Diving to 130 ft ?

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So the premise is -

1) that if you dive the devil's throat you will get narc'd and it will be a death struggle to survive?

2) that if you dive the devil's throat you might get narc'd and it will be a death struggle to survive?

I would say that if you dive to 130 FSW you will get narced. How much depends on the person and on the day and the dive. Narcosis can be a much more variable thing than one would think.

I agree that just because you are narced, doesn't mean it will be a death struggle. But it does mean that your mind will, at least to some extent (and that varies), operate less well than it does at 30 FSW.
 
I would first like to point out that the OP got a lot of advice on this dive from people who made presumptions about the conditions. For example,

Ok, if I do that dive I want to follow someone who knows how to frog kick

Good advice in a silty cave, but look at the video. The diver in front of the camera was hand sculling and scissor kicking (with floppy Volos no less) the whole way and it did not do squat to the visibility. That is because all the Cozumel swim throughs have course sand bottoms that are momentarily stirred and then settle immediately.

Mike your video looked pretty good minus the lack of available light. But what we really want to hear is what your plan for the dive was. You knew you had this dive coming up, did you figure out how much air it would take to surface safely between two divers on one tank and what your turn pressures were? If you can say yes, I think across the board you'll earn some respect for a good planned dive and diving the plan.

That is one way to plan a dive. If you look at the end of the video, you will see that the DM is checking the first diver's air supply. The turn pressures were explained on the boat before the dive. (I know the operator, and I did this dive with them last week myself.) It is a multilevel dive, and the DM will plan the ascent based on the pressure and NDL of the most compromised diver. Of course, the wise diver will be ready to overrule the DM if necessary, but a planned multi-level ascent of this nature is a safe plan.

With that stated for the record... there is no good reason to go to 130 ft on any dive unless there is something specific you're going down there for.
...

But again... unless you have a really good reason for going down there - why bother?

Most life on the reefs is always between 20-ft - 60ft.

I think the structures there show a very good reason to go there. Reef life is not what you are looking for on this dive.

I would say that if you dive to 130 FSW you will get narced. How much depends on the person and on the day and the dive. Narcosis can be a much more variable thing than one would think.

I agree that just because you are narced, doesn't mean it will be a death struggle. But it does mean that your mind will, at least to some extent (and that varies), operate less well than it does at 30 FSW.

Yes, there will be narcosis, but it is not the kind of thing where people go into stark raving lunacy. Spending about 3 minutes under 100 feet without doing anything more difficult than following the diver in front of you will generally not put anyone into any kind of narcosis situation that will cause harm.

BTW, the group I was with was totally ecstatic about the dive when they were done. I was the only one who had ever done the dive before, and they all decided it was the highlight of the week--except maybe for what they did the day before (Punta Sur Cathedral, a similar dive.)

I think people should make sure they really know the site before issuing their dire warnings.
 
Something I noted, that was he kept right with the Divemaster who was very experienced at this depth and with the Devil's Throat, so there was not much risk.

However, I never did get a straight answer. Did you get/feel narced?

drdaddy
 
Just today, I did a dive to 120-something ft to the Avenger torpedo bomber wreck outside of Anacapa Island on 32% Nitrox and I was narced like crazy. It was the dark narc that I was experiencing too. Felt like I couldn't draw enough breath, started to hyperventilate. It took all my efforts to glue my eyes to the dive computer and told myself that I have plenty of air and that my regulator is the best in the world for ease of breathing. I cut the dive short and ascended along the anchor line. The narc went away at around 60-ft. It was just gone and I felt all normal again in a snap of the fingers.
 
Just today, I did a dive to 120-something ft to the Avenger torpedo bomber wreck outside of Anacapa Island on 32% Nitrox and I was narced like crazy. It was the dark narc that I was experiencing too. Felt like I couldn't draw enough breath, started to hyperventilate. It took all my efforts to glue my eyes to the dive computer and told myself that I have plenty of air and that my regulator is the best in the world for ease of breathing. I cut the dive short and ascended along the anchor line. The narc went away at around 60-ft. It was just gone and I felt all normal again in a snap of the fingers.

Do you dive to 120 fsw often or is this a fairly rare thing for you?
 
Just today, I did a dive to 120-something ft to the Avenger torpedo bomber wreck outside of Anacapa Island on 32% Nitrox and I was narced like crazy. It was the dark narc that I was experiencing too. Felt like I couldn't draw enough breath, started to hyperventilate. It took all my efforts to glue my eyes to the dive computer and told myself that I have plenty of air and that my regulator is the best in the world for ease of breathing. I cut the dive short and ascended along the anchor line. The narc went away at around 60-ft. It was just gone and I felt all normal again in a snap of the fingers.


Do you normally break the pO2 rule of 1.4 for the working portion of the dive? 32% has a mod of around 111' @ 1.4 p02

I believe mid 120's would put you at or near 1.6.
 
I think people should make sure they really know the site before issuing their dire warnings.

I do and I indicated as such in an earlier post.

FWIW, I have never seen narcosis cause anyone to go into "stark raving lunacy" nor have I ever claimed as much. What I would say is that narcosis will impact your thinking and decision making ability. To what extent depends on the dive, the diver and the day.

A diver with many dives (including many deep) in a variety of conditions will know that and can judge how that factor may change the risk profile of a dive. But this is the new diver forum and...
 
Do you normally break the pO2 rule of 1.4 for the working portion of the dive? 32% has a mod of around 111' @ 1.4 p02

I believe mid 120's would put you at or near 1.6.

maybe 130-ish is 1.6 w/ 32%. rule or recommendation?
 
We are starting to plan our trip to Coz in the spring-ish. Last night, my hubby said he had heard of this awesome dive where you go in at 90' and come out at 130'.

My immediate reaction was apprehension. I KNOW we are not experienced enough for a dive like this. I promised him I would look on here and let him know. This thread was awesome and now I can let him know for sure that this dive is several years (and several classes) off for us.

Thanks guys!
 
maybe 130-ish is 1.6 w/ 32%. rule or recommendation?

On the working portion of the dive I am not breaking a pO2 of 1.4 (I like to stay around 1.2) If one were to accidently fall slightly below 110' for a couple minutes that's understandable but to conduct a dive in 120+ feet of water for the duration of the dive on 32% is not acceptable with todays standards. Waiting for the old farts to chime in :popcorn:
 

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