Question Ever experienced Nitrogen Narcosis?

[yle]

Terrified. Only because I've heard and read that it's not guaranteed to be a gentle mild curve that is easily recognizable.

Nothing to be terrified of. And you'll only stress yourself out. Narcosis can be very cool... I've discovered that all of my dives below 120 feet are just the most awesome dives ever, regardless of what I saw.

But that's the thing: being aware of how narc'd you are is important. The effect is likely to be very minimal if you are shallower than 130 feet (i.e. not at all a Lipski situation) and if you start worrying about what could go wrong, that you'll be too slow to respond... ascend until the worry dissipates.

Oh, and sharks are our friends.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

Warren Wreck, Lake Crescent, Washington State. Overshot on depth, to 180 ffw. On air and narced out of our minds. I signal with my light to my buddy "are you okay?" He's like a cat watching a laser pointer.

I made sure to move very slowly as I knew that if we had an emergency, we were in serious trouble as the chances of handling something serious were impeded.

 

[tarponchik]

Your short time at depth meant you had limited tasks to complete, so it wasn't especially noticeable. Next time you have the opportunity to do a dive like that, take a slate, and before you dive, have someone else write a simple math problem on the slate. Simple addition, then multiply the sum by something.... and solve it at depth. While you're at it, sign your name with your regular signature. It's entertaining, but the scary thing is that at depth, you'll think you nailed it. A cold beer says you'll make a mess of it.

No way. I do not text when I drive, for that same reason.

 

[stretchthepenn]

I often dive to below-recreational depths on air, and two things tell me when I'm getting narked.

For one, getting narked means I feel warmer -- or at least less cold. I often dive quarries that have 48F bottom temperatures year-round, and even in a drysuit with several layers of undergarments, I feel downright chilly when descending through the bottom thermocline. Once I'm at depth, though, I stop minding the cold and start feeling comfortable. Then, as my head clears on ascent, I start feeling chilly again.

For two, I get really methodical and solution-oriented when I'm narked. Situations that would irritate or concern me at shallower depths -- for example, if my buddy disappears in the murk -- instead cause me to think, "Well, this kinda sucks. Guess I gotta deal with it."

 

[_john]

I haven't noticed any difference on any of my deeper dives. I didn't have any issue with my 40m dives. or any of the >100ft dives I've done. But everybody reacts differently and you can react differently from dive to dive. That being said, it's nothing to be afraid of, it's just something to be aware of. If you feel it coming on and something doesn't feel right just ascend a bit and let it pass. It's supposed to pass quickly if it still doesn't feel right then go up a bit more and you always have the option of calling the dive if it isn't working for you.

 

[Gandalf-the-Diver]

It's more like a bong hit than a beer,

 

[Akimbo]

Overshot on depth, to 180 ffw. On air and narced out of our minds. I signal with my light to my buddy "are you okay?" He's like a cat watching a laser pointer.

Are you sure your buddy didn't think you were using your light to point something out? I have noticed that time perception can change with NN so your perception of a rapid torch movement could be perceived as a scanning or pointing action.

 

[Wibble]

correct me if I'm wrong- doesn't narcosis come on gradually? like you won't be totally impaired all of a sudden with no warning...if it's like getting drunk, where you slowly feel the compounding effects of alcohol.
edit @Marie13 can you offer insight on this?

It's fast if you drop quickly down to depth. Suddenly you find you can't concentrate, remember or think logically. Probably task fixated on the depth, SPG and other internal items.

 

[Akimbo]

It's fast if you drop quickly down to depth.

Rapid descent can contribute to CO2 retention, which significantly exacerbates NN. Rapid compression itself "might" also be a contributing factor but would be very hard to quantify. I can't recall experiencing it myself but it is more likely because I am conditioned to breathe deeply and concentrate on deep air dives.

 

[Gandalf-the-Diver]

That's not done anymore in AOW; AOW now looks at color changes, and the cognitive/dexterity skills are saved for 130 feet during the deep specialty.
The reason to take them out of AOW was two-fold: (a) not all AOW deep dives make it to 100 ft....61 feet meets the standards, and (b) people practiced the skills at the surface (to learn what they were) and so many were better at them the second time around, even at depth.

I went down to 100' during my AOW and did math with my instructor, we also looked at colour change. She was pissed when we all came up, that nobody in the class got narc'd. I have been below 100' a number of times now; a couple of weeks ago, I bounced down to 135' and last night, dropped down to 120' to check out a huge GPO. I am pretty aware of how my body is reacting, and I have not felt like I am getting narc'd. My buddy on last nights dive, mentioned she felt something funny around 95', but not for long.
I have been below 110', close to a doz times now, with about half of that, below 120'. The one thing I really noticed, when I went to 135', at 125' I started putting little puffs of air in my dry suit to start slowing my decent down. It actually took a few good hits on my BCD inflator to slow and stop my descent. Knowing I had to come up right away, it actually took a couple of good shots on inflator, to start the elevator going. I found this interesting, as at shallower depths, I use my breath control for slight increases and decreases in depth; didn't work as well at 135'. I regularily dive to 100', and I am diving 2-4 times a week. As for getting narc'd, I still do not feel like I have been narc'd, or at least my body does not seem to react to depth, yet.