PfcAJ
Contributor
Since you asked...
The thing that stops people from dying of alcohol poisoning is the fact that people pass out (and therefor stop drinking) after drinking a bunch of booze and that most people vomit when they've drank a volume of alcohol that could kill them. Drinking enough to surpress the drive to vomit is really tough (but doable). Most people that DO vomit don't aspirate, either. The ones that do sometimes die, sure, but the above reasons and why most of humanity doesn't die from alcohol poisoning.
In regards to the analogy between a drunk person making a judgement on if they are impaired (or not), think of how many people say "I'm fine to drive, I've only had x drinks", even if x is a pretty high number. My personal favorite is "I'm a better driver when I've had a few drinks. I'm much more careful." That sounds right up there with doing the little self checks deep air guys love to talk about to make sure they're 'okay'.
I've said this in other deep air threads, but virtually EVERY death below 100' has had an END greater than 100'. There just aren't nearly the same volume of deaths for low-END deep dives, and the only reason to dive deep on air is $$. That's it. People don't want to pay for the training, the gear, or the gas.
I am NOT suggesting that you need trimix for every dive outside of a swimming pool. That's silly. I am saying that adaption to narcosis doesn't fly for novel situations, "self checks" are not good enough, and playing it conservatively is the only responsible option if you want to visit things that are deep.
The thing that stops people from dying of alcohol poisoning is the fact that people pass out (and therefor stop drinking) after drinking a bunch of booze and that most people vomit when they've drank a volume of alcohol that could kill them. Drinking enough to surpress the drive to vomit is really tough (but doable). Most people that DO vomit don't aspirate, either. The ones that do sometimes die, sure, but the above reasons and why most of humanity doesn't die from alcohol poisoning.
In regards to the analogy between a drunk person making a judgement on if they are impaired (or not), think of how many people say "I'm fine to drive, I've only had x drinks", even if x is a pretty high number. My personal favorite is "I'm a better driver when I've had a few drinks. I'm much more careful." That sounds right up there with doing the little self checks deep air guys love to talk about to make sure they're 'okay'.
I've said this in other deep air threads, but virtually EVERY death below 100' has had an END greater than 100'. There just aren't nearly the same volume of deaths for low-END deep dives, and the only reason to dive deep on air is $$. That's it. People don't want to pay for the training, the gear, or the gas.
I am NOT suggesting that you need trimix for every dive outside of a swimming pool. That's silly. I am saying that adaption to narcosis doesn't fly for novel situations, "self checks" are not good enough, and playing it conservatively is the only responsible option if you want to visit things that are deep.