First time getting narced...Yipes!

[perdidochas]

What's really scary is that, with the exception of the obvious times I've written about, I don't FEEL narced, or drunk, or stoned, at say 60 feet. I feel fine. When somebody throws a problem at me, I do my best to solve it, and I usually don't feel too awful about the results. It's when I surface and realize how long it took me, or how suboptimal the solution was that I came up with, that I know that I just can't think underwater the way I can on the surface. If I couldn't do better dry than I do wet, I'd never be able to do the job I have.

I've fished with live shrimp while diving at 100 ft (we were catching graysbys (little grouper relatives) for research). It was amazing how much harder it is to do simple things like bait a hook at 100 ft. On nitrox, though, baiting a hook at the same location at 100 ft was trivial.

 

[The Chairman]

You are just as narced on NitrOx as you are on air.

 

[piikki]

I am such a klutz on land that no motor task clues me in on narcosis at all. I can stuff things back to my pocket or clip-clip-clip for quite while, and for me it's just normal... I think I need wrists-down transplant...

 

[perdidochas]

You are just as narced on NitrOx as you are on air.

I can't find any conclusive study either way, and my observations (as well as those of thousands of other divers) are that Nitrox reduces narcosis.

 

[nereas]

I can't find any conclusive study either way, and my observations (as well as those of thousands of other divers) are that Nitrox reduces narcosis.

You need to keep reading. Just because you cannot find something does not logically mean it is not there. It just means you have not looked everywhere. Go to your local scuba store, and pick up some tech deco manuals, and read those.

Nitrox does not reduce narcosis.

The lipid solubility of the O2 molecule is very close to that of the N2 molecule.

Only helium and neon exhibit properties which are consistent with the absence of narcosis. Their lipid solubilities are very low. And in sea trials, both demonstrate it.

The most narcotic of gasses is argon, and it also demonstrates the highest lipid solubility.

Ergo, nitrox has nothing to do with narcosis. Nitrox has everything to do with lower inert gas uptake by your blood, which is a DCS safety issue, and which makes nitrox a safer gas for scuba diving in the range of 50 to 100 ft, and also ideal for decompression in the range of 50 to 100 ft as well (EAN 30, EAN 50, etc.)

 

[kidspot]

Bamamedic2.0 - Thanks for sharing, it sounds like you did the right thing when you signalled your buddies to go up - a little shallower and diving becomes fun again.

I, like piikki, get the paranoid narc', along with it I have recently noticed a visual occurance that helps me determine the effects of narcosis [for me] as I get deeper I start to lose my peripheral vision (my instructor calls it extreme perceptual narrowing) and by 130 fsw on air it is as though I am looking thru an 6" piece of pipe. Everything outside that is solid black. Often times I notice it starting about 80fsw. Along with that I tend to start slowing down noticeably (to me) by 60fsw.

How severe it is for me is determined by a number of factors, but the most important one I've noticed is exertion. On a scooter dive I am much more at ease at 100' than if I'm kick diving. CO2 is MUCH more narcotic than nitrogen being the reason.

I have never felt the "fun" narc' - though on my last trimix dive (with an END of 138') I noticed a tiny glowing orange shrimp ... then it dawned on me "there's not enough light down here (200') to see the color orange ... oh great, now I'm seeing things" went thru my mind, at which point we turned the dive.

This is why I like shallow dives, and why I wanted to learn trimix - so I could make a dive shallow (narcosis wise) ...

Aloha, Tim

P.S. - I don't want to imagine what a dark, cold water dive would do to me ... uggg

 

[nereas]

What's really scary is that, with the exception of the obvious times I've written about, I don't FEEL narced, or drunk, or stoned, at say 60 feet. I feel fine. When somebody throws a problem at me, I do my best to solve it, and I usually don't feel too awful about the results. It's when I surface and realize how long it took me, or how suboptimal the solution was that I came up with, that I know that I just can't think underwater the way I can on the surface. If I couldn't do better dry than I do wet, I'd never be able to do the job I have.

Stoned, from cannabis vernacular.

Drunken, from alcohol vernacular.

Really, TSM, and you look like such a good girl, to me!

I believe in natural highs, such as when viewing a waterfall close up, or the sunset across the sea, or a sea bed of stunningly beautiful starfishes along a glistening sandy ocean floor (oh, wait a minute! that time I was narked!!)

 

[Rainer]

Bamamedic2.0 - Thanks for sharing, it sounds like you did the right thing when you signalled your buddies to go up - a little shallower and diving becomes fun again.

I, like piikki, get the paranoid narc', along with it I have recently noticed a visual occurance that helps me determine the effects of narcosis [for me] as I get deeper I start to lose my peripheral vision (my instructor calls it extreme perceptual narrowing) and by 130 fsw on air it is as though I am looking thru an 6" piece of pipe. Everything outside that is solid black. Often times I notice it starting about 80fsw. Along with that I tend to start slowing down noticeably (to me) by 60fsw.

How severe it is for me is determined by a number of factors, but the most important one I've noticed is exertion. On a scooter dive I am much more at ease at 100' than if I'm kick diving. CO2 is MUCH more narcotic than nitrogen being the reason.

I have never felt the "fun" narc' - though on my last trimix dive (with an END of 138') I noticed a tiny glowing orange shrimp ... then it dawned on me "there's not enough light down here (200') to see the color orange ... oh great, now I'm seeing things" went thru my mind, at which point we turned the dive.

This is why I like shallow dives, and why I wanted to learn trimix - so I could make a dive shallow (narcosis wise) ...

Aloha, Tim

P.S. - I don't want to imagine what a dark, cold water dive would do to me ... uggg

Sorry, must have missed something, but why did you "learn trimix" to get an END of 140', knowing you're narced on air at 130'?

 

[JeffG]

Sorry, must have missed something, but why did you "learn trimix" to get an END of 140', knowing you're narced on air at 130'?

END of 140 on a 200ft dive. almost a case of why bother. LOL

 

[perdidochas]

You need to keep reading. Just because you cannot find something does not logically mean it is not there. It just means you have not looked everywhere. Go to your local scuba store, and pick up some tech deco manuals, and read those.

Nitrox does not reduce narcosis.

The lipid solubility of the O2 molecule is very close to that of the N2 molecule.

Only helium and neon exhibit properties which are consistent with the absence of narcosis. Their lipid solubilities are very low. And in sea trials, both demonstrate it.

The most narcotic of gasses is argon, and it also demonstrates the highest lipid solubility.

Ergo, nitrox has nothing to do with narcosis. Nitrox has everything to do with lower inert gas uptake by your blood, which is a DCS safety issue, and which makes nitrox a safer gas for scuba diving in the range of 50 to 100 ft, and also ideal for decompression in the range of 50 to 100 ft as well (EAN 30, EAN 50, etc.)

I don't buy it. I know my observations. I do agree that the rest of the reasons are the more important reasons for using nitrox. Reduced (not eliminated) narcosis is just a side benefit.