Got narc'd at 110'

[jonscubas]

Was an interesting experience, I just ascended about 6-7' and my head started to clear, I felt more pressure in my head than euphoria or wanting to give up my regulator, I was coherent.

I want to do deeper dives, I heard from my friends who have been diving deeper longer that you have to just keep doing deep dives, to keep going back because you can actually build a tolerance to it. Eventually being able to go deeper but under control.

Is there any evidence that this could be true..?

 

[sheck33]

jonscubas once bubbled...
Was an interesting experience, I just ascended about 6-7' and my head started to clear, I felt more pressure in my head than euphoria or wanting to give up my regulator, I was coherent.

I want to do deeper dives, I heard from my friends who have been diving deeper longer that you have to just keep doing deep dives, to keep going back because you can actually build a tolerance to it. Eventually being able to go deeper but under control.

Is there any evidence that this could be true..?

you dont build a 'tolerance' to it. you will become more aware of the fact you are narced though. But doing 'deep' dives a lot will to some extent give you more control but only to some extent and not at any depth. I have done a lot of deeper dives in the past but i am just as narced as i was on the first deep dive but now i am more aware of the fact that i am and that makes me twice as careful. Most of the time divers get away with doing deep dives, deep as in much deeper than 100', because nothing goes wrong, the moment you have a problem you'll find out just how impaired you are and 150' is not a good depth to find out, heck 100' is not a good depth to find out. Dont dive air. Up to a 100' dive nitrox, beyond 100' get training and dive trimix.

 

[GP]

Yeah, I actually felt narced for the first time last weekend diving a wreck in Lake Superior at 100ft. It's weird how fast it came on. I remember looking at my depth gauge and I was at 99ft and felt fine and shortly after hitting 100ft...boom I totally felt narced. I've never felt narced before on dives to that depth but it was sure an interesting experience. My head felt pretty weird and I felt like my eyes were bugging out. It seemed to completely clear up once I ascended back up to around 70 to 80 feet. I don't plan to dive beyond 100ft without tech training and trimix either but I plan to do more dives to 100ft to gain more experience.

 

[Uncle Pug]

jonscubas once bubbled...
to keep going back because you can actually build a tolerance to it. Eventually being able to go deeper but under control.

But now that you know don't become a stewpidhead... you will always be impaired by nitrogen's narcotic effects at elevated PP... you just might not be able to notice it like you did on this dive.

Those who *build a tolerance* are in fact only losing their ability to discern the effects of high PP nitrogen. Like the drunk who *drives better after a few beers* they think they have improved when the opposite is the case... and that makes them even more deadly.

And don't confuse *narcosis* itself with the symptoms of narcosis. The impairment is a fact whether you can sense the symptoms or not.

Nitrogen narcosis is insidious in that its first effect is to narrow your range of perceptions... including a loss of awareness that you are being impaired!

Nitrogen narcosis itself might not kill you... but it very well could make you unaware of that one little problem that starts the cascade of failures that does kill you.

 

[CuriousMe]

One thing that has confused me is that if the impairment is a fact (and I'm not doubting that it is), but there are no discernable symptoms...then what is the impairment?

When I did my AOW, we had to write our names as fast as we could on a slate and get timed doing it. We then did our deep dive to 100 feet and did it again, timed as well. I didn't feel any different at 100 feet (other than I was under water breathing air from my back), and my signature looked the same and my time was the same.

So, what do I look for? I don't feel different, and the silly exercise was the same.

Peace,
Cathie

 

[Scubaroo]

The impairment is that you can't discern that you are impaired... kind of like drunks feeling like that they are perfectly able to drive a car even though they've had 6 pints, and if you asked them when they were sober they would say that they would be too drunk to drive after that much alcohol.

I felt narc'd at 118 feet on air, but felt fine on a subsequent dive to 100 feet. But I could have been narc'd at 100 feet and just couldn't feel it. Other people say they get narc'd at 80 feet. The thing is, if you don't feel narc'd - how do you know if you are or not?!? The comparitive activity test should be a reasonable indication of narcosis, but seeing as signing your name invokes memory muscle, it might not be the best test to use.

 

[sheck33]

CuriousMe once bubbled...
One thing that has confused me is that if the impairment is a fact (and I'm not doubting that it is), but there are no discernable symptoms...then what is the impairment?

When I did my AOW, we had to write our names as fast as we could on a slate and get timed doing it. We then did our deep dive to 100 feet and did it again, timed as well. I didn't feel any different at 100 feet (other than I was under water breathing air from my back), and my signature looked the same and my time was the same.

So, what do I look for? I don't feel different, and the silly exercise was the same.

Peace,
Cathie

The 'exercises' usually done on a AOW deep dive are silly and serve little purpose. Reaction times slow done, and clear thinking is impaired, these are not noticed by most experienced divers because a lot of skills have gone to auto-pilot. Just as when you are driving in your car, after a while you dont have to 'think' about shifting and looking in mirrors anymore, you do it on auto-pilot. When something unexpected comes up and an unfamiliar problem needs to be solved fast you'll find out there is a problem.
Go really deep and you will think it is funny to give your regulator to the fish, my sister actually saved a guys life once that did exactly that. Writing your name on a slate will hardly tell you that you are narced. Very often it is an experienced fellow diver who can tell that you are narced rather than the new diver realizing that he/she is. The first few times my GF dove to 100' it was obvious she was feeling narcosis yet she was totally unaware of it Narcosis feels different for different people, but it is there whether you acknowledge it or deny it.

 

[Uncle Pug]

CuriousMe once bubbled...
One thing that has confused me is that if the impairment is a fact (and I'm not doubting that it is), but there are no discernable symptoms...then what is the impairment?

The impairment is in perception... awareness... your frame of active attention is diminished!

And that is why it is insidious... you can concentrate and function normally within an ever decreasing circle of awareness and this tricks you into thinking that everything is fine... well it isn't... you are peripherally impaired!

This is not the same as *tunnel vision* but similar. Think of it in terms of *tunnel awareness.* That is why you will miss the subtle cues that things are starting to go sideways... little things going wrong that you would be able to pick up on if you were not impaired... and the cascade of failures begins.

You can function almost normally in the center of attention but are unaware that the walls are closing it. The better divers are the ones who can *sense* what is happening at the earliest stages by first of all knowing the truth about nitrogen narcosis and secondly by noticing what is not perceived... they recognize the holes in awareness... then the need to over-concentrate... finally the difficulty of shifting attention from one task to another... ect.

Of course the best divers take this a step further and avoid the narcotic effects of nitrogen by either limiting depth or limiting the nitrogen in their breathing mix.

 

[sheck33]

i like your use of better & best in your last post

 

[Uncle Pug]

sheck33 once bubbled...
i like your use of better & best in your last post

I figured that would make sense to all those Sears shoppers out there...

Good
Better
Best

But of course it does absolutely nothing for the K-Mart/Walmart shoppers...

Cheap
Cheaper
Cheapest