomed up, I inflated the bc almost all the way to stop the fall to the bottom....and landed on the deck of the ship at 260 feet deep....and was just standing there with my huge double barrel Ultimate Speargun in my hands, carried much like a Nato Assualt rifle .....Instantly, a huge wave of narcosis hit me....it was like I had been at a party, and had just done a line of cocaine 10 feet long.....My head was exploding but without pain....big waves of narcosis had me reeling.....My buddy George suddenly swims by....after I had been standing and experiencing these waves--it could have been 4 seconds or 4 minutes...but I am fairly certain it was 4 seconds because of the behaviors of the group....My buddy George swims overhead, and points to a huge black grouper over 70 pounds, and motions to me I should follow and shoot it with my speargun....I "get" this, and decide to swim after the huge fish...but am so narced, I don't remember how to swim....I lean forward, and half fall forward, then catch myself a few times in a row, before I remember how to swim.....however long this takes, I am suddenly swimming. I go into "hunting mode", and all thought of narcosis is replaced by "the Hunt"....I find I have the brain power to track/follow the fish, to check my air pressure, and to check my dive computer every few minutes for elapsed time--knowing at 25 minutes we have all agreed that we re-form as a group at a specific place on the wreck, and then we do "Blow and Go"....So these 3 things I can do...and it works like juggling, right up until I shoot a fish, and add a 4th element....and now the other tasks are lost--no longer being thought about or juggled.
And then I am being "wagon-trained" by about 15 big grouper, circling me as I attempt to put my just speared grouper on my slinger....my coordination is so bad, I keep fumbling, for what seems like forever, and am going as fast as I can, because I want to get the spear back on the gun, and shoot more of the groupers that are wagon training me...I manage to shoot a couple more....time stops....nothing else exists but the shooting and wagon training, and the slinging of the fish....and then what could have been an eternity later, I am rocked by a big hand pulling hard on my shoulder--it is George --he gets eye contact with me...makes a sign like--look at the computer, what are you thinking--it is 26 minutes--I am a minute late in forming up for the group to do Blow and Go....He gestures like he is hitting his head...like saying "you dummy" , but with a smile.....
The 6 of us are together on the deck at 250 or so, and at the signal, we all fully inflate our bc's.....In the next instants, we are traveling upwards so fast that it seems impossible....Air is escaping from my mask, but this is nothing compared to the ear splitting noise being made by my OPV on my BC.....the high pitched shriek is from something like a firehose of air coming out of the BC, and a monster is chasing us from below, fed by this onslaught of air blasting into it....it is like a wall moving up just below us, vortexes and swirling everywhere....and the huge noise of the shrieking.
I am still narced--it is a great narc though....you feel amazingly content....you are having your best, most euphoric day ever, and you are definitely living in the moment
My two tasks to perform, are continual exhales, and watching my dive computer to begin dumping all air from the BC at 100 feet--to reach a dead stop.....We all stop dead at 100 feet from the surface, the wall of bubbles blasts through us....blows us around like the wind of a hurricane...and then it is gone, and replaced by the calm after the storm.
We settle in to a short wait at 100 feet, then a slow swim to 50 feet where we will do out first ten minute stop.
Even at the 40 foot stop 12 minutes later, I am still blasted and euphoric from the narc...it has not yet dissipated yet, so extreme was the narcosis.
At the 30 foot stop, each of these around 10 minutes long, all the other divers are spinning around 360 degrees, afraid all the bloody fish I am carrying, will bring sharks in...so they are all eyes....I look around, but feel so good that I see this as great fun....but do have the huge double barrel gun ready, just in case.
By the time we are at our final 20 foot stop, and have switched to pure O2, all narc is well past...and has been replaced by boredom of waiting for the deco stops to be over.
When we climb onto the boat, there is still the great feeling from the high O2 and the narc though....we feel like kids out the night of their Junior Prom....there is no pain, no discomfort, only adrenaline, satisfaction, and excitement.....and "the WHEN" of when we are going to do this AGAIN !
Just thought I'd share some of the experiential part of this depth with you
